Lightning-caused wildfires on Kenai National Wildlife Refuge are a natural phenomena dating back thousands of years and are important to sustaining natural diversity in the area's plants and animals over time.

Kenai National Wildlife Refuge Ecologist, Dr. Ed Berg, and former Refuge Biologist Andy DeVolder, joined four other scientists in contributions to a recent publication in "The Holocene" a major interdisciplinary scientific journal focusing on recent environmental change.  "Holocene" is the name given to the last 10,000 years of the earth's history.  The article, entitled, "Holocene development of Boreal forests and fire regimes on the Kenai Lowlands of Alaska" reports on relationships between disturbance, climate, and vegetation for the Boreal forest of southwest Alaska.  Pollen, plant macrofossils, and sedimentary charcoal were collected and analyzed from the Kenai lowlands.  Deposits from lake cores provided a record dating back thousands of years.  The studies demonstrated that the highest local fire frequencies occurred in the early to mid-Holocene forest and fire was less frequent later.  Early Holocene forests existed in summers that were longer and drier than today.  Refuge managers use fire regime information to try and manage for natural diversity to sustain plants and wildlife species long-term, and to manage for natural processes in Congressionally designated Wilderness areas.