Table of Contents
Natural Fire Regimes in Ontario
- Executive Summary
- Résumé
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Background and Rationale
- Fire Management Strategy
- Fire Policy for Park and Conservation Reserves
- Fire Management Planning Guidelines for Protected Areas
- Fire and Fire Regimes
- The Ecological Role of Fire
- Principles of Fire Occurrence and Behaviour
- Fire Ecology and Effects
- Plant Mortality
- Plant responses to fire
- Community and landscape level responses to fire
- Anthropogenic factors that influenced changes in fire regimes
- Aboriginal burning
- European settlement, land conversion, and resource extraction
- Fire exclusion policy
- Modern Fire Regimes
- Approaches to Reconstructing Natural Fire Regimes
- Scale of Analysis
- Landscape Approach to Fire Regime Analysis
- Ecological Regions of Ontario
- Identification of Homogenous Fire Groups
- Fire Regime Categories
- Natural Fire Frequency and Cycle
- Boreal West Forest Region
- Jack Pine
- Upland Black Spruce - Jack Pine
- Fir-Spruce Mixed Wood
- Aspen-Birch, Aspen-Birch-Fir
- Red Pine-White Pine-Jack Pine
- Red Pine - White Pine
- Lowland Black Spruce
- Cedar and Hardwood Lowlands
- Boreal East Forest Region
- Jack Pine
- Black Spruce
- Upland Black Spruce - Jack Pine
- Spruce-Fir Mixed Wood
- Aspen-Birch, Aspen-Birch-Conifer
- Lowland Black Spruce
- Tolerant Hardwoods and Hardwood Mixedwoods
- Jack Pine - White Pine - Red Pine
- White Pine - Red Pine, White Pine-Conifer
- Great Lakes - St. Lawrence Forest Region
- Jack Pine
- Black Spruce
- White Pine - Red Pine
- Jack Pine - White Pine - Red Pine
- Aspen-Birch, Aspen-Birch-Conifer
- Oak-Hardwood, Oak-Pine
- Tolerant Hardwoods and Mixed-Hardwoods
- Conifer and Hardwood Lowlands
- Deciduous Forest Region
- Tallgrass Prairie
- Poplar-White Birch, White Birch-Poplar-Conifer
- Oak Deciduous, White Pine-Maple-Oak Mixedwoods
- Pitch Pine - Oak Mixedwoods
- Tolerant Hardwoods and Mixed-Hardwoods
- Conifer, Deciduous, and Mixed Lowlands
- Tallgrass Savanna
- Tallgrass Woodland
- Oak-Maple-Hickory
- Alvar
- Rock Barren
- Sand Barren
- White Pine - Red Pine
- Jack Pine
- Summary and Research Needs
- Reference Conditions
- Public Involvement
- Time Since Last Fire
- Effects of Fire on Ecosystem Processes and Biodiversity
- Species at Risk
- Exotic Plants
- Interactions Among Disturbance Agents
- Climate Change
- Adaptive Management
- Management Alternatives
- References
- Appendix 1 - Fire management zones
- Appendix 2 - Summary of biotic and abiotic factors affecting fire behaviour *
- Appendix 3 - Plant Species list
- Appendix 4 - Fire return interval for natural (historic) fire regimes in Ontario and the Great Lakes Region
- Appendix 5 - Fire cycle for natural (historic) fire regimes in Ontario and the Great Lakes region
Principles of Fire Occurrence and Behaviour
Figure 1. Schematic diagram illustrating the interactions between fire regime, the vegetation, and physical environment (modified from Whelan 1995)