A quantitative comparison of forest fires in central and northern California under early (1911–1924) and contemporary (2002–2015) fire suppression
Brandon M. Collins A E , Jay D. Miller D , Eric E. Knapp B and David B. Sapsis C
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations
A Center for Fire Research and Outreach, College of Natural Resources, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720-3114, USA.
B USDA Forest Service, Pacific Southwest Research Station, 3644 Avtech Parkway, Redding, CA 96002, USA.
C California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, Fire and Resource Assessment Program, Sacramento, CA 95818, USA.
D Retired, previously at USDA Forest Service, Pacific Southwest Region, Fire and Aviation Management, McClellan, CA 95652, USA.
E Corresponding author. Email: bcollins@berkeley.edu
International Journal of Wildland Fire 28(2) 138-148 https://doi.org/10.1071/WF18137
Submitted: 6 August 2018 Accepted: 19 November 2018 Published: 3 January 2019
Abstract
Most studies of fire-regime changes in western North American forests rely on a reference period that pre-dates Euro-American settlement. Less is known about fire-regime changes relative to the early onset of major change agents, i.e. fire suppression and timber harvesting. We digitised ledgers that contained over 18 000 individual fire records from 1911 through 1924 (early suppression period). We performed analyses comparing a subset of these fire records, largely in mixed-conifer forests, to similar records from 2002 through 2015 (contemporary period). Mapped ignition frequencies indicated similar geographic patterns for lightning-caused fires between periods, but notable shifts in certain areas for human-caused fires. There was no statistical difference in annual number of human-caused fires between the early suppression and contemporary time periods. However, there was a major shift in the distribution of burned area across fire size classes. Fires >12 145 ha accounted for 0–6% of total burned area in the early suppression period, and 53–73% in the contemporary period. Also, both the total number and percentage of fires >2024 ha occurred significantly earlier in the year in the contemporary period. These shifts are likely driven by large-scale changes in fuel loads and continuity, and possibly exacerbated by climatic warming.
Additional keywords: departure; fire exclusion; fire statistics; mixed conifer forest.
References
Abatzoglou JT, McEvoy DJ, Redmond KT (2017) The West Wide Drought Tracker: drought monitoring at fine spatial scales. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society 2017, 1815–1820.| The West Wide Drought Tracker: drought monitoring at fine spatial scales.Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
Ayres RW, Hutchinson W (1927) The National Forests of California. USDA Forest Service, Miscellaneous Circular number 94. Available at https://foresthistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/TheNationalForestsOfCalifornia-1927.pdf [Verified 27 February 2018]
Collins BM (2014) Fire weather and large fire potential in the northern Sierra Nevada. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology 189–190, 30–35.
| Fire weather and large fire potential in the northern Sierra Nevada.Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
Collins BM, Fry DL, Lydersen JM, Everett R, Stephens SL (2017) Impacts of different land management histories on forest change. Ecological Applications 27, 2475–2486.
| Impacts of different land management histories on forest change.Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
Estes BL, Knapp EE, Skinner CN, Uzoh FCC (2012) Seasonal variation in surface fuel moisture between unthinned and thinned mixed conifer forest, northern California, USA. International Journal of Wildland Fire 21, 428–435.
| Seasonal variation in surface fuel moisture between unthinned and thinned mixed conifer forest, northern California, USA.Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
Finney MA, McHugh CW, Grenfell IC, Riley KL, Short KC (2011) A simulation of probabilistic wildfire risk components for the continental United States. Stochastic Environmental Research and Risk Assessment 25, 973–1000.
| A simulation of probabilistic wildfire risk components for the continental United States.Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
Greeley WB (1920) ‘Piute Forestry’ or the fallacy of light burning. The Timberman 21, 38–39.
Knapp EE, Skinner CN, North MP, Estes BL (2013) Long-term overstory and understory change following logging and fire exclusion in a Sierra Nevada mixed-conifer forest. Forest Ecology and Management 310, 903–914.
| Long-term overstory and understory change following logging and fire exclusion in a Sierra Nevada mixed-conifer forest.Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
Lewis HT, Bean LJ (1973) ‘Patterns of Indian Burning in California: Ecology and Ethnohistory.’ (Ballena Press: Ramona, CA, USA)
Lydersen JM, Collins BM (2018) Change in vegetation patterns over a large forested landscape based on historical and contemporary aerial photography. Ecosystems 21, 1348–1363.
| Change in vegetation patterns over a large forested landscape based on historical and contemporary aerial photography.Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
Lydersen JM, Collins BM, Brooks ML, Matchett JR, Shive KL, Povak NA, Kane VR, Smith DF (2017) Evidence of fuels management and fire weather influencing fire severity in an extreme fire event. Ecological Applications 27, 2013–2030.
| Evidence of fuels management and fire weather influencing fire severity in an extreme fire event.Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
Meyer MD (2015) Forest fire severity patterns of resource objective wildfires in the southern Sierra Nevada. Journal of Forestry 113, 49–56.
| Forest fire severity patterns of resource objective wildfires in the southern Sierra Nevada.Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
Miller JD, Skinner CN, Safford HD, Knapp EE, Ramirez CM (2012) Trends and causes of severity, size, and number of fires in northwestern California, USA. Ecological Applications 22, 184–203.
| Trends and causes of severity, size, and number of fires in northwestern California, USA.Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
Minnich RA (2007) Climate, paleoclimate, and paleovegetation. In ‘Terrestrial Vegetation of California.’ (Eds MG Barbour, T Keeler-Wolf, AA Schoenherr) pp. 43–70. (University of California Press: Berkeley, CA, USA)
North M, Collins BM, Stephens SL (2012) Using fire to increase the scale, benefits and future maintenance of fuels treatments. Journal of Forestry 110, 392–401.
| Using fire to increase the scale, benefits and future maintenance of fuels treatments.Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
North MP, Stephens SL, Collins BM, Agee JK, Aplet GH, Franklin JF, Fule PZ (2015) Reform forest fire management. Science 349, 1280–1281.
| Reform forest fire management.Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
Parks SA, Holsinger LM, Panunto MH, Jolly WM, Dobroski SZ, Dillon GK (2018) High severity fire: evaluating its key drivers and mapping its probability across western US forests. Environmental Research Letters 13, 044037
| High severity fire: evaluating its key drivers and mapping its probability across western US forests.Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
Plummer FG (1912) Forest fires: their causes, extent and effects, with a summary of recorded destruction and loss. USDA Forest Service, Bulletin 117. (Washington, DC, USA)
Romps DM, Seeley JT, Vollaro D, Molinari J (2014) Projected increase in lightning strikes in the United States due to global warming. Science 346, 851–854.
| Projected increase in lightning strikes in the United States due to global warming.Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
Scholl AE, Taylor AH (2010) Fire regimes, forest change, and self-organization in an old-growth mixed-conifer forest, Yosemite National Park, USA. Ecological Applications 20, 362–380.
| Fire regimes, forest change, and self-organization in an old-growth mixed-conifer forest, Yosemite National Park, USA.Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
Short KC (2017) Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992–2015 [FPA_FOD_20170508]. (USDA Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station: Fort Collins, CO, USA) Available at https://www.fs.usda.gov/rds/archive/Product/RDS-2013-0009.4/ [Verified 20 December 2018]
Show SB, Kotok EI (1923) Forest fires in California, 1911–1920. An analytical study. US Department of Agriculture, Department Circular 243. (Washington, DC, USA)
Show SB, Kotok EI (1924) The role of fire in the California pine forests. US Department of Agriculture, Bulletin number 1294. (Washington, DC, USA)
Show SB, Kotok EI (1929) Cover type and fire control in the National Forests of northern California. US Department of Agriculture, Bulletin number 1495. (Washington, DC, USA)
Skinner CN, Taylor AH (2018) Southern Cascade bioregion. In ‘Fire in California’s Ecosystems’, 2nd edn. (Eds JW van Wagtendonk, NG Sugihara, SL Stephens, AE Thode, KE Shaffer, J Fites) pp. 195–218. (University of California Press: Berkeley, CA, USA)
Skinner CN, Abbott CS, Fry DL, Stephens SL, Taylor AH, Trouet V (2009) Human and climatic influences on fire occurrence in California’s North Coast Range, USA. Fire Ecology 5, 76–99.
| Human and climatic influences on fire occurrence in California’s North Coast Range, USA.Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
Skinner CN, Taylor AH, Agee JK (2018) Klamath Mountains bioregion. In ‘Fire in California’s Ecosystems’, 2nd edn. (Eds JW van Wagtendonk, NG Sugihara, SL Stephens, AE Thode, KE Shaffer, J Fites) pp. 170–194. (University of California Press: Berkeley, CA, USA)
Starrs CF, Butsic V, Stephens CW, Stewart WC (2018) The impact of land ownership, firefighting, and reserve status on fire probability in California. Environmental Research Letters 13, 034025
| The impact of land ownership, firefighting, and reserve status on fire probability in California.Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
Stephens SL, Collins BM (2004) Fire regimes of mixed conifer forests in the north-central Sierra Nevada at multiple spatial scales. Northwest Science 78, 12–23.
Stephens SL, Martin RE, Clinton ND (2007) Prehistoric fire area and emissions from California’s forests, woodlands, shrublands and grasslands. Forest Ecology and Management 251, 205–216.
| Prehistoric fire area and emissions from California’s forests, woodlands, shrublands and grasslands.Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
Stevens JT, Collins BM, Miller JD, North MP, Stephens SL (2017) Changing spatial patterns of stand-replacing fire in California mixed-conifer forests. Forest Ecology and Management 406, 28–36.
Sudworth GB (1900) Stanislaus and Lake Tahoe Forest Reserves, California and adjacent territory. 21st Annual Report of the United States Geological Survey, Part V. (Washington, DC, USA)
Taylor AH, Vandervlugt AM, Maxwell RS, Beaty RM, Airey C, Skinner CN (2014) Changes in forest structure, fuels and potential fire behaviour since 1873 in the Lake Tahoe Basin, USA. Applied Vegetation Science 17, 17–31.
| Changes in forest structure, fuels and potential fire behaviour since 1873 in the Lake Tahoe Basin, USA.Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
Taylor AH, Trouet V, Skinner CN, Stephens S (2016) Socioecological transitions trigger fire regime shifts and modulate fire–climate interactions in the Sierra Nevada, USA, 1600–2015 CE. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 113, 13684–13689.
| Socioecological transitions trigger fire regime shifts and modulate fire–climate interactions in the Sierra Nevada, USA, 1600–2015 CE.Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
Van de Water KM, Safford HD (2011) A summary of fire frequency estimates for California vegetation before Euro-American settlement. Fire Ecology 7, 26–58.
| A summary of fire frequency estimates for California vegetation before Euro-American settlement.Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
van Wagtendonk JW, Fites-Kaufman JA, Safford HD, North MP, Collins BM (2018) Sierra Nevada bioregion. In ‘Fire in California’s Ecosystems’, 2nd edn. (Eds JW van Wagtendonk, NG Sugihara, SL Stephens, AE Thode, KE Shaffer, J Fites) pp. 249–278. (University of California Press: Berkeley, CA, USA)
Westerling AL (2016) Increasing western US forest wildfire activity: sensitivity to changes in the timing of spring. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London – B. Biological Sciences 371, 20150178
| Increasing western US forest wildfire activity: sensitivity to changes in the timing of spring.Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
White SE (1920) Getting at the truth: is the Forest Service really trying to lay bare the facts of the light-burning theory? Sunset Magazine 44, 79–82.
