Fire History and Perpetuation of Natural Coast Redwood Ecosystems

Abstract

Abstract Stump ring counts were used to determine the presettlement fire history of the coast redwood (Sequoia sempervirens [D. Don] Endl.) forest ecosystem in Marin County, California. Data were collected on fire scars and also on fog drip precipitation at two sites logged in the 1850s. The sites, located on the first and third ridges inland from the Pacific Ocean, were selected to bracket the Muir Woods National Monument. The average interval between fires at the more coastal site was 27 years and at the inland site, 22 years. The difference is attributed to varying fire hazards related to a summer fog gradient. Frequency distributions of fire intervals for both sites were highly skewed toward shorter intervals. Skewed distributions indicated a natural pattern of several short intervals followed by one or more long intervals. Prescribed burning treatments should initially be repeated at less than average fire intervals and then at lengthened intervals to recreate natural fire regimes in the coast redwood forest ecosystem.