Five fire years created nearly three-quarters of today’s forest stands.

Evidence

But just 5 fire yr account for 90% of the stand origins still present in the BWCA that date from the full 70 yr 1840-1910 for which some weather records are available and suppression was minimal. In fact, 73% of all remaining virgin stands date from these same 5 yr: 1863, 1864, 1875, 1894, and 1910 (Table 4). — Miron L. Heinselman, Fire in the Virgin Forests of the…, 175

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: The landscape mosaic remains fire-created even after sixty years of suppression. — Miron L. Heinselman, Fire in the Virgin Forests of the…, 159; Virtually every BWCA forest stand regenerated after fire since 1595 — Miron L. Heinselman, Fire in the Virgin Forests of the…, 2; Natural fire rotation in the BWCA was about 100 years — Miron L. Heinselman, Fire in the Virgin Forests of the…, 2 (+1 more)

Related

• Virtually every BWCA forest stand regenerated after fire since 1595 (similarity 0.91)
• Virtually every BWCA virgin forest stand burned since 1595. (similarity 0.91)
• The landscape mosaic remains fire-created even after sixty years of suppression. (similarity 0.90)
• The BWCA still has a roughly 60-year window before fire exclusion makes restoration impossible. (similarity 0.86)
• Natural fire rotation in the BWCA was about 100 years (similarity 0.86)
• Surface fires returned every 36 years on average in surviving pine stands. (similarity 0.85)
• Documented fire history undercounts actual fires due to evidence decay. (similarity 0.85)
• Every major fire year coincided with summer or summer-to-fall drought (similarity 0.84)
• No large BWCA burns since 1936 already eliminated early postfire communities. (similarity 0.84)
• Active fire suppression began after the Superior National Forest’s creation. (similarity 0.82)
• Contrasting stand ages let fire boundaries be traced on airphoto maps. (similarity 0.82)
• The Canoe Area burned and regenerated on about a 100-year rotation. (similarity 0.81)
• Coring dominant fire-adapted trees dates stand origin after burns. (similarity 0.81)
• Natural fire rotation quantifies fire’s role and grounds fire-management targets. (similarity 0.81)
• The entire BWCA ecosystem was fire-dependent (similarity 0.79)