Ecological Recovery/Fire Ecology

European settlers torched Nova Scotia, but in pre-European times, many centuries intervened between fires in the mixed Acadian forest which predominates in our province. In recent years, efficient fire control has reduced fire frequency to lower-than natural intervals.  Climate warming may be changing it all again.

LINKS

Fire Ecology (Journal)
“Fire Ecology is the international scientific journal supported by the Association for Fire Ecology. It publishes peer-reviewed articles on all ecological and management aspects relating to wildland fire.

– International Journal of Wildland Fire
International Journal of Wildland Fire publishes new and significant papers that advance basic and applied research concerning wildland fire.

– Puktewei: Learning from Fire in Mi’kma’ki (Mi’kmaq Territory)
Shalan Joudry, MES thesis, Dalhousie University, 2016. “Throughout history humans have lived with fires on the land. Land fires over Turtle Island (North America) are influenced by climate, lightning, ecology, and cultural uses… Little has been researched about Mi’kmaw relationship with fire (puktew) in Mi’kma’ki, the territory of the Mi’kmaq. This relationship is explored through academic inquiry based in culturally-relevant and community-centered priorities and ways of knowing. Learnings were sought from Elders/Knowledge Holders across three cultural districts in Nova Scotia. Physical, mental, emotional and spiritual relationships with puktew were described. These teachings demonstrate cultural connections to puktew and unique fire regimes in each district. Mi’kmaw research methodologies highlighted cyclical ways of learning and sharing stories back to community.”

– Living with Boreal Forest Fires: Anishinaabe Perspectives on Disturbance and Collaborative Forestry Planning, Pikangikum First Nation, Northwestern Ontario
A.M. Miller, PhD Thesis, University of Manitoba, 2010. “This research explores the understandings and relationships that the elders of one Anishinaabe community, Pikangikum First Nation, in northwestern Ontario, have with boreal forest fire disturbance.” Related: Talking about fire: Pikangikum First Nation elders guiding fire management. Miller et al., 2010 in Canadian Journal of Forest Research 40(12):2290-2301

– Chapter Introduction: Fire Ecology Fire Ecology In a Nutshell (2 pages)
2-page document in the “Table Rock Curriculum” (U.S. Bureau of Land Management) Created 2010-03-23 Modified 2010-04-29).

– Chapter 1 Introduction to Fire Ecology Across USA Forested Ecosystems: Past, Present, and Future Fire Ecology: The Details (30 pages)
Cathryn H. Greenberg et al., in C. H. Greenberg, B. Collins (eds.), Fire Ecology and Management: Past, Present, and Future of US Forested Ecosystems. Published Online 2021, available free as a PDF.  Fire Ecology: The Details (30 pages)

– A review of natural disturbances to inform implementation of ecological forestry in Nova Scotia, Canada
Anthony R. Taylor, David A. MacLean, Peter D. Neily, Bruce Stewart, Eugene Quigley, Sean P. Basquill, Celia K. Boone, Derek Gilby, and Mark Pulsifer, Environ. Rev. 28: 387–414 (2020)
Abstract: Like many jurisdictions across North America, the province of Nova Scotia (NS) is faced with the challenge of restoring its forests to a more natural, presettlement state through implementation of ecological forestry. At the core of ecological forestry is the idea that natural forest structures and processes may be approximated by designing management practices that emulate natural disturbances. Successful natural disturbance emulation depends on fundamental knowledge of disturbance characteristics, including identification of specific disturbance agents, their spatial extent, severity, and return interval. To date, no comprehensive synthesis of existing data has been undertaken to document the natural disturbance regime of NS forests, limiting the application of natural disturbance emulation. Using over 300 years of documents and available data, we identified the main natural disturbance agents that affect NS forests and characterized their regimes. Overall, fire, wind (predominantly hurricanes), and outbreaks of spruce budworm (Choristoneura fumiferana (Clemens)) are the most important disturbance agents, causing substantial areas of low- (<30% mortality), moderate- (30%–60%), and high- (>60%) severity disturbance. While characterization of natural historic fire is challenging, due to past human ignitions and suppression, we estimated that the mean annual disturbance rate of moderate- to high-severity fire ranged between 0.17% and 0.4%·year−1 (return interval of 250– 600 years), depending on ecosystem type. Hurricanes make landfall in NS, on average, every 7 years, resulting in wide-scale (>500 ha) forest damage. While hurricane track and damage severity vary widely among storms, the return interval of low- to high-severity damage is 700–1250 years (0.14%–0.08%·year−1). Conversely, the return interval of host-specific spruce budworm outbreaks is much shorter (<50 years) but more periodic, causing wide-scale, low- to high-severity damage to spruce–fir forests every 30–40 years. Further disturbance agents such as other insects (e.g., spruce beetle), diseases, ice storms, drought, and mammals can be locally important and (or) detrimental to individual tree species but contribute little to overall disturbance in NS. Climate change is expected to significantly alter the disturbance regime of NS, affecting current disturbances (e.g., increased fire) and driving the introduction of novel agents (e.g., hemlock wooly adelgid), and continued monitoring is needed to understand these changes.

– The evolving role of wildfire in the Maritimes region of eastern Canada
Anthony R. Taylor and David A. MacLean, Canadian Journal of Forest Research
14 June 2024
Abstract The Maritimes region of eastern Canada is not typically associated with wildfire, but the severe 2023 fire season has reminded “Maritimers” that despite its cool, damp climate and diverse, mixed forests, the region is not immune to burning. In this perspectives article, we review the relationship of wildfire and the Maritimes by first providing a brief history on the role fire has played in shaping the forests of the Maritimes and our part in that relationship. We then describe the current state of wildfire management, including strategies and technologies used to prevent fire, and identify some key important challenges moving forward. Overall, our review shows that the people of this region have a long history with wildfire, but that since European colonization (1600s) the local fire regime has undergone significant shifts. While the introduction of forest protection legislation and technology during the early 20th century has greatly reduced the occurrence of fire and substantially lengthened the fire return interval, the growing, sprawling population of the Maritimes presents new challenges for managing fire in the wildland–urban interface. Combined with the threat of climate change, which is likely to increase the occurrence of wildfire, new urban planning and forest management strategies must be developed to address these emerging dangers.

– Borealization of the New England – Acadian Forest: a review of the evidence
by Josh Noseworthy and Thomas M. Beckley. Environmental Reviews 2020, 28(3): 284-293. Authors’ Manuscript. “The New England – Acadian Forest (NEAF) is an ecoregion spanning 24 million hectares of the northeastern United States and eastern Canada. The region is characterized as a transitional forest naturally composed of both boreal and temperate species. The term “borealization” is sometimes used to describe various processes driving the NEAF toward a more boreal character at the expense of its temperate forest species and ecological communities. …We review over 100 peer-reviewed scientific journal articles and government reports related to this issue. We find ample evidence to suggest that, at the landscape scale, there has been widespread replacement of temperate tree species by boreal species since European settlement. Five primary drivers have facilitated borealization across the NEAF: logging and high-grading, natural reforestation of abandoned farmland, industrial clearcutting, anthropogenic fire, and boreal conifer plantations. Furthermore, the borealization of the NEAF has continued to occur in direct contrast to the predicted impacts of climate change.

– Cloud-to-Ground Lightning in Canada: 20 Years of CLDN Data Cloud-to-Ground Lightning in Canada: 20 Years of CLDN Data
Bob Kochtubajda & William R. Burrows in Atmosphere-Ocean, 2020. NS very low levels compared to most of Canada.

– Comparisons between wildfire and forest harvesting and their implications in forest management
D.J. McRae et al., Environ. Rev. 9: 223–260 (2001). PDF

– Fifty years of wildland fire science in Canada
Sean C.P. Coogan et al., Can. J. For. Res. Vol. 51, 2021. PDF

Also See  Fire Ecology – page  on backlandscoalition.ca

– Monoculture plantations fuel fires amid heat waves
J. Barquin et al., 2022. In Science

– In Oregon Timber Country, a Town Buys the Surrounding Forests to Confront Climate-Driven Wildfires
By Grant Stringer on www insideclimatenews.org/, July 9, 2023. “The town government recently purchased a ring of privately owned timberland surrounding Butte Falls. Instead of harvesting the land—which could provide an immediate, short-term boon to the town economy—locals want to grow an older and biodiverse forest that they say will better protect the town from wildfires, while attracting outdoor tourism.”

– Fire behaviour experiments in boreal spruce and aspen (Video)
fireresearchcanada Posted Nov 20, 2018. “On a remote section of a large ‘modified response’ wildfire in 2007 we conducted a couple of fire behaviour experiments. Ignition in the boreal shrubs carried into the spruce, to the mixedwood stand and then stopped abruptly at the edge of the leafed-out aspen stand.”

– Regeneration of Forest and Barrens after the Spryfield Fire of April 30, 2009
Richard Beazley and David Patriquin, 2009. A set of photos illustrates the regeneration of vegetation over 16 months after an intense fire swept through forest and barrens in the vicinity of Spryfield, Nova Scotia on April 30, 2009. The fire destroyed twelve homes.

– A Rare, Fire-Dependent Pine Barrens at the Wildland-Urban Interface of Halifax, Nova Scotia
Nick Hill and David Patriquin. 2014. A Rare, Fire-Dependent Pine Barrens at the Wildland-Urban Interface of Halifax, Nova Scotia. Annotated Slideshow presentation to the Wildland Fire Canada 2014 Conference, Halifax, N.S. Oct 6-9, 2014. 12 frames. Also View Fire Ecology on backlandscolaition.ca

– Modeling fire susceptibility to delineate wildland-urban interface for municipal-scale risk management
Whitman, E., Rapaport, E., and Sherren, K. 2013. Environ Manag 53:1427–1439.

– Current and future wildfire risk in the peri-urban Acadian Forest region.
Whitman, E. 2013. Master of Environmental Studies thesis, Dalhousie University.
Ellen Whitman and colleagues applied a spatially oriented fire modeling approach to examine “Future Wildfire Risk in the HRM Wildland-Urban Interface Under Climate Change” and “Urban Forests And Hazard Management: Trade-Offs Between Wildfire Risk And Benefits From Trees In The HRM Wildland-Urban Interface” Spryfield and Beaver Bank were used as case study areas.

– Fire Effects Information System: Species Reviews
These “include information on plant, lichen, and wildlife species’ life history, ecology, and relationship to fire. They are available for more than 1,200 species occurring throughout the United States.” Use search tool on home page to lookup a particular species.

– As wildfires burn in Alberta forests, what happens to the animals?
Naama Weingarten · CBC. June 3, 2023

– Introduction to Fire Ecology Across USA Forested Ecosystems: Past, Present, and Future
Cathryn H. Greenberg et al., 2021. In C. H. Greenberg, B. Collins (eds.), Fire Ecology and Management: Past,
Present, and Future of US Forested Ecosystems, Managing Forest Ecosystems
39, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-73267-7_1

– Grooming forests could be making fires worse, researchers warn
Jill English · CBC News. 2019 Glyphosate sprayed on forests kills slow-burning trees, leaving more flammable species vulnerable

– Self-thinning forest understoreys reduce wildfire risk, even in a warming climate
Philip J Zylstra et al., 2022 in Environmental Research Letters
ABSTRACT As climatic changes continue to drive increases in the frequency and severity of forest fires, it is critical to understand all of the factors influencing the risk of forest fire. Using a spatial dataset of areas burnt over a 65 year period in a 528 343 ha study area, we examined three possible drivers of flammability dynamics. These were: that forests became more flammable as fine biomass (fuel) returned following disturbance (H1), that disturbance increased flammability by initiating dense understorey growth that later self-thinned (H2), and that climatic effects were more important than either of these internal dynamics (H3). We found that forests were unlikely to burn for a short ‘young’ period (5–7 years) following fire, very likely to burn as the regrowing understorey became taller and denser (regrowth period), then after a total post-disturbance period of 43–56 years (young + regrowth periods), fire became unlikely and continued to decrease in likelihood (mature period). This trend did not change as the climate warmed, although increases in synoptic variability (mean changes in synoptic systems per season) had a pronounced effect on wildfire likelihood overall. Young forest and regrowth forest became increasingly likely to burn in years of greater synoptic variability and the time taken for forests to mature increased, but in years with the most severe synoptic variability, mature forests were the least likely to burn. Our findings offer an explanation for fire behaviour in numerous long-term studies in diverse forest types globally and indicate that, even in the face of a warming climate, ‘ecologically-cooperative’ approaches may be employed that reinforce rather than disrupt natural ecological controls on forest fire. These range from traditional indigenous fire knowledge, to modern targeting of suppression resources to capitalise on the benefits of self-thinning, and minimise the extent of dense regrowth in the landscape.

– How wildlife survives after wildfires
Isabella Kaminski for www.bbc.com Jan 29, 2025. “[Fire] is not intrinsically a problem for wildlife. One study, which looked at the results of 31 research papers from 1984 to 2020, found that 65% of studies did not report any animal fatalities as a direct result of fires. Many species have a strategy for evading the fire itself, ranging from simply running away to hiding in burrows underground or sheltering in the treetops.”

– Wildfire retardants help stop fires — but also impact ecosystems
By Drew Anderson in The Narwhal, sep 2, 2025 “In the rush to put out wildfires, hundreds of millions of litres of fire retardant are dropped on forests across North America. New research shows the effects they can have on water and ecosystems — especially when accidents happen.”