In recent years, a number of catastrophic wildfires have fundamentally changed species composition and structure across a large area of the Sierra Nevada of California. These fires leave behind many large, severely burned patches of land where the majority of trees have died. To make informed management decisions, forest managers need to understand the long-term effects of these fires on vegetation recovery and fuel loading. Large patches without trees might not reforest on their own which can cause forest loss; and, high-severity fires may lead to other high-severity fires by increasing the amount of fuel available to burn. Such repeat fires could lower the odds of any postfire forest recovery. By including...
