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Title: Fire History of a Forest, Savanna, and Fen Mosaic at White Ranch State Forest
Author(s): Dey, Daniel C.; Guyette, Ricahrd P.; Stambaugh, Michael C.
Date: 2004
Source: Gen. Tech. Rep. SRS-73. Asheville, NC: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Southern Research Station. pp. 132-137
Description: We present the fire history of a 1-km2 area that is a mosaic of oak forest, savanna, and fen on the White Ranch State Forest, Howell County, Missouri. We dated 135 fire scars on 35 cross-sections of post oak ( Quercus stellata) trees and constructed a fire chronology dating from 1705 to 1997. Mean fire return intervals by periods were 3.7 years (1705 to 1830), 7.6 years (1831 to 1960), and 3.6 years (1961 to 1997). Fire frequency was positively correlated (r = 0.53, p <0.01) with the expansion and migration of the Osage Tribe from 1710 to 1830. Later, between 1831 and 1900, exponential increases in Euro-American population density were negatively correlated (r = -0.64, p <0.05) with fire frequency. Fires were more likely to have occurred in drought years before 1830 than after 1830. Droughts after 1830 were related to the percent of trees scarred during years with evidence of fire.
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