By Jim Agee, Managing Editor
 

Issue 10(3) begins with the reprint of a classic article by Herbert Wright and Miron Heinselman, first published in 1973, that introduced a special issue of Quaternary Research.  It served as the introduction to a series of symposium papers defining the role of fire in the conifer forests of northern and western North America.  The paper highlighted ecological principles associated with the role of fire, and the article is introduced here by Martin Alexander.

Our research articles begin with one by Margolis and Ellis documenting the effect of prescribed fires on regeneration of quaking aspen in Lassen Volcanic National Park, California, USA.  They found variable results dependent on conifer competition and browsing intensity that may alter future growth trajectories.  In eastern Oregon, USA, Bates and others compared vegetation recovery after prescribed fire and partial cutting of western juniper.  Five years after treatment, perennial bunchgrasses dominated two of the three sites studied, and on a third site they co-dominated with invasive annual grasses.  Winter burning and cut-only treatments were least effective at killing small junipers, and the authors concluded that juniper treatments are needed to recover sagebrush-steppe plant communities.  Morgan and others evaluated vegetation response after post-wildfire mulching and native grass seeding in dry forests of southeastern Washington, USA.  They compared species richness, diversity, and canopy cover of understory plants one to six years after application of wood strand mulch, wheat straw mulch, hydromulch with native seed, and native seed only, along with untreated sites.  Wood strand mulch treatments tended to have low cover of grasses and forbs, while wheat straw mulch treatments had highest cover of forbs and shrubs.  Seeded treatments had higher grass cover than other treatments or no treatment.  Such post-fire treatments alter the abundance and diversity of native perennial understory plants for one to six years post fire, and these effects could persist for decades.  In shrublands of southwestern Oregon, USA, Busby and Southworth investigated the effect of seeding bunchgrasses following mastication and prescribed fire.  After two years, native grass seeding appeared to be successful, but after seven years, bunchgrass cover had declined by 80%.  The authors concluded that seeding following treatment had a minimal effect, and highlight the importance of longer-term monitoring to evaluate such treatments.  Stambaugh and others synthesized multiple sources of fire history information to evaluate historical fire return intervals in Texas, USA.  They found that the majority of Texas plant communities historically had frequent fire regimes (intervals of 1 to 12 years) and that three independent spatial datasets were largely in agreement with these findings.  Such data will be helpful to guide fire planning and budget processes for the restoration and maintenance of fire-adapted landscapes in Texas.

In the forum section of this issue, Huffman argues that, at a global level, we need to regard fires as common and enduring ecosystem components.  She recommends holding a worldwide summit to discuss four less-discussed priorities concerning fire and climate change: ecological systems in which people depend on fire for survival and well-being; systems in which governments unwisely insist on command and control approaches to fire; places where peatlands are burning; and places where climate-driven changes in fire will cause type conversion.  Huffman proposes that fire ecologists mount a worldwide offensive to shape the future of fire in an era of climate change.  We hope you enjoy Issue 10(3)!