Prof_Fire

Daenerys Targaryen and her family members, much like the iconic longleaf pine of the Southeast and the ponderosa pine of the western US, likely have a thick outer bark that insulates them from low-intensity fires.

Thanks for the question! Fire in California is very different from fire in the Southeastern U.S. (where I am based). It’s a combination of many factors that makes the wildfire situation so challenging out there. First, the climate (including the winds but also the hot, dry summers) is very conducive to fire. Second, the topography is complex and the mountainous landscapes also create a more challenging situation for controlling fire. And yes, human ignitions are a huge problem in California and across the globe - not just by ‘miscreants’ but also through accidental ignition related to vehicles, power lines, and other issues. Another thought is that we also have a ‘fire deficit’ in many landscapes - fires have been suppressed for decades or longer in many areas which creates a more flammable situation that is more vulnerable to burning at higher intensity. Finally, it’s also important to remember that fires are indeed natural in many Californian landscapes - so just because it’s a wildfire that may create challenges/hazards for people doesn’t mean it is totally unnatural and isn’t providing any ecological benefits.

This question depends on where you look, but in many places, we aren’t yet getting enough fire on the ground! For example, fire history studies in longleaf pine across the Southeast are showing that fires occurred every 1-4 years. Although prescribed burn practitioners are burning at that frequency in some places, many other areas remain unburned, some for decades or longer! The fire scar information is generally telling us we need to grow our prescribed fire programs!

The seasonality piece is a hard one to answer. In some places, we see in the fire-scar record a lot of dormant season fires that were ignited by people. However, in other locations, we see a strong record of lightning fire. These fires tended to happen in early spring and summer. I generally think prescribed burn practitioners should aim to increase their growing season burning. However, I do understand that managers face many challenges to doing so and it’s definitely key that we get frequent fire on the ground, even if that means burning at times of year that are inconsistent with the lightning fire regime. So in short - more growing season fire but also keep up with the other burns!

In my own research, I do not sample live trees for fire history. Because fire scars can occur on any side of a tree, we generally need a full cross section (sometimes called a tree cookie) for the fire-history work. We focus on collecting these cross sections from snags (standing dead trees) and stumps. There is a tree-ring method of sampling live trees without them - a pencil thin core is extracted using a tool known as an increment borer. However, this method is not useful for fire history; it’s used in studies that examine things like tree age and climate-growth relationships. You can check out cool photographs of working with stumps and live trees on my research website:

https://sites.google.com/view/monicarother/photo-gallery

That’s a great question! With the understanding that in many places there is a fire deficit on the landscape, there is quite a bit of interest right now in cultural burning across the US / globe. Tree rings and fire scars don’t specifically provide information about how the fires were started, but inferences can be made in some cases. My work into understanding the seasonal aspects of fire scars can help to provide clues about the origins of fires. When we see fire scars that indicate the tree scarring occurred outside of typical wildfire season(s), we can often make assumptions that those fires were anthropogenic in origin. We consider burning by indigenous people to be an important part of the historical fire regime in many locations.