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Effects of seasonal prescribed fires of varying intensities on density, mortality, stem form, height, and height growth of hardwood advance regeneration were investigated. Three mixed-hardwood stands on productive upland sites were cut using a shelterwood technique, each forming a block of spring burn, summer burn, winter burn, and control treatments. Advance regeneration was inventoried from permanent plots before and after burning. Fires top-killed nearly all hardwood regeneration, forcing the rootstocks to sprout. Fire treatments reduced densities of all hardwood species relative to not burning, with spring and summer fires causing greater density reduction than winter burning. Among species, oak (Quercus spp. L.) and hickory (Carya spp. Nutt.) were more resilient sprouters than yellow-poplar (Liriodendron tulipifera L.) and red maple (Acer rubrum L.), especially as fire intensity increased. All prescribed fires improved oak stem form and stimulated height growth of hickory and oak. Overall, prescribed fires improved oak advance regeneration with spring burning providing the most benefit. This approach of following a shelterwood harvest with prescribed fire may be a viable method of regenerating oak-dominated stands on productive upland sites.

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Includes guidelines for using the SILVAH decision-support system to perpetuate oak forests in the Mid-Atlantic region. Six chapters provide information on values of oak forests, inventory methods, key decision variables, decision charts, and silvicultural prescriptions, as well as guidance on fostering young stands.

Increasingly detailed records of long‐term fire regime characteristics are needed to test ecological concepts and inform natural resource management and policymaking. We reconstructed and analyzed twelve 350+ yr‐long fire scar records developed from 2612 tree‐ring dated fire scars on 432 living and dead pine (Pinus pungens, Pinus rigida, Pinus resinosa, Pinus echinata) trees from across central Pennsylvania. We used multiple spatial and time series analysis methods to quantify fire regime characteristics (frequency, seasonality, percentages of trees scarred, extent) and fire–climate–human associations. Prior to the 20th‐century fire suppression, fire regimes at the majority of sites consisted of frequent, low‐to‐moderate severity, dormant season fires. Fires were often regionally synchronous when preceded by significantly dry years. Using documentary archives, we provide the first description of a “wave of fire”—an anthropogenic signal in fire frequency that progressively moved across the region. This “wave of fire” reflects a changing progression of anthropogenic fire regimes from Native American occupation and depopulation, to Euro‐American settlement, to industrialization and declining fire use up to the 20th century era of fire suppression. The wave of fire provides a new perspective on historical and modern fire regime dynamics and identifies socio‐ecological impacts since North American colonization. Because the anthropogenic wave of fire exists at sites across North America, we emphasize the need for a broader determination of its geographic prevalence and variability as such determinations could influence historical ecology interpretations and perspectives on past and future roles of humans in managing ecosystems with fire.

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Guidelines for using prescribed fire to regenerate and restore upland oak forests, woodlands, and savannas in eastern North America were developed by synthesizing the results of more than 100 scientific publications. The first four chapters provide background information on the values of oak ecosystems, eastern fire history, oak's adaptations to fire, and the findings of fire-oak research conducted over the past 50 years. The final chapter synthesizes that background information into guidelines that explain how to use prescribed fire to facilitate oak seedling establishment, release oak reproduction from competing mesophytic hardwoods, and rehabilitate open oak woodlands, oak savannas, and scrub oak communities. A reference section is also provided for readers desiring to delve more deeply into the associations between periodic fire and oak forests, woodlands, and savannas.

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