The boundary between the SFE and CAFMS regions is the eastern edge of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Despite this administrative boundary and the striking topographic differences on either side of it, the Blue Ridge and the western Piedmont share some commonalities—indeed, some linkages—in their historical vegetation cover and fire regimes. This webinar will consider the history of fire and fire-dependent vegetation along the Blue Ridge escarpment as well as the greater Blue Ridge Mountains region (northern and southern Blue Ridge) and western Piedmont. Multiple historical and paleoecological datasets provide glimpses of past fire regimes on these landscapes and hint at the abundance and extent of fire-dependent vegetation. These datasets include early travelers’ accounts; witness trees from land surveys; old maps, artwork, and photographs; soil and sediment charcoal; and tree-ring data on tree ages and fire scars. Analyses of these records indicate that, before fire prevention and suppression, fires burned frequently over much of the area and maintained communities such as pine and oak woodlands and savannas.

Presenter: Dr. Charles Lafon, Professor of Geography at Texas A&M University