Management and history of fire in Wabakimi Provincial Park, northwestern Ontario
Ontario's Wabakimi Provincial Park was recently expanded to protect a portion of naturally functioning boreal forest. A fire management strategy reflecting the natural role of fire will soon be developed. Mitigation of negative impacts resulting from fire-reintroduction requires knowledge of ec...
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| Format: | Dissertation |
| Language: | English |
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ProQuest Dissertations & Theses
01-01-1998
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| Online Access: | Get full text |
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| Summary: | Ontario's Wabakimi Provincial Park was recently expanded to protect a portion of naturally functioning boreal forest. A fire management strategy reflecting the natural role of fire will soon be developed. Mitigation of negative impacts resulting from fire-reintroduction requires knowledge of ecosystem characteristics, fire processes, and associated historical human influences. Historical fire records provide insight into these issues in this century, and stand age-class distributions facilitate assessments over several centuries. Historical reports show area burned declined between 1930 and 1970, followed by dramatic increases in recent decades. A stand age-class distribution analysis based on the negative exponential model of fire history revealed statistically significantly different fire cycles before (37.0) and after (359.7) 1928. However, hazard rate estimates show an almost linear decline between 1858 and 1948, suggesting considerable natural temporal variation. This analysis shows that management for specific historical fire cycles in Wabakimi may not be justified ecologically, economically, or socially. |
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| ISBN: | 9780612341579 0612341577 |