FIRE HISTORY AND STAND DEVELOPMENT OF A DOUGLAS-FIR HARDWOOD FOREST IN NORTHERN CALIFORNIA

This paper examines the relationship between historic fires and stand structure on three sites in Douglas-fir/hardwood forests within the Kl amath National Forest, California. Fire scar, tree age, and basal area distributions were used to interpret stand history. Frequent fires of variable intensity resulted in varied stand structures on our study s ites. Some stands were even-aged and -sized following a relatively int ense fire, while others were multi-modal following moderate or low int ensity fires. Stands with dominant trees 250 + years old have old-grow th characteristics. These Douglas-fir dominated stands do not resemble those of western Oregon and Washington. Douglas-fir in our stands see ms to respond to fire and appropriate environmental conditions for suc cessful establishment. Stand development may be defined by coarse and medium scale gaps. Large uniform patches created by infrequent catastr ophic fire are broken up by more frequent medium scale gap processes. The pre-settlement landscape was probably exceptionally patchy contain ing complex mosaics of different age and size Douglas-fir dominated st ands.