Prioritizing forest communities and areas for the use of prescribed fire at Shenandoah National Park
Mahan CG, Young JA, Forder M. 2012. Prioritizing forest communities and areas for the use of prescribed fire at Shenandoah National Park. Natural Resource Technical Report. NPS/SHEN/NRTR—2012/625. National Park Service. Fort Collins, Colorado
We prioritized the use of prescribed fire to manage vegetation communities at ShenandoahNational Park by using expert opinion and a spatial model. The spatial model included inputssuch as vegetation associations, years since last burn, fire tolerance of the vegetationcommunities, search and rescue boundaries (to delineate burn units), and rare species locations.Our model indicated that forests dominated by xeric oak and xeric pine associations are a highpriority and an appropriate choice for using fire as a regeneration tool—especially in thesouthern portion of the park. Two other vegetation associations, including Central AppalachianBasic Oak - Hickory Forest and the Central Appalachian Montane Oak - Hickory Forest (AcidicType) also contain sites on which burning is an appropriate tool to encourage forest regeneration.We urge forest managers at Shenandoah National Park to monitor vegetation associations bothbefore and after burning to determine the effectiveness of this management tool.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Mahan, Carolyn; Young, John; Forder, Melissa
- Date of Issue
- 2012-09
- Publisher
- National Park Service
- Units
- NRSS , SHEN
- Keywords
- FIRE, GIS, Map, Virginia
- Subjects
- Ecological Framework: Landscapes | Fire and Fuel Dynamics | Fire and Fuel Dynamics