Recent advances in the silvicultural use of prescribed fire

Abstract

Although the silvicultural use of prescribed fire has been researched for almost 70 years, new advances are still being made. These advances are primarily the result of (1) a better understanding of fire as an ecological process and (2) the use of this knowledge to restore declining ecosystems, save threatened and endangered species, enhance natural beauty, and regulate composition and structure of plant communities. The role of growing-season fires, avoided in the past century, in shaping the composition and structure of longleaf pine (Pinus pulustris) ecosystems has recently been established. Silvicultural prescriptions for using prescribed fire to benefit oak (Quercus spp.) regeneration on good sites have been developed. Prescribed fire is being used to restore the historical character and health of ponderosa pine (P. ponderosa) ecosystems in the southwestern United States and to regenerate Table Mountain (P. pungens) and pitch pine (P. rigida) ecosystems in the southern Appalachian Mountains. Guidelines also have been developed for using prescribed fire to thin dense natural stands of loblolly pine (P. taeda). Ongoing research continues to identify new uses of prescribed fire to enable ecosystem management to become a more fully implemented paradigm in the twenty-first century.

Citation

van Lear, David H. 2000. Recent advances in the silvicultural use of prescribed fire. In: Moser, W. Keith; Moser, Cynthia E., eds. Fire and forest ecology: innovative silviculture and vegetation management. Tall Timbers Fire Ecology Conference Proceedings, No. 21. Tallahassee, FL: Tall Timbers Research Station: 183-189