On-the-ground findings point to a mixed-severity fire regime: Findings of the Fire Regime Team

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On-the-ground findings point to a mixed-severity fire regime: Findings of the Fire Regime Team

In this final piece summarizing the results of each Landscapes in Motion team, we discover what the Fire Regime Team learned from tree rings and fire scars carefully collected within the study area. Contrary to the usual assumption of stand-replacing fires, they discovered mixed-severity fire regimes with different characteristics (and different implications) in lodgepole pine and Douglas-fir forests.

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A Wildfire Story: Decoding the Past with Tree Scars

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A Wildfire Story: Decoding the Past with Tree Scars

Disturbances like fires and insect infestations literally leave a mark on trees, creating scars in annual tree rings. Since our research team is interested in the fire history of the landscape, we need to be able to tell fire scars reliably apart from scars left by insects. With two full field seasons now in the books, Dr. Cameron Naficy’s Fire Regime Team have become local experts in this challenging task. In this post, we describe the challenges of distinguishing scar types, provide some insights on how our team solves these puzzles, and explore the important connections between insects and fire.

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