Ponderosa pine can subsist as one component of a mixed forest, especially in sequence with Douglas-fir, or as a pure forest type. The common surface shelter in a ponderosa pine woodland is a mixture of grass, forbs, and shrubs. This forest population commonly survives in areas with seasonal rainfall of 25 inches or smaller.
Conifers, including ponderosa pine, are most combustible in the season when their old spikes are dry and new directors have not yet started. In the fall, when the directors have dried out, conifers again are responsive to fire.
Historically, fires in ponderosa pine neighborhoods burned directly on a cycle of one every 5 to 25 years. This perpetual fire burned the weeds, bushes, and short trees, and sustained an open stand of massive ponderosa pine trees.
Directed burning is implemented with imperceptibly greater periodicity and consistency, having in mind that a fire that is inflamed too early will not have adequate fuel to be efficient. Similarly, a fire burned too late in the series may probably extend into a high-intensity fire.
