A Vegetative Fuelbreak Protecting the Town of Bar Harbor, Maine - Acadia National Park, ME
Herberger MA. 1998. A Vegetative Fuelbreak Protecting the Town of Bar Harbor, Maine - Acadia National Park, ME. University of Massachusetts, Department of Forestry and Wildlife Management
Review of literature related to the effective uses of fuelbreaks in a report on the results of a field study to evaluate the need for a fuelbreak on Mount Desert Island to prevent a catastrophic fire like the one that burned homes and caused deaths on the island in 1947. From author's abstract: 'I sampled 293 nested plots along the boundary between Acadia NP and the town of Bar Harbor. Cover types were determined for each point and were compared to 1979. During the past 18 years, conifers have increased in the overstory. Conifer regeneration was also sampled. It was found that 9% of the plots sampled had conifer regeneration sufficient to form a future conifer overstory. Only 13% of all plots had hardwood regeneration sufficient to perpetuate present-day hardwood stands. If the corridor were to be treated to remove the conifer overstory and eliminate conifer regeneration with prescribed fire and/or mechanical means or encourage hardwood regeneration (vegetative reproduction or seedling establishment), I estimate that approximately 90% of the area [250 acre (101.2 ha)] will require treatment.' The appendices includes a list of woody species encountered, seedling/sapling regeneration for all plots, and plot data (herbaceous cover, aspect, slope, and crown cover percentage). /STUDY LOCATIONS:/ /MOUNT DESERT ISLAND/
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Herberger, Mark
- Date of Issue
- 1998-08-20
- Publisher
- University of Massachusetts, Department of Forestry and Wildlife Management
- Units
- ACAD
- Keywords
- aspect (direction facing), Conifers, Fire Management, fuel breaks, hardwoods, Mount Desert Island, Percent Cover, Plants, Recovery, Slope