Accommodating Mixed-Severity Fire to Restore and Maintain Ecosystem Integrity with a Focus on the Sierra Nevada of California, USA

Fire Ecology

Table 2 Historical fire severity proportions and maximum high-severity fire patch sizes in mixed-conifer and ponderosa pine forests, Sierra Nevada management region.

Study	Study area size (ha)	Fire severity (%)			Time period (yr)	Maximum high-severity patch size (ha)
Study	Study area size (ha)	Low	Moderate	High	Time period (yr)	Maximum high-severity patch size (ha)
Beaty and Taylor (2001)¹	1 587	1 to 60	14 to 47	6 to 86	43	no data
Bekker and Taylor (2001)	2 042	2 to 4	35 to 44	52 to 63	75	no data
Baker (2014)	330 000	13 to 26	42 to 48	31 to 39	110	9 400
Hanson and Odion (2016a, b)	65 296	no data	no data	22	60	697
Leiberg (1902)²	1 193 166	no data	no data	20	100	∼160 00
Stephens et al. (2015)	11 500	no data	no data	1 to 6	∼20 to 30	no data

¹ Fire severity percentages vary by slope position and aspect.
² Does not include high-severity fire patches <32.4 ha, so actual percent high-severity fire would be higher, if patches <32.4 ha had been mapped. Historical high-severity fire mapped polygons are from Leiberg (1902), and analysis of high-severity fire percent by forest type is from Hanson (2007), based on Leiberg (1902).