Reconstruction of natural fire regimes

• Background
• Abstract
• Approach
• Results
• Publications

---

Background

Forest fire is one of the major natural disturbances in Canadian boreal forests. The dynamics of fire regimes result from interactions among fire events, landscape structure, topography, and weather and fuel conditions.

It is believed that forest resources could be sustained and biodiversity preserved if the timber harvest could be planned so as to emulate natural disturbance patterns. To evaluate and implement such a forestry policy, a better understanding of natural fire patterns is required. Empirical methods, such as the construction of a stand-origin map, require considerable resources (both time and funds) that are not always available. Therefore, complementary methods for reconstructing natural fire regimes are required.

---