Three centuries of Appalachian fire history from tree rings

Abstract

Many researchers and resource managers advocate an increase in fire use to restore fire regimes similar to thoseunder which the vegetation of the Appalachian Mountains developed. Restoring fire implies a need to establish historicalreference conditions. We have developed dendroecological reconstructions of fire history and forest dynamics for a networkof sites in the Appalachian Mountains of Virginia, North Carolina, and Tennessee. Estimates of fire frequency for these sitesindicate that fire typically returned at intervals of 2-19 years. Burning occurred at a relatively steady level under varyingland uses until the early twentieth century. Fire activity thereafter plummeted with the onset of organized fire prevention andsuppression. Our results suggest fire return intervals that managers might target for restoring communities that developedunder the aboriginal and European land uses that preceded widespread logging and fire exclusion.

Parent Publication

• Proceedings: Wildland Fire in the Appalachians: Discussions Among Managers and Scientists

Citation

Lafon, Charles W.; Grissino-Mayer, Henri D.; Aldrich, Serena R.; DeWeese, Georgina G.; Flatley, William T.; LaForest, Lisa B.; Hoss, Jennifer A. 2014. Three centuries of Appalachian fire history from tree rings. In: Waldrop, Thomas A., ed. Proceedings, Wildland fire in the Appalachians: discussions among fire managers and scientists. Gen. Tech. Rep. SRS-199. Asheville, NC: U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service, Southern Research Station: 99–103.