Fig. 5
From: Fire history and dendroecology of Catoctin Mountain, Maryland, USA, with newspaper corroboration
Timeline for fires and characterizations of forest structure and composition on xeric south- and west-facing slopes at Catoctin Mountain Park, Maryland, USA, from 1750 to the present, created from data collected in our fire history study in 2018. Vertical black lines above the x-axis represent fire scar years, while blue lines below the x-axis represent the years of historical events. Insets show stand profile diagrams simplified from Howard (1983) to illustrate changes in forest vertical and horizontal structure through time, allowing comparison to the conceptual model in Nowacki and Abrams (2008): (A) charcoal-iron industry period; site dominated by sprout oaks, pitch pines, ericaceous shrubs, and graminoids; (B) blueberry cultivation after demise of the iron furnace industry; open structure as pines and oaks that previously established increase in size; (C) closed canopy forest forms after fire suppression; loss of graminoids and reduction in shrub cover; (D) current composition at the time of the study (2018); mature oak and pine overstory with black gum midstory and low shrub cover; (E) potential future with more fire exclusion; black gum increases in importance as oaks and pines die of old age without replacing themselves; (F) potential future incorporating burning and deer control; formation of canopy gaps by fire and thinning allows for oak and pine regeneration and the return of ericaceous shrubs and graminoids