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- Info
San Francisco East Bay fire history, landscape changes
| Author: |
Keele, J. E. |
| Date: |
2005 |
| Periodical: |
International Journal of Wildland Fire |
| Link: |
http://www.werc.usgs.gov/seki/pdfs/K2005_East Bay Fire History_IJWF.pdf
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| Abstract: |
The San Francisco East Bay landscape is a rich mosaic of grasslands, shrublands, and woodlands that is experiencing losses of grassland due to colonization by shrubs and succession toward woodland associations. The instability of these grasslands is apparently due to their disturbance-dependent nature coupled with 20th century changes in fire and grazing activity. This study uses fire history records to determine the potential for fire in this region and for evidence of changes in the second half of the 20th century that would account for shrubland expansion. These landscape changes in vegetation are of major concern to fire managers since shrublands with their enhanced fuel loads have the potential for greatly increasing fire hazard. This area has had a long history of devastating wildfires, all of which have been relatively small fires that involved fuels at the wildland/urban interface. Fuels far removed from this interface zone played very little role in these conflagrations. Thus, questions remain as to the most cost-effective placement of fuel modification treatments in this region. |
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