History, Uses, and Effects of Fire in the Appalachians

David H. van Lear; Thomas A. Waldrop

doi:10.2737/SE-GTR-54

Treesearch

History, Uses, and Effects of Fire in the Appalachians

Informally Refereed

Authors:

David H. van Lear, Thomas A. Waldrop

Year:

1989

Type:

General Technical Report

Station:

Southern Research Station

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.2737/SE-GTR-54

Source:

Gen. Tech. Rep. SE-54. Asheville, NC: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Southeastern Forest Experiment Station. 20 p.

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Abstract

History of Fire in the Southern Appalachians Ecological and meteorological evidence suggests that lightning-caused fires were a major environmental force shaping the vegetation of the Southeastern United States for millions of years before Indians arrived in America. Lightning served as a mutagenic agent and as a factor in natural selection which forced species to adapt or perish. Before man, fires caused by lightning created and maintained the pine-grasslands of the Southeast, as well as influenced the broad, adjacent ecotones which included hard-wood vegetation (Komarek 1965, 1974).

Citation

van Lear, David H.; Waldrop, Thomas A. 1989. History, Uses, and Effects of Fire in the Appalachians. Gen. Tech. Rep. SE-54. Asheville, NC: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Southeastern Forest Experiment Station. 20 p.