Date of Award

Spring 2026

Rights

Access is available to all users

Date Available to Non-EWU Users

2026-06-20

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS) in Biology

Department

Biology

First Advisor

Charlotte Milling

Second Advisor

Krisztian Magori

Third Advisor

Lauren Stochowiak

Abstract

In the face of a wildfire crisis, there is a growing need to expand the pace and scale of forest treatments, including the strategic use of wildfire as a management tool. However, ecological outcomes remain uncertain in forests shaped by more than a century of fire suppression. The 2022 Thor Fire, a managed wildfire in the Colville National Forest, Washington, provides an opportunity to evaluate forest health in a relatively understudied system. Using a control–impact design, I established 100 monitoring plots in burned and adjacent unburned forests to assess how wildfire and fire severity influence forest structure, fuels, and tree communities, and to conduct a pilot study evaluating methods for capturing small-mammal abundance as a potential indicator of post-fire ecological function. The Thor Fire initiated a shift toward more open and heterogeneous forest conditions where forest structure differed between burned and unburned sites (R² = 0.20, P = 0.001), with burned forests exhibiting early seral characteristics, including reduced canopy cover (−26.3%) and basal area (−12.7%), and increases in tree mortality (82%), tree recruitment (320%), and forb abundance (161%). Fuel responses were mixed but directionally consistent with reduced coarse woody fuels. Small mammal pilot study results indicated that live-trapping methods limited our ability to detect differences in abundance between burned and unburned sites. These results provide a baseline for long-term monitoring and support management strategies that integrate wildfire, targeted follow-up treatments, and historical reference conditions to enhance forest resilience.

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