Author:
Cardille Jeffrey A.,Ventura Stephen J.
Abstract
Risk of wildfire has become a major concern for forest managers, particularly
where humans live in close proximity to forests. To date, there has been no
comprehensive analysis of contemporary wildfire patterns or the influence of
landscape-level factors in the northern, largely forested parts of Minnesota,
Wisconsin and Michigan, USA.
Using electronic archives from the USDA Forest Service and from the
Departments of Natural Resources of Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan, we
created and analysed a new, spatially explicit data set: the Lake States Fire
Database. Most of the 18 514 fires during 1985—1995 were smaller
than 4 ha, although there were 746 fires larger than 41 ha. Most fires were
caused by debris burning and incendiary activity. There was considerable
interannual variability in fire counts; over 80% of fires occurred in
March, April, or May.
We analysed the relationship of land cover and ownership to fires at two
different fire size thresholds across four gridded spatial scales. Fires were
more likely on non-forest than within forests; this was also true if
considering only fires larger than 41 ha. An area of National or State Forest
was less likely to have experienced a fire during the study period than was a
forest of equal size outside National or State Forest boundaries. Large fires
were less likely in State Forests, although they were neither more nor less
likely to have occurred on National Forests. Fire frequency also varied
significantly by forest type. All results were extremely consistent across
analysis resolutions, indicating robust relationships.
Cited by
48 articles.
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