Pacific Southwest

Title: Fire History in Coast Redwood Stands in San Mateo County Parks and Jasper Ridge, Santa Cruz Mountains

Author: Stephens, Scott L.; Fry, Danny L.

Date: 2007

Source: In: Standiford, Richard B.; Giusti, Gregory A.; Valachovic, Yana; Zielinski, William J.; Furniss, Michael J., technical editors. 2007. Proceedings of the redwood region forest science symposium: What does the future hold? Gen. Tech. Rep. PSW-GTR-194. Albany, CA: Pacific Southwest Research Station, Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture; p. 219-222

Station ID: GTR-PSW-194

Description: Fire regimes in coast redwood forests in the northeastern Santa Cruz Mountains were determined by ring counts from 46 coast redwood stumps and live trees. The earliest recorded fire from two live samples was in 1615 and the last fire recorded was in 1884, although samples were not crossdated. For all sites combined, the mean fire return interval (FRI) was 12.0 years; the median FRI was 10 years. There was a significant difference in mean FRI between the four sampled sites. Past fire scars occurred most frequently in the latewood portion of the annual ring or during the dormant period. It is probable that the number of fires recorded in coast redwood trees is a subset of those fires that burned in adjacent grasslands and oak savannahs. The Ohlone and early immigrants were probably the primary source of ignitions in this region.

Keywords: fire return interval, seasonality

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Citation

Stephens, Scott L.; Fry, Danny L.  2007.  Fire History in Coast Redwood Stands in San Mateo County Parks and Jasper Ridge, Santa Cruz Mountains.   In: Standiford, Richard B.; Giusti, Gregory A.; Valachovic, Yana; Zielinski, William J.; Furniss, Michael J., technical editors. 2007. Proceedings of the redwood region forest science symposium: What does the future hold? Gen. Tech. Rep. PSW-GTR-194. Albany, CA: Pacific Southwest Research Station, Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture; p. 219-222.