Fire history at New River Gorge National River: Backus Mountain, Endless Wall, and Glade Creek (Babcock)
Saladyga T, Carter T, Cline J, Cook M, Maiolo K, Miller A, Perkins C, Proko’yeva P, Stockton S, Watkins J, Watkins J. 2019. Fire history at New River Gorge National River: Backus Mountain, Endless Wall, and Glade Creek (Babcock). Natural Resource Report. NPS/NERI/NRR—2019/1898. National Park Service. Fort Collins, Colorado
Fire was historically an important ecosystem disturbance in the oak (Quercus spp. L.) forests of eastern North America. Fire exclusion in the 20th century via suppression policies and land use change, however, has altered species composition and forest structure (Nowacki and Abrams, 2008). Other interacting factors such as climate change, invasive species, and increased herbivory have compounded these effects, leading to reduced oak regeneration (McEwan et al., 2011; Knott et al., 2019). Regional land managers have recently begun to reintroduce fire to these landscapes, but there continues to be a need to place prescribed fire objectives into a historical context. Tree-ring, or dendroecological, reconstructions of fire can be used to inform these management objectives. Dendroecological reconstructions of fire history use fire scars preserved in the annual growth rings of trees to develop precisely dated fire event chronologies. Previously published fire history reconstructions in the New River Gorge region of West Virginia, however, are restricted to two cliff edge or “rimrock” pine-oak communities at Endless Wall within New River Gorge National River (NERI) (Maxwell and Hicks, 2010) and at Glade Creek within adjacent Babcock State Park (Saladyga, 2017a) (see Figure 1).
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Saladyga, Thomas; Carter, Taylor; Cline, John; Cook, Maggie-Jean; Maiolo, Kenneth; Miller, Alysan; Perkins, Cody; Proko’yeva, Polina; Stockton, Samuel; Watkins, Jonathon; Watkins, Justin
- Date of Issue
- 2019-03
- Publisher
- National Park Service
- Units
- ERMN , NERI , NRSS