Historical Wildfire Variability in the Foothills of Alberta: A Dendropyrochronological Case Study

English Abstract:

Using dendropyrochronological proxy methods, we reconstructed ~200 years of wildfire variability in the eastern foothills of the Rocky Mountains near Hinton, Alberta, Canada – an area where little fire research has been conducted but is currently at high risk of fire and is intensively managed. We combined fire scar (a low-severity fire proxy) and stand establishment records (high-severity proxy) to reconstruct the mixed-severity nature of fire history in this landscape. The record of wildfire shows no evidence of landscape-scale fire events over the last ~150 years. Instead, we found evidence of increased low-severity fire activity in the early 1900s that is not explained by climate alone. Overall, our research shows the foothills experienced variability in fire severity over both time and space. We have found evidence for intricate connections between the complex landscape characteristics (bottom-up controls) and climate trends that drive wildfire activity in this unique and understudied landscape.