ArticleEcological applications : a publication of the Ecological Society of America2025
Aspen impedes wildfire spread in southwestern United States landscapes.
Article in Ecological applications : a publication of the Ecological Society of America, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
4 citing papers in PubMed.
- Faster, bigger, more severe: Extreme wildfire spread sets the stage for forest ecosystem change in western and boreal North America.Science advances · 2026Article
- The Integration of Fire Ecology and Freshwater Ecosystems in North America: Knowledge Gaps and Research Needs.Global change biology · 2026Review
- Fire lines adjacent to aspen are unlikely to hold during extreme burning conditions in southern Rocky Mountain forests.Ecological applications : a publication of the Ecological Society of America · 2026Article
- Aspen impedes wildfire spread in southwestern United States landscapes.Ecological applications : a publication of the Ecological Society of America · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Aspen (Populus tremuloides) forests are generally thought to impede fire spread, yet the extent of this effect is not well quantified in relation to other vegetation types. We examined the influence of aspen cover on interpolated daily fire spread rates, the relative abundance of aspen at fire perimeters versus burn interiors, and whether these relationships shifted under more fire-conducive atmospheric conditions. Our study incorporated 314 fires occurring between 2001 and 2020 in the southwestern United States and a suite of gridded vegetation, topography, and fire weather predictor variables. We found that aspen slows fire progression: as aspen cover on the landscape increased, daily area burned and linear spread rate decreased. Where aspen cover was <10%, daily fire growth averaged 1112 ha/day and maximum linear spread was 2.1 km/day; where aspen exceeded 25%, these values dropped to 368 ha/day and 1.3 km/day. Aspen also serves as a barrier to fire spread, demonstrated through a higher proportion of aspen cover at fire perimeters than in burn interiors. Finally, though favorable fire weather conditions increased fire growth rates, differences between aspens and conifers persisted. Our results affirm that aspen stands can act as a firebreak, with clear applications for vegetation management. For example, interventions that shift conifer to aspen cover could lessen the risk of fire for nearby values at risk (e.g., communities, infrastructure) but still support forest ecosystem function. Further, wildfire-driven conversion from conifer to aspen forest types in some landscapes may produce a negative feedback that could dampen expected increases in fire activity under a warmer and drier climate.
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Registered trials
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