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Achieving Conservation Biology Objectives with Fire in the Pacific Northwest

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 June 2017

James K. Agee
James K. Agee*
Affiliation:
College of Forest Resources, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195
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Abstract

Fire has been a part of natural ecosystems for many millennia. The species of those ecosystems have evolved through a series of “coarse filters,” one of which is resistance or resilience to disturbance by fire. Plant adaptations to fire include the ability to sprout, seed bank adaptations in the soil or canopy, high dispersal ability for seeds, and thick bark. These adaptations are often to a particular fire regime, or combination of fire frequency, intensity, extent, and season. Fire can be used by managers to achieve species to ecosystem-level conservation biology objectives. Examples using prescribed fire include the grasslands of the Puget Trough of Washington State, maintenance of oak woodlands, and perpetuation of ponderosa pine/mixed-conifer forests.

Keywords

Oak, Quercus spp., ponderosa pine, Pinus ponderosa Dougl. ex. LoudConservation biologyforest firefire regimesprescribed fire
Type
Symposium
Information
Weed Technology , Volume 10 , Issue 2 , June 1996 , pp. 417 - 421
Copyright
Copyright © 1996 by the Weed Science Society of America 

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References

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