Digital-Desert : Mojave Desert Desert Gazette
True Facts, Legends & Lies
features - ecology: wildlife - plants - places - region map - map/sat - roads & trails - wilderness - video - aerial - 360 - old west - communities - books - lodging
route 66 - ghost towns - gold mines - parks & ... - joshua tree - death valley - mojave preserve - native culture - history - natural features - geology - glossary - comments


Yosemite National Park:
Wildlife

Fire and Wildlife

Wildlife in Yosemite National Park is diverse and abundant, reflecting a wide range of Sierra Nevada habitats in relatively intact condition. Areas of concentrated human use in Yosemite have affected wildlife, primarily by removing, fragmenting, and degrading habitat, which affects the diversity and abundance of some species in those areas. These effects, however, are limited to relatively small areas of the park. On the other hand, a history of over 80 years of fire suppression in Yosemite has adversely affected wildlife habitat over a much larger area of the park.

Restoration of natural fire regimes in Yosemite is perhaps the most important action that can be taken to restore and protect the natural abundance, diversity, and distribution of wildlife in the park. Under natural conditions, fire maintains habitat heterogenity and structural diversity in vegetation, which provide an abundance of ecological niches for wildlife. For example, fires under natural conditions most often burn in a mosaic of intensities, ranging from areas of light burning of surface fuels to areas of stand-replacing fires that create gaps in the forest canopy, while adjacent areas are untouched. Under such a pattern, a wide range of wildlife species, which are adapted to take advantage of different habitat conditions created by a fire, can exist in a relatively small area.

Overlaying this spatial dimension is the temporal change in habitat that occurs following a fire. Over time, a succession of plant species and forest structure occurs, with a concurrent succession of wildlife species adapted to take advantage of the different stages of habitat change. The frequency of fire in an area is related to its plant community, and determines how often this process of succession is reset.

features - ecology: wildlife - plants - places - region map - map/sat - roads & trails - wilderness - video - aerial - 360 - old west - communities - books - lodging
route 66 - ghost towns - gold mines - parks & ... - joshua tree - death valley - mojave preserve - native culture - history - natural features - geology - glossary - comments
Wrightwood Real Estate
MOUNTAIN HOMES & CABINS
Vacation Rentals & Homes for Sale
Log Cabin Furnishings
Lodgepole Pine Log Furniture
Rustic Decor & Silhouette Metal Art
HighDesertRED.com
High Desert Real Estate Directory
--
Google
Search:
Keywords:
Check out our...
>> RECOMMENDED BOOK LISTS <<
Digital-Desert
Abraxas Engineering
privacy
Copyright ©Walter Feller. All rights reserved.
Respect U.S and international copyright statutes and our right to own and control our work
- DO NOT LINK TO THESE IMAGES FROM WEB PAGES, FORUMS OR BLOGS -
Desert Gazette
480