Project Overview:  Managed wildfire creates pyrodiverse patterns that support biodiversity. This project will assess habitat heterogeneity using terrestrial lidar in Yosemite’s frequently burned Illilouette Creek Basin. Improved understanding of the links between wildfire patterns, habitat heterogeneity, and wildlife diversity will inform fire and wildlife management in Yosemite National Park and ultimately benefit wildlife conservation in the Sierra Nevada

How your support helps: Fire suppression and exclusion in the fire-adapted ecosystems of the Sierra Nevada has forged a stark departure from historic conditions. The reintroduction of ecologically beneficial fire has the power to restore wildlife habitat — this study seeks to measure the changes brought about by that reintroduction, and to understand how to replicate the positive effects that have been observed.

Past work by partners at University of California, Berkeley have demonstrated that 50 years of managed wildfire in the lllilouette Creek Basin (ICB) has resulted in multiple benefits for forest resilience, hydrological function, as well as plant and pollinator biodiversity. However, the impacts of managed wildfire are not well understood for a number of fauna and their habitats. UC Berkeley is currently expanding their work in the ICB to include bat and bird surveys coincident with long-term forest monitoring plots, but the detailed data of habitat heterogeneity necessary for describing species occurrence and habitat use. This research will use terrestrial lidar, and scans will be conducted at the same time as wildlife surveys creating the opportunity to build models to better understand relationships between forest structure, biodiversity, and species habitat. The terrestrial lidar data will also be correlated with airborne lidar datasets, to create a deeper view of forest ecosystems holistically. The improved understanding of the links between wildfire patterns, habitat heterogeneity, and wildlife diversity will inform fire and wildlife management in Yosemite National Park and ultimately benefit wildlife conservation in the Sierra Nevada.

Project Partners: National Park Service, University of California, Berkeley