Articles

Shrub Communities, Spatial Patterns, and Shrub-Mediated Tree Mortality following Reintroduced Fire in Yosemite National Park, California, USA

Shrubs contribute to the forest fuel load; their distribution is important to tree mortality and regeneration, and vertebrate occupancy. We used a method new to fire ecology—extensive continuous mapping of tre...

Authors: James A. Lutz, Tucker J. Furniss, Sara J. Germain, Kendall M. L. Becker, Erika M. Blomdahl, Sean M. A. Jeronimo, C. Alina Cansler, James A. Freund, Mark E. Swanson and Andrew J. Larson

Resilience of California Black Oak Experiencing Frequent Fire: Regeneration Following Two Large Wildfires 12 Years Apart

Historically, oak woodlands in western North America were maintained by frequent fire that killed competing conifers. Today, these woodlands are often in decline as competition from conifers intensifies. Among...

Authors: Ethan J. Hammett, Martin W. Ritchie and John-Pascal Berrill

Corroborating Evidence of a Pre-Euro-American Low- to Moderate-Severity Fire Regime in Yellow Pine-Mixed Conifer Forests of the Sierra Nevada, California, USA

Fire was the dominant ecological process controlling forest structure and succession in western North American conifer forests for thousands of years. Because fires are now suppressed, and because widespread l...

Authors: Jay D. Miller and Hugh D. Safford

Carbon Emissions during Wildland Fire on a North American Temperate Peatland

Northern temperate zone (30° to 50° latitude) peatlands store a large proportion of the world’s terrestrial carbon (C) and are subject to high-intensity, stand-replacing wildfires characterized by flaming stag...

Authors: Robert A. Mickler, David P. Welch and Andrew D. Bailey

Fire History and Forest Structure along an Elevational Gradient in the Southern Cascade Range, Oregon, USA

We examined stand structure, demography, and fire history using tree cores and fire scar data across an approximately 7000-hectare study area over an elevational gradient in the southern Cascade Range, Oregon,...

Authors: Alison B. Forrestel, Robert A. Andrus, Danny L. Fry and Scott L. Stephens

The Chinchaga Firestorm: When the Moon and Sun Turned Blue. 2015. By Cordy Tymstra. University of Alberta Press, Edmonton, Canada. Softcover. CA$34.50. 227 pages. ISBN 978-1-77212-003-5

Authors: James K. Agee

Did the 2002 Hayman Fire, Colorado, USA, Burn with Uncharacteristic Severity?

There is considerable interest in evaluating whether recent wildfires in dry conifer forests of western North America are burning with uncharacteristic severity—that is, with a severity outside the historical ...

Authors: Paula J. Fornwalt, Laurie S. Huckaby, Steven K. Alton, Merrill R. Kaufmann, Peter M. Brown and Antony S. Cheng

Relating Fire-Caused Change in Forest Structure to Remotely Sensed Estimates of Fire Severity

Fire severity maps are an important tool for understanding fire effects on a landscape. The relative differenced normalized burn ratio (RdNBR) is a commonly used severity index in California forests, and is ty...

Authors: Jamie M. Lydersen, Brandon M. Collins, Jay D. Miller, Danny L. Fry and Scott L. Stephens

Short-Term Impacts of Fire-Mediated Habitat Alterations on an Isolated Bighorn Sheep Population

Habitat alterations may improve and expand wildlife habitats, and bolster waning wildlife populations. We used global positioning system (GPS) locations to monitor 38 bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis Shaw) that wer...

Authors: Justin G. Clapp and Jeffrey L. Beck

Post-Fire Recovery of Eucalypt-Dominated Vegetation Communities in the Sydney Basin, Australia

Monitoring landscape-scale vegetation responses of resprouter species to wildfire is helpful in explaining post-wildfire recovery. Several previous Australian studies have investigated the temporal recovery of...

Authors: Jessica T. Heath, Chris J. Chafer, Thomas F. A. Bishop and Floris F. Van Ogtrop

Variation in Grassland Fuel Curing in South Africa

Fire is critical to the maintenance of ecological function in many ecosystems worldwide, especially mesic sub-Saharan rangelands. But most rangeland fire research occurs in a wildfire context, is focused on fi...

Authors: Devan Allen McGranahan, Rerani Ramaano, Michelle J. Tedder and Kevin P. Kirkman

Fire Resilience of Aquatic Crustacean Resting Stages in Playa Wetlands, Oklahoma, USA

Prescribed burns and wildfires maintain prairie vegetation by limiting tree growth and promoting prairie grasses and forb production. Previous studies have shown that fire causes mixed effects on the prairie f...

Authors: Eric G. Bright, Mohsain Gill, Ashtyn Barrientes and Elizabeth A. Bergey

Evaluating Prescribed Fire Effectiveness Using Permanent Monitoring Plot Data: A Case Study

Since Euro-American settlement, ponderosa pine forests throughout the western United States have shifted from high fire frequency and open canopy savanna forests to infrequent fire and dense, closed canopy for...

Authors: Kristen M. Waring, Kristen J. Hansen and William T. Flatley

Farewell and Thanks to Jim Agee, Editor of Fire Ecology

Authors:

Oak, Fire, and Global Change in the Eastern USA: What Might the Future Hold?

The pace of environmental and socioeconomic change over the past 100 years has been rapid. Changes in fire regimes, climate, and land use have shaped the structure and function of most forest ecosystems, inclu...

Authors: James M. Vose and Katherine J. Elliott

Fire Effects on Wildlife in the Central Hardwoods and Appalachian Regions, USA

Fire is being prescribed and used increasingly to promote ecosystem restoration (e.g., oak woodlands and savannas) and to manage wildlife habitat in the Central Hardwoods and Appalachian regions, USA. However,...

Authors: Craig A. Harper, W. Mark Ford, Marcus A. Lashley, Christopher E. Moorman and Michael C. Stambaugh

Natural Canopy Damage and the Ecological Restoration of Fire-Indicative Groundcover Vegetation in an Oak-Pine Forest

An important goal of restoring fire to upland oak-dominated communities that have experienced fire exclusion is restoring groundcover plant species diversity and composition indicative of fire-maintained habit...

Authors: J. Stephen Brewer

Hardwood-Pine Mixedwoods Stand Dynamics following Thinning and Prescribed Burning

Restoration of hardwood-pine (Pinus L.) mixedwoods is an important management goal in many pine plantations in the southern Cumberland Plateau in north-central Alabama, USA. Pine plantations have been relatively ...

Authors: Callie Jo Schweitzer, Daniel C. Dey and Yong Wang

Scale Dependence of Oak woodland Historical Fire Intervals: Contrasting the barrens of Tennessee and Cross timbers of Oklahoma, USA

Characterization of scale dependence of fire intervals could inform interpretations of fire history and improve fire prescriptions that aim to mimic historical fire regime conditions. We quantified the tempora...

Authors: Michael C. Stambaugh, Richard P. Guyette, Joseph M. Marschall and Daniel C. Dey

Suites of Fire-Adapted traits of Oaks in the Southeastern USA: Multiple Strategies for Persistence

Fire is integral to the functioning of terrestrial ecosystems of the southeastern USA and is a strong selective force on plant species. Among woody plants, oak species (Quercus spp. L) have diverse life history t...

Authors: J. Morgan Varner, Jeffrey M. Kane, J. Kevin Hiers, Jesse K. Kreye and Joseph W. Veldman

Repeated Application of Fuel Reduction Treatments in the Southern Appalachian Mountains, USA: Implications for Achieving Management Goals

Fire and resource managers of the southern Appalachian Mountains, USA, have many questions about the use of prescribed fire and mechanical treatments to meet various land management objectives. Three common ob...

Authors: Thomas A. Waldrop, Donald L. Hagan and Dean M. Simon

Northern Long-Eared Bat Day-Roosting and Prescribed Fire in the Central Appalachians, USA

The northern long-eared bat (Myotis septentrionalis Trovessart) is a cavity-roosting species that forages in cluttered upland and riparian forests throughout the oak-dominated Appalachian and Central Hardwoods re...

Authors: W. Mark Ford, Alexander Silvis, Joshua B. Johnson, John W. Edwards and Milu Karp

Fire in the History of Mettler’s Woods

Authors: Murray F. Buell, Helen F. Buell and John A. Small

Sowing the Seeds of Fire and Oak in the Eastern US: A Tribute to Buell et al. 1954

A 323-year-old white oak (Quercus alba L.) tree in Mettler’s Woods in central New Jersey, USA, was the subject of the Buell et al. 1954 paper. They identified six fire scars formed between 1641 and 1711, with a m...

Authors: Marc D. Abrams

Fire in Eastern north American Oak Ecosystems: Filling the Gaps

This special issue of Fire Ecology is focused on the fire ecology of eastern USA oak (Quercus L.) forests, woodlands, and savannas. The papers were presented as part of the Fifth Fire in Eastern Oak Forests Confe...

Authors: J. Morgan Varner, Mary A. Arthur, Stacy L. Clark, Daniel C. Dey, Justin L. Hart and Callie J. Schweitzer

Firestick Ecology: Fairdinkum Science in Plain English. 2015. By Vic Jurskis. Connor Court Publishing, Redland Bay, Queensland, Australia. 325 pages. Hardcover. AU$34.95. ISBN: 978-1-925138-74-0

Authors: Lachlan McCaw

The Interagency Fuels Treatment Decision Support System: Functionality for Fuels Treatment Planning

The Interagency Fuels Treatment Decision Support System (IFTDSS) is a web-based software and data integration framework that organizes fire and fuels software applications into a single online application. IFT...

Authors: Stacy A. Drury, H. Michael Rauscher, Erin M. Banwell, ShihMing Huang and Tami L. Lavezzo

Ignition Patterns Influence Fire Severity and Plant Communities in Pacific Northwest, USA, Prairies

In the prairies of the Pacific Northwest, USA, fire has been reintroduced as a tool for reducing non-native, invasive plant cover and promoting the growth and establishment of native plant communities. Head fi...

Authors: R. Adam Martin and Sarah T. Hamman

Fuel Moisture Differences in a Mixed Native and Non-Native Grassland: Implications for Fire Regimes

Non-native plants have far-reaching effects on many terrestrial ecosystems. There are several examples of non-native species altering fire regimes, either by increasing or decreasing the potential intensity an...

Authors: Amy C. Livingston and J. Morgan Varner

Patterns and Trends in Burned Area and Fire Severity from 1984 to 2010 in the Sierra de San Pedro Mártir, Baja California, Mexico

Yellow pine (Pinus spp. L.) and mixed conifer (YPMC) forests of California, USA (Alta California), have been negatively affected since Euro-American settlement by a century or more of logging, fire exclusion, and...

Authors: Hiram Rivera-Huerta, Hugh D. Safford and Jay D. Miller

A New Method Comparing Snowmelt Timing with Annual Area Burned

The interactions between climate and wildland fire are complex. To better understand these interactions, we used ArcMap 10.2.2 to examine the relationships between early spring snowmelt and total annual area b...

Authors: Donal S. O’Leary III, Trevor D. Bloom, Jacob C. Smith, Christopher R. Zemp and Michael J. Medler

Mechanisms Enabling a Fire Sensitive Plant to Survive Frequent Fires in South-West Australian Eucalypt Forests

A fire sensitive plant, Banksia quercifolia R.Br., that often occurs as thickets embedded in forest landscapes in south-west Australia was exposed to repeated broad-scale fires at short intervals. Fire severity a...

Authors: Neil Burrows and Ted Middleton

Does Prescribed Fire Promote Resistance to Drought in Low Elevation Forests of the Sierra Nevada, California, USA?

Prescribed fire is a primary tool used to restore western forests following more than a century of fire exclusion, reducing fire hazard by removing dead and live fuels (small trees and shrubs). It is commonly ...

Authors: Phillip J. van Mantgem, Anthony C. Caprio, Nathan L. Stephenson and Adrian J. Das

The Passing of the Lolo Trail

Authors: Elers Koch

Introduction to the Article by Elers Koch: The Passing of the Lolo Trail

In 1935, Elers Koch argued in a Journal of Forestry article that a minimum fire protection model should be implemented in the backcountry areas of national forests in Idaho, USA. As a USDA Forest Service Supervis...

Authors: Andrew J. Larson

Current International Perspectives on Wildland Fires, Mankind and the Environment. 2015. Edited by Brigitte Leblon and Martin E. Alexander. Nova Science Publishers Inc., Hauppauge, New York, USA. 271 pp. Hardcover. US$166.50. ISBN: 978-1-63463-682-7

Authors: Ernesto Alvarado

Faunal Responses to Fire in Chaparral and Sage Scrub in California, USA

Impact of fire on California shrublands has been well studied but nearly all of this work has focused on plant communities. Impact on and recovery of the chaparral fauna has received only scattered attention; ...

Authors: Elizabeth F. van Mantgem, Jon E. Keeley and Marti Witter

A Case Study Comparison of LANDFIRE Fuel Loading and Emissions Generation on a Mixed Conifer Forest in Northern Idaho, USA

The use of fire as a land management tool is well recognized for its ecological benefits in many natural systems. To continue to use fire while complying with air quality regulations, land managers are often t...

Authors: Josh Hyde, Eva K. Strand, Andrew T. Hudak and Dale Hamilton

Recovery of Tall Open Eucalypt Forest in South-Western Australia following Complete Crown Scorch

We investigated the response of overstorey and mid-storey trees in tall open forest of Eucalyptus diversicolor F. Muell., Eucalyptus jacksonii Maiden, and Corymbia calophylla (Lindl.) K.D. Hill & L.A.S. Johnson o...

Authors: Lachlan McCaw and Ted Middleton

Approximation of Fire-Return Intervals with Point Samples in the Southern Range of the Coast Redwood Forest, California, USA

A legacy of past fires is evident in the form of blackened basal hollows found throughout the southern range of the coast redwood (Sequoia sempervirens [D. Don] Endl.) forest. A deeper look reveals cambial scars ...

Authors: Gregory A. Jones and Will Russell

Variability in Fire Prescriptions to Promote Wildlife Foods in the Longleaf Pine Ecosystem

Prescribed fire is commonly used to restore and maintain the longleaf pine (Pinus palustris Mill.) ecosystem (LLPE). A key function of the LLPE is the provisioning of food for wildlife. Despite the plethora of li...

Authors: Marcus A. Lashley, M. Colter Chitwood, Craig A. Harper, Christopher S. DePerno and Christopher E. Moorman

Soil Carbon and Nutrient Recovery after High-Severity Wildfire in Mexico

Fire severity can increase above historical levels due to factors such as human-derived fire suppression and climate change. Studies about the effects of high-severity fires on soil carbon and nutrients in pin...

Authors: Shatya D. Quintero-Gradilla, Felipe García-Oliva, Ramón Cuevas-Guzmán, Enrique J. Jardel-Peláez and Angelina Martínez-Yrizar

Simulating Grassland Prescribed Fires Using Experimental Approaches

Small-scale fire approaches, like burn boxes, burn tables, and propane burners, are often used to facilitate experimental control over fire and allow greater replication. We compared characteristics of grassla...

Authors: Katherine C. Kral, Ryan F. Limb, Torre J. Hovick, Devan A. McGranahan, Aaron L. Field and Peter L. O’Brien

Lichen Community Response to Prescribed Burning and Thinning in Southern Pine Forests of the Mid-Atlantic Coastal Plain, USA

The effects of prescribed burning and thinning on lichen communities is a poorly understood aspect of biodiversity conservation, despite the widespread use of these practices to achieve conservation-oriented l...

Authors: David G. Ray, Jason W. Barton and James C. Lendemer

Present Studies and History of Burning in Greece

Authors: L. G. Liacos

Introduction to Leonidas G. Liacos’ Article

Authors: Vasilios P. Papanastasis

Fire Enhances Whitebark Pine Seedling Establishment, Survival, and Growth

Periodic fire is thought to improve whitebark pine (Pinus albicaulis Engelm.) regeneration by reducing competition and creating openings, but the mechanisms by which fire affects seedling establishment are poorly...

Authors: Judy L. Perkins

Calibration and Validation of Immediate Post-Fire Satellite-Derived Data to Three Severity Metrics

Since 2007, the USDA Forest Service’s Remote Sensing Applications Center (RSAC) has been producing fire severity data within the first 30 to 45 days after wildfire containment (i.e., initial assessments [IA]),...

Authors: Jay D. Miller and Brad Quayle

The Desert Grassland, Past and Present

Authors: Robert R. Humphrey

Introduction to Robert R. Humphrey’s Article

Authors: Mitchel P. McClaran