Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Science 11 June 1999:
Vol. 284. no. 5421, pp. 1829 - 1832
DOI: 10.1126/science.284.5421.1829
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Reports

Reexamining Fire Suppression Impacts on Brushland Fire Regimes

Jon E. Keeley, 1* C. J. Fotheringham, 2dagger Marco Morais 3ddagger

California shrubland wildfires are increasingly destructive, and it is widely held that the problem has been intensified by fire suppression, leading to larger, more intense wildfires. However, analysis of the California Statewide Fire History Database shows that, since 1910, fire frequency and area burned have not declined, and fire size has not increased. Fire rotation intervals have declined, and fire season has not changed, implying that fire intensity has not increased. Fire frequency and population density were correlated, and it is suggested that fire suppression plays a critical role in offsetting potential impacts of increased ignitions. Large fires were not dependent on old age classes of fuels, and it is thus unlikely that age class manipulation of fuels can prevent large fires. Expansion of the urban-wildland interface is a key factor in wildland fire destruction.

1 U.S. Geological Survey Biological Resources Division, Western Ecological Research Center, Sequoia-Kings Canyon Field Station, 47050 Generals Highway, Three Rivers, CA 93271-9651, USA.
2 Center for Environmental Analysis-Centers for Research Excellence in Science and Technology, Department of Biology and Microbiology, California State University, Los Angeles, CA 90032, USA.
3 U.S. National Park Service, Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, Thousand Oaks, CA 91360, USA.
*   To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: jon_keeley{at}usgs.gov

dagger    Present address: Organismic Biology, Ecology, and Evolution, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA.

ddagger    Present address: Department of Geography, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA.

Read the Full Text


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Environmental drivers of large, infrequent wildfires: the emerging conceptual model.
A. Meyn, P. S. White, C. Buhk, and A. Jentsch (2007)
Progress in Physical Geography 31, 287-312
   Abstract »    PDF »
Playing with Fire: Endogenous Risk in Resource Management.
J. Yoder (2004)
Am. J. Agr. Econ. 86, 933-948
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Complexity and robustness.
J. M. Carlson and J. Doyle (2002)
PNAS 99, 2538-2545
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Biomechanics and anatomy of cladode junctions for two Opuntia (Cactaceae) species and their hybrid.
E. G. Bobich and P. S. Nobel (2001)
Am. J. Botany 88, 391-400
   Abstract »    Full Text »


To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)