Extreme wildfire supersedes long-term fuel treatment influences on fuel and vegetation in chaparral ecosystems of northern CA

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Pre-fire differences in fuel and vegetation responses among treatments largely did not persist or were not detectible 1 to 2 years following wildfire. These findings suggest that the extreme wildfire conditions superseded long-term treatment differences in many fuel and vegetation metrics observed prior to wildfire. Despite subtle treatment differences, the hand thinned treatment resulted in the lowest change in fuel loading relative to all other treatments. Lastly, pre-fire differences in exotic species among fuel treatments were retained following wildfire, suggesting some treatments may have greater potential for exotic species expansion or type conversion to exotic grasslands.