FIRE AND THE FOREST: SEDIMENTARY CHARCOAL RECORDS OF PALEO-WILDFIRES IN NEW ENGLAND

Current forest management practices in New England are informed by destructive wildfires that occurred the late 1800s and early 1900s and, as a result, focus mostly on suppressing fire. Populations of red pines, a fire-adapted species that relies on frequent and low severity fires to clear out competition and cycle nutrients in the soil, are in decline and the forest is shifting towards a steady-state dominated with shade tolerant hardwoods. But is this the natural state of the forest, or has the removal of fire from the environment influenced the forest composition? This study examines charcoal particles in sediment cores collected from Cone Pond, Thornton NH, to create a fire history for the region and determine if trends in charcoal count can be compared to other proxies for environmental change, such as elemental concentration determined using XRF, and magnetic susceptibility. Results show a decrease in charcoal particles over the last 2000 years and a significant decrease in the last 1000, and neither magnetic susceptibility nor elemental concentrations correlate with charcoal counts.