Snow duration in post-fire forests is influenced by neighbourhoods of trees, snags, and deadwood. We used annually resolved, spatially explicit tree and tree mortality data collected in an old-growth, mixed-conifer forest in the Sierra Nevada, California, that burned at low to moderate severity to calculate 10 tree neighbourhood metrics for neighbourhoods up to 40 m from snow depth and snow disappearance sampling points. We developed two linear mixed models, predicting snow disappearance timing as a function of tree neighbourhood, litter density, and simulated incoming solar radiation, and two multiple regression models explaining variation in snow depth as a function of tree neighbourhood. Higher densities of post-fire large-diameter snags within 10 m of a sampling point were related to higher snow depth (indicating reduced snow interception). Higher densities of large-diameter trees within 5 m and larger amounts of litter were associated with shorter snow duration (indicating increased longwave radiation emittance and accelerated snow albedo decay). However, live trees with diameters >60 cm within 10 m of a snow disappearance sampling point were associated with a longer-lasting spring snowpack. This suggests that, despite the local effects of canopy interception and emitted longwave radiation from boles of large trees, shading from their canopies may prolong snow duration over a larger area. Therefore, conservation of widely spaced, large-diameter trees is important in old-growth forests because they are resistant to fire and can enhance the seasonal duration of snowmelt.
