Forest Fire Research and Monitoring

Nature Fire Regimes in Ontario
 
This Natural Fire Regimes in Ontario report will help inform decisions regarding preliminary fire management goals, objectives and options for maintaining and restoring fire-dependent ecosystems in protected areas. This report provides a summary of how ecosystems interacted with fire in the past, under a minimum of human influence, and how fire processes can be used as a tool to help restore ecological integrity to protected area landscapes. It has been prepared as part of a tool kit supporting fire management planning for provincial parks and conservation reserves.
 
The report provides a compilation and synthesis of existing research based on a comprehensive literature review. It uses Ontario’s Ecological Land Classification (ELC) framework to analyze and describe natural fire regimes and fire effects for relatively homogeneous groupings of ecosites (based on similar site, vegetation, and fire regime characteristics) in the broad forest regions in Ontario. Results are discussed by forest region and are presented in a table summarizing fire regime characteristics by homogenous fire group. These tables are followed by more detailed descriptions of the fire group and its natural fire regime characteristics, vegetation responses to fire, succession following fire, and management considerations.
 
This report should assist park planners, ecologists, and fire managers in developing management direction for fire use and fire response by providing answers to critical restoration questions regarding the natural role of fire on the landscapes throughout Ontario. Other issues to consider when managing fire on the landscape are also discussed.
 
Download Nature Fire Regimes in Ontario (17 MB)