User:Barley04/sandbox

Fire History Using Tree-Ring Data

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draft:Fire_history

The age of a tree can be dated to the exact year it formed using a scientific method called dendrochronology (or tree-ring dating). Samples can be taken from dead trees as well as stumps left behind from logging. A sample can also be collected from a living tree using a tools like the increment borer. This method can also be used to date what year a fire occurred. The tree rings used to tabulate aging may exhibit a fire scar. The scar is a physical and chemical boundary the tree forms around a wound to protect it from infection (https://www.fs.fed.us/rmrs/science-spotlights/making-scar-how-fire-scars-develop-trees). Observing the scars allows one to date the timeline of a forest fire and the time between fires at a site. Surveying many trees over a large sample area provides a view to individual fire events and the overall fire regime.

Research and data examples

A study by Arne Buechiling and William L. Baker in 2004 identified 41 fire events beginning in 1533 in a 9200-ha study area north of Estes Park, Colorado. They sampled 3461 tree cores and 212 fire scars (ContentServerPDF). Of the 41 fires, 22 where high-severity crown fires, 7 low-severity surface fires, and 8 mixed-severity fires. Fires larger than 300 ha were few, but made up a large proportion of the area burned since 1700. Drought played a large role in the fires that burned greater areas.

There is little known about the fire history in some places. Central Europe for instance has a lack of intact forests with old growth trees or an abundance of dead or cut down trees that can be used to reconstruct the past fire regimes. There is an exception in the Bialowieza Primeval Forest in Poland that a group of researchers were able to use a 350-year tree-ring fire record to reconstruct the fire history in great detail.

Outline

I. How do you use tree-ring data

 a. what is tree-ring data
 b. visual image

II. Where has it been used

 a. research projects and data examples - Rocky Mtns (Buechiling and Baker), Patagonia (Holz, Haberle, Veblen, De Pol-Holz, Southon), Bialowieza

III. Why would you use tree-ring data versus other type

 a. benefits/positives of tree-ring (all elevations, many tree types, repeatable, long history records)
 

IV. Has it helped advance the field of fire analysis

Resources

https://www.fs.fed.us/rmrs/science-spotlights/making-scar-how-fire-scars-develop-trees

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dendrochronology

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Critique assignment

For our critique assignment I looked at the Wikipedia page for the Biscuit Fire that burned hundreds of thousands of acres in southern Oregon and northern California in 2002

Right out of the gate this page has a "needs additional citations for verification" banner at the top. As I read threw it I saw zero citations on the whole page. It is also a very short page. I am not sure what can be done just yet to make this page longer until we get a little further in the class. Off the top of my head not I would say, some ecology, a longer more updated version of the "Post-Wildfire" section which does not mention the Chetco Bar fire of this year that took place and still is burning that same area. There has to be room on here somewhere to mention that this fire is a re-burned area on a 15 year anniversary like many of the other fires of this year. That may also be something for another page.

feedback

I added a wikilink to the article. Check it out in the editor for this page. Answer.to.the.rock (talk) 20:22, 20 October 2017 (UTC)

Good point! I also think you should add your ideas in the talk page of the article so people can directly comment on them. Jfaay (talk) 18:36, 26 October 2017 (UTC)

"Add to an article" assignment

I am not sure if we are supposed to be adding for real so this is a mock-up. My suggestion is the "History" and "Major brushfires in Australia" could be combined into one category or a separate article from the Bushfires in Australia page. Each of those could be expanded upon as well.

Ideas

Bush Fires in Australia

Improving current page by combining and expanding large topics
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bushfires_in_Australia#Categories
"History" and "Major brushfires in Australia" could be one category or a separate articles

Closer look into specifically savanna brush fires in Northern Australia

Old Outline (No longer using)

1) review the history of fire regimes in NA
2) spin off topic of controversey
3) future areas of fire education and management