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- Info
Southeastern forests
| Author: |
Wright, H.A.; Bailey, A.W. |
| Date: |
1982 |
| Periodical: |
In: Fire ecology: United States and southern Canada. New York: John Wiley and Sons |
| Abstract: |
Historical evidence indicates that fire was a common and widespread occurrence across the South (Harper 1962). William Bartram, a botanist, wrote about fire in 1773, after traveling from South Carolina to the Mississippi. He said, "It happens almost everyday throughout the year, in some part or other, by Indians for the purpose of rousing game, as also by lightning" (Greene 1931). Charles Lyell, an eminent English geologist who made two visits to the United States in the 1840s, was told by a University professor from Tuscaloosa, Alabama that the openness of southeast pine forests was due to frequent fires. They did not hurt the pines and suppressed the more sensitive hardwoods, which might otherwise have sprung up and choked out the pines (Harper 1962). Harper also cited George V. Nash of the New York Botanical Garden in 1894 and 1895 and Mrs. Ellen Call Long of Tallahassee in 1889. Nash and Long made similar observations as to the role of fire in maintaining pine forests. |
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