NWFSC Research Brief #19 - Adjusting the lenses of past, present and future to bring into focus the role of frequent fire in dry forests

In this study, the authors characterized historical fire return intervals, seasonality, and relationships with local and regional factors for 13 sites representative of southwestern Oregon dry forests on ridges and midslopes in the Rogue Basin of the Klamath Ecoregion. They used dendrochronology (cross-dated fire-scars from trees) to develop fire histories. Then using a systematic literature review, the authors were able to link local fire histories to a regional dataset and evaluate the data relative to more intensively studied conifer/hardwood forest types in California.