Landscape-Level Collaboration

Monitoring observations fall under three categories:

• The first is forest biomass (fuel) reduction through thinning operations and prescribed fire. Prescriptions have been developed to remove most white fir and leave different age classes of aspen, Douglas fir, and ponderosa pine, as well as large logs that provide habitat for the endangered Jemez Mountains salamander. Monitoring for responses of vegetation, large mammals, birds, and pest/beneficial insects to thinning and burning operations is underway, with control and treatment areas established and sampled before and after treatments. Results of vegetation monitoring indicate steady increases in grasses and herbaceous wildflower species. Large mammals (elk, deer, bear, and cougar) are using restored areas; elk in particular are using burned forested sites that have new herbaceous vegetation. Bird communities appear to show little response to thinning thus far, although large areas were in managed burns in 2015 and the 2016 samples may show more pronounced changes. Insect assemblages in post-burned forests are showing changes in species, moving from those that inhabit forest-floor litter to meadow-grassland species (concomitant with increasing herbaceous vegetation after fire).
• The second ecological monitoring effort has been in riparian areas that were restored with woody shrubs and trees by our collaborators with WildEarth Guardians. Survival of plants was initially low during the drought of 2011, but subsequent replanting efforts in 2012–2015 have high survivorship.
• The third major monitoring effort dealt with the Las Conchas wildfire (Summer 2011), which burned ~30,000 acres of the project area, and the Thompson Ridge wildfire in 2013 that burned ~25,000 acres on the Valles Caldera National Preserve. Monitoring sites were established in burned and unburned grasslands, forests, and streams, including many from before the fire. Monitoring results indicate that grassland vegetation recovered in <8 weeks for total cover, litter, and bare ground, but that individual species exhibited significant increases/decreases in cover and height. Grassland pest insects (grasshoppers) were significantly reduced post-fire, but have recovered through 2015; some other species of pest/beneficial grassland insects did not decline in burned sites. Grassland birds generally were less abundant, with fewer species in burned grasslands one year after the fire; some species (crows, sparrows) increased after the fire. Prairie dog populations in grasslands did not decline following the fire. Forest understory vegetation and forest-floor litter were significantly reduced by the fire, with concomitant increases in bare ground; however, by the end of 2015, herbaceous ground cover exceeded 80 percent in ponderosa pine forests and over 95 percent in mixed-conifer stands that had suffered high-severity burns in 2011. Aspen sprouts were up to 5 m tall by September 2015 in some areas, but had been heavily browsed by elk and cattle in other areas. Forest birds remained abundant in both burned and unburned stands of ponderosa pine and mixed-conifer. Small mammals were generally unaffected by fire in the short term, as they sheltered underground during the fire; tree squirrels were killed by the fire. By 2014, meadow mice (voles) had become common as the vegetation developed into a montane meadow. Most forest invertebrates exhibited little impact from the fire, and were recovering quickly through 2015. Moths were the exception, with significantly reduced species numbers and abundances. Flash floods in streams caused reductions of trout by 95 percent; however, native non-game fish survived in good populations. Ammonia concentrations likely caused the fish kills (streamwater ammonia was 2–3 times above the concentration needed for killing trout).