Regional and local controls on historical fire regimes of dry forests and woodlands in the Rogue River Basin, Oregon, USA

Forest Ecology and Management
2018
Metlen, Kerry L.; Skinner, Carl N.;Olson, Derek R.; Nichols, Clint; Borgias, Darren
PublisherElsevier
Source N/A
Volume / Issue430
Pages43-58
Total Pages16 pages
Article Link
ISBN N/A
DOIdoi.org/10.1016/j.foreco.2018.07.010
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Conference Date N/A
Publication DateDecember 15, 2018
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AbstractFire regimes structure plant communities worldwide with regional and local factors, including anthropogenic fire management, influencing fire frequency and severity. Forests of the Rogue River Basin in Oregon, USA, are both productive and fire-prone due to ample winter precipitation and summer drought; yet management in this region is strongly influenced by forest practices that depend on fire exclusion. Regionally, climate change is increasing fire frequency, elevating the importance of understanding historically frequent-fire regimes. We use cross-dated fire-scars to characterize historical fire return intervals, seasonality, and relationships with climate beginning in 1650 CE for 13 sites representative of southwestern Oregon dry forests. Using systematic literature review, we link our local fire histories to a regional dataset and evaluate our data relative to more intensively studied conifer/hardwood forest types in California. Fire-scars show that fires in the Rogue Basin were frequent and regular until disrupted in the 1850s through 1910s, corresponding with forced displacement of Native Americans and Euro-American settlement. Median historical fire return intervals were 8 years at the stand-scale (
Created: 9/7/2018 10:17 AM (ET)
Modified: 9/7/2018 10:17 AM (ET)
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