Across the western U.S., climate change presents perhaps the biggest challenge to both the idea and the conservation of protected areas, particularly in the context of dynamic and rapidly changing disturbance regimes. This project addresses the JFSP topic of climate change and fire, by examining the effects of a shift in the fire regime of an ecosystem that is very sensitive to climate change: the ecotone from closed forest to open alpine tundra, hereafter the alpine treeline ecotone (ATE). Our focus on the subalpine zone highlights a key resource for both ecosystem services and the aesthetic needs of a growing population in a world with diminishing and fragmented protected areas. This research project addresses our current lack of knowledge about the extent to which recent increases in area burned have impacted the ATE, and how fire changes the location, pattern, and species diversity in the ATE. Because the combined effects of fire occurrence in the ATE, and post-fire pattern and species shifts may have long-term impacts on ecosystem functions such as wildlife habitat use, hydrology, nutrient cycling, and carbon sequestration, research on the drivers and the effects of fire in the ATE is needed.