Fire Management Assesment Songshan Nature Preserve, China

G LOBAL FI R E I N ITIATIVE

Technic al Repor t

Fire Management Assessment of the Songshan Nature Reserve, China

April 200 8 GFI technical report 2008-1a

Citation: Myers, R., D. Johnson and M. Krawchuk. Fire Management Assessment of the Songshan Nature Reserve, China. GFI technical report 2008-1a. The Nature Conservancy, Arlington, VA. For more information: Ronald L. Myers Latin America and Caribbean Fire Director Global Fire Initiative The Nature Conservancy Tall Timbers Research Station 13093 Henry Beadel Drive Tallahassee, FL 32312 USA 850-668-5569 [email protected] www.tncfuego.org

Cover Photo: Old-growth Chinese red pine (Pinus tabuliformis) in Songshan Nature Reserve. ©Ronald Myers

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Section

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contents

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Purpose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Fire Management Assessment Framework & Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 Focus & Constraints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3 Vegetation, Fire Environment & Disturbances . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5 General Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5 Vegetation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5 Fire Response Categories, Fire Regimes & Fuels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6 Disturbance History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13 Characteristics of Pinus tabuliformis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16 Distribution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16 Adaptations to Fire & Other Disturbances . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16 Fire Management at Songshan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .26 Conclusions & Recommendations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .27 Future of Chinese Red Pine Under Current Management Regime . . . .27 Current Fire Management Approach at Songshan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .27 Ecological Disturbance Model for Songshan Nature Reserve . . . . . . . . .28 Future Fire Management Options at Songshan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .28 Fire Management Options in China . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .28 Next Steps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .30 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .31

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Purpose During 27–31 August 2007, a team of fire management and fire ecology experts from the United States traveled to Beijing to meet with Chinese foresters, ecologists and geographers interested in fire management issues. The Team also made a field visit to Songshan National Nature Reserve

north of Beijing to assess the role of fire, if any, in the dynamics and maintenance of Chinese red pine (Pinus tabuliformis Carr. ) and associated vegetation. Preliminary Nature Conservancy conservation planning in the area pointed to the lack of regeneration of red pine in the Reserve.

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Team Members - Darren Johnson, Fire Ecologist, Global Fire Team, The Nature Conservancy, USA - Meg Krawchuk, PhD., Post-doctoral Researcher, Center for Fire Research & Outreach, University of California at Berkeley, USA - Ronald Myers, PhD., Fire Director, Latin America & the Caribbean, Global Fire Team, The Nature Conservancy, USA - Yu Guangzhi, Protected Area Strategy Manager, The Nature Conservancy, China - Matthew Durnin, PhD., Conservation Scientist. The Nature Conservancy, China - Xiaorui Tian, PhD., Research Institute of Forest Protection, Chinese Academy of Forestry, China The team was accompanied by Ruiyi Chen, Lili Li and Wanjie Jiang from the Conservation Sector at Songshan Nature Reserve. During the trip, the Assessment Team met with: Hu Yuanhui, Division Director, International Forestry Cooperation Center, State Forestry Administration, Beijing, China Fu Yuling, Institute of Geographic Sciences & Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Science (CAS) Beijing, China Zheng Du, Professor, Institute of Geographic Sciences & Natural Resources Research, CAS, Beijing, China Guirui Yu, PhD., Synthesis Center of Chinese Ecosystem Research Network, CAS, Beijing, China Ying Sun, PhD., Chief, Office of International Cooperation, Institute of Geographical Sciences & Natural Resources Research, CAS, Beijing Wu Shaohong, PhD., Professor, Institute of Geographical Sciences & Natural Resources Research, CAS, Beijing Keping Ma, PhD., Director & Professor, Institute of Botany, CAS, Beijing Yang si qi, Journalist of Current Events, The Beijing News

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The objectives of the assessment were to: (1) Gather information on fire management needs and issues at Songshan National Nature Reserve that may be important in biodiversity conservation and management of the Reserve.

Fire Management Assessment Framework & Process Prior to arriving in China and visiting Songshan Nature Reserve, the assessment team gathered background information on the Reserve and the fire situation in northwest China. Key areas of inquiry were:

(2) Assess whether fire plays a role in the regeneration and maintenance of Chinese red pine at the site.

(1) Review of ecological/environmental and socio-economic information of the assessment area.

(3) Evaluate fire management planning, training, research and information needs at the Songshan Nature Reserve, and gain some preliminary insights into the status of fire management and fire ecology in China as a whole. (4) Provide fire managers and conservation management specialists with recommendations on long-term strategies and actions to reduce fire-related threats at the Reserve. (5) Introduce ecological concepts related to fire that could be adapted to conservation management strategies throughout China. (6) Provide The Nature Conservancy (TNC) in China with a conceptual framework for identifying and addressing firerelated threats to biodiversity conservation at their priority conservation areas. This assessment was conducted as part of the Global Fire Partnership, which includes the Conservancy’s Global Fire Initiative and the University of California at Berkeley’s Center for Fire Research & Outreach.

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(2) Identification of ecological and socioeconomic equivalents elsewhere in the world which the assessment team was familiar with or where there already exists considerable information and management experience. (3) Identification of key ecological and fire management experts: (1) within the specific area or region to be visited and (2) in ecologically equivalent ecosystems elsewhere in the world. (4) Determination of current approach to fire management in the area by reviewing existing management plan, fire policies, and fire staffing, etc. (5) Understanding how the socio-economic and political systems in China influence the type, approaches and effectiveness of fire management. Once in China, the assessment team pursued information about: fire management at the Reserve, national and local fire policies and laws, and perceptions of the public, scientists and land managers about wildland fire and fire management, including their basic understanding of fire regimes and fire as an ecological process.

(1) Based on meetings with key area managers, Nature Conservancy staff, country or regional decision makers, scientists and natural historians, and community-level stakeholders: What are current views about fire? What are current policies? Are policies effectively applied? Ignored? Counter productive?

change, or how are they changing now, as a result of fire prevention and suppression and/or fire use practices? (7) Be prepared to address concerns about fire effects on fauna, specific plant species, and soils. What are current local views? How do these relate to what we know about ecologically equivalent ecosystems and species elsewhere?

(2) What is the general perception about fire in different levels of society in the area or region?

(8) How is fire related to climate change, invasive species, watersheds and water quality/quantity, etc. at the site?

(3) What is the fire history of the arealong-, medium- and short-term? Have recent fires been mapped and fire effects evaluated? Are there old photographs of the area? Have fire ignition sources been documented? Given fuel conditions, plant adaptations, climatic conditions and local capacity, is there evidence that lightning ignitions are appropriately identified or under-reported?

(9) Evaluate the role of human burning in creating, maintaining and negatively impacting existing vegetation, desired conditions and fire regimes.

(4) Ecological review: General classification of vegetation/ecosystem responses to fire, i.e. dependent, sensitive, independent. Are these categories accepted by scientists and fire managers? Identify adaptations to fire of keystone and dominant species in fire-dependent ecosystems.

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These issues and questions included:

(10) What broad economic and social policies and cultural traditions are affecting fire regimes and fire management effectiveness, e.g. agricultural policies, land tenure issues, forestry and logging practices, industrial agriculture, energy exploration, urbanization or domestication of the landscape?

Focus & Constraints Information in this report is based on observations made at Songshan National Nature Reserve and through discussions with: (1) Reserve staff, an ecologist with (5) Assess current and desired conditions the Chinese Academy of Sciences, staff and fire regimes, and define role of fire and from The Nature Conservancy’s China potentially acceptable fire regimes in each program, and a local resident living in the ecological state, and fire regimes or actions village of Dazhuangke located within the that cause shifts, i.e. create a preliminary Reserve (during a day and a half visit in conceptual ecological model. What is the the Reserve); and (2) State Forestry long-term prognosis of the area under Administration officials, and scientists existing management and fire regimes? with the Chinese Academy of Science (during a three-day visit in Beijing). The (6) Brief qualitative assessment of fire Team’s observations in the Reserve were danger, fire risks, and values at risk to fire limited to the main trail in the Reserve in and around area. How might these that follows one of the primary drainages

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and is open to the public. The Team was also able to enter a portion of an oldgrowth stand of Chinese red pine that is closed to the public. The team was not able enter the core conservation area, which is closed to the public. Although the Team could observe vegetation patterns on slopes and ridges from the valley bottom trail, they were not able to enter this vegetation. The short duration of the visit and limited access prevented the Team from observing the full range of forest conditions at Songshan. The interpretations presented in this report are largely inferences based on the Team’s observations, their professional expertise and experience with fire management and fire ecology in ecologically equivalent habitats elsewhere, and drawn

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from scientific studies in similar ecosystems around the world. The Team was informed that there is a substantial body of ecological literature in Chinese that addresses ecological succession and vegetation structure and dynamics throughout China. The Team had no ability to access these materials. The validity of interpretations in this report will eventually have to be determined through a thorough review of the Chinese ecological literature, and the results of future studies and monitoring programs that focus on fire and disturbance regimes at the Reserve, and on effects, and responses of species, habitats and vegetation types to fire and other types of disturbances that occur within the Reserve.

General Information Songshan National Nature Reserve is located approximately 120 km northwest of Beijing in Beijing Province at latitude 400 32’ N (Figure 1); about the same latitude as Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. It is imbedded in the Yanshan mountain range and includes Mt. Hai-tuo, which, at 2200 m is the second highest mountain in the province. The lowest point of the Reserve (628 m) is at the southern entrance. Soils throughout the Reserve are derived from granite parent material. Granite outcrops are common, particularly on the ridge tops and upper slopes. Granite boulders protrude throughout the Reserve. The climate is considered temperate continental monsoon with an annual rainfall of 493 mm falling primarily in the summer months. Maximum recorded temperature is 39 °C and the minimum is -27.3 °C. There are approximately 150 frost-free days per year. The fire season extends from November to April.

Vegetation The vegetation is described as zonal mixed deciduous broad-leaved forest intermixed with pine and oak, and has been classified into eight forest communities (modified from descriptions provided by Reserve staff ): Oak forests ( Quercus mongolica). Widely distributed on shallow soils on steep slopes in mid- to upper watersheds (Figure 2). Pine may occur scattered throughout. Mixed Broad-leaved forests. This forest consists of genera typical of mixed-broadleaved forests in the northeastern USA: Tilia, Acer, Fraxinus, Carpinus, Celtus, Betula, Juglans, Prunus, Morus, Robinia. These forests are best developed in valley bottoms and lower slopes (Figure 3). There may be scattered pine throughout. Pine forests. Monospecific stands of Chinese red pine (Pinus tabuliformis) (Figure 4). These forests are scattered

Songshan Nature Reserve

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Figure 1. Map of China with provinces and location of Beijing Province and the Songshan Nature Reserve.

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Dry shrublands/forests. Widely-distributed on upper slopes and ridges. Consists of short-statured, drought-resistant trees and shrubs. Characteristic species are Ulmus macrocarpa, Syringa reticulate, and Armeniaca sibirica. Chinese red pine is widely scattered throughout (Figure 6).

Figure 2. Quercus mongolica forest in the upper watershed at Songshan Reserve. Oak-dominated forests are frequently the result of relatively frequent, low-intensity surface fire that removes shade-tolerant competition. As large individuals, oaks have relatively thick bark that allows them to survive the fires. Smaller individuals frequently have the ability to re-sprout if damaged by fire. The fire response and adaptations of Q. mongolica are unknown. Photo courtesy of Songshan Nature Reserve.

throughout from ridge tops to slopes and valley bottoms. Mixed pine-hardwood forests. Scattered throughout the Reserve. The Reserve staff consider this the most unique vegetation type in the Reserve.

Fire-dependent ecosystems are those that require fire. If they do not burn under an ecologically appropriate fire regime, they change to something else and species and habitats are lost. The vegetation tends to be flammable and readily carries fire. The majority of plant species have adaptations to respond positively to fire and they frequently have characteristics that facilitate the spread of fire.

Juglans mandshurica forests. Distributed in valley bottoms on better soils. Birch forests (Betula dahurica and B. platyphylla).. Distributed between 10002000 m; often mixed with other hardwoods. Aspen forests ( Populus davidiana). Distributed between 900 - 1500 m as pure stands or mixed with maple, ash and/or birch (Figure 5).

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Fire Response Categories, Fire Regimes & Fuels The Conservancy uses three very broad categories to classify vegetation according to its response to fire. These fire response categories are: fire-dependent, fire-sensitive and fire-independent (Shlisky et al. 2007; Myers 2006).

Figure 3. View of valley bottom and lower slopes dominated by Mixed Broad-leaved forests. Chinese red pine clumps and individuals are scattered in this type and grade into the Mixed pine-hardwood forest type. Photo courtesy of Songshan Nature Reserve.

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Figure 4. Naturally regenerated, even-aged Chinese red pine stand along main visitors’ trail. The trees are probably 35-40 years old. The low herbaceous ground cover may be due to the dense shade of the pine canopy, but many stands along the trail exhibited trampling due to heavy visitor use. Reserve staff are working to restrict visitor use to trails. Photo by R. Myers.

Figure 5. An aspen (Populus davidiana ) stand within Songshan Nature Reserve. Aspen is a genus frequently associated with fire, and fire plays an important role in the maintenance of aspen on a site. Aspen is shade-intolerant and does not regenerate under an intact canopy. Fire opens a stand and stimulates vigorous re-spouting. In the absence of fire stem density decreases over time and the stand succeeds to shade-tolerant species. Low-stature aspen sprouts are an important browse species for animals like deer. This food source becomes unavailable as the height to the canopy increases. Most aspen stands are clones formed from the sprouting from roots. This adaptation allows aspen to expand into adjacent burned or disturbed areas. Photo by R. Myers.

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Figure 6. Dry shrublands on upper slopes with scattered individual Chinese red pine. Shrubs are deciduous and leaves are on the ground during the fire season. Pine may be a component of this vegetation even without fire or major disturbances. Photo by R. Myers.

Fire-sensitive ecosystems are those where the species lack adaptations to survive fire or to respond reproductively to it. They are generally not very flammable, and fire tends to be a problem only during droughts or protracted dry seasons. A moderate amount of fire may be important in creating specific habitats and initiating successional processes and creating habitats that are important to biodiversity. In these situations, the ecosystem can be considered fire-influenced, but if fire becomes too frequent and/or too intense, it is very damaging and is likely to change the vegetation to a more flammable type, e.g. forests being converted to grasslands or shrublands, if ignitions sources persist. Fire-independent ecosystems are those where fire plays little or no role. They occur in environments that are too wet,

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too dry or too cold to burn. Ecosystems in this category can become flammable if they are subject to non-native invasive species that change fuel characteristics. A fire regime is defined as a set of recurring conditions of fire that characterize a given ecosystem (Myers 2006). Those conditions include the frequency at which fire returns to a given spot on the ground; fire behavior-the intensity and rate of spread of fires; burn severity-the impact that fires have on vegetation, fauna and soils; timing of burn-usually considered the time of year or season in which fires occur, but also involves timing in relation to meteorological or phenological events; type of fire-ground, surface, crowning; and pattern and extent of burning over the landscape.

The fire regime concept can be applied at multiple scales from a fire regime needed to maintain a particular species’ habitat, to specific vegetation types or vegetation structures, to vegetation patterns and mosaics within a reserve, or to a bioclimatic region (see Box 1). A fire regime may be only one component of an overall disturbance regime at a given site. Examples of additional disturbance agents that might contribute to a disturbance regime include: wind damage, flooding, insect outbreaks, frost events, or management. In fire-dependent ecosystems, fire tends to be predominant. In fire-

sensitive and fire-independent ecosystems, fire’s influence may be much more subtle and difficult to ascertain. Applying the general ecosystem response categories to the vegetation at Songshan, aspen and oak forests are generally considered to be fire-dependent, i.e. they are maintained or created by fire. Their presence and maintenance of these forests at a site require a specific fire regime that stimulates regeneration, frequently by resprouting, and that limits the competition of less fire-adapted, shade-tolerant species. Oaks generally have the ability to survive low-intensity surface fires as larger individuals, owing to their thick bark. Topkilled individuals usually have the ability to re-sprout after fire. The assessment team did not have the opportunity to enter the Quercus mongolica vegetation type and only observed a few scattered individuals of the species. It may be that existing stands will show multiple stems that may indicate re-sprouting after fire. Aspen has the ability to vigorously resprout after fire and will not regenerate in the shade produced by dense older stands. Its presence and maintenance on sites is usually a function of fire, but the current stands at the Reserve could also be the result of regeneration after logging. Reserve staff indicated the area had been actively logged as recently as 1960 (see Disturbance history).

Figure 7. Natural distribution of Pinus tabuliformis in China. The dashed line is the 400 mm rainfall isopleth, which is considered the northern edge of the East Asia monsoon climate. From Wang & Feng (1991) as it appears in Hongyan et al. (2002).

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Virtually all vegetation types have a fire regime, even those that are fire-sensitive or fire-independent. Fire, even if very infrequent, is a recurring event in most ecosystems. Altering a fire regime will change vegetation structure and species composition and may lead to a different vegetation type and species loss.

The broad-leaved forest and the other hardwood forest types, such as those dominated by Juglans and birch, fall into the fire-sensitive category, although fire may have influenced the current distribution and relative abundance of species. These

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Box 1. Historical fire regime of the Songshan National Nature Reserve: Statistical inference from comparison with the United States.

China and the United States occupy a similar global latitude and area that has inspired ecological comparisons between the two countries, especially in their eastern regions. Recent interest has focused on floristic comparisons resulting from shared historical and climate conditions. The intercontinental parallels in vegetation and climate suggest we might also find resemblance in historical fire regimes between the two countries since fire occurs as a function of fuel availability (vegetation cover/biomass) and fuel moisture (weather/climate), in addition to ignition source (lightning or human activity). Little is known about the historical regime of fire in China. The long history of human settlement and development in China has resulted in many environmental changes to its landscapes. Here, we infer the historical fire regime for the region of the Songshan Nature Reserve using statistical models developed for the United States. This model is not an endpoint; it is a springboard for further discussion about the importance of ecological disturbance in Chinese ecosystems. We were interested in determining what fire regime would be predicted for the Songshan National Nature Reserve based on its climate envelope and our understanding of climate fire relationships in the United States. The last 30 years has provided prolific scientific study of the causes and effects of wildfire in the United States. The Landfire (Landscape Fire and Resource Management Planning Tools Project; www.landfire.gov) initiative was developed to produce "consistent and comprehensive maps and data describing vegetation, wildland fuel, and fire regimes across the United States". The Landfire Rapid Assessment identifies a Reference Fire Regime predicted for all areas of the conterminous United States using five classes. We used global climate data and the Reference Fire Regime classes adopted by Landfire (Schmidt et al. 2002) for the U.S. to develop a preliminary assessment of historical Fire Regimes in China. The Landfire Reference Fire Regime classification uses five classes to describe fire severity and return interval. We developed spatially explicit statistical models to quantify the relationship between climate variables and the spatial distribution of each Fire Regime class in the United States. The relationships were estimated using generalized additive models (gams) with a binomial response in the R statistical program. The gams allowed for non-linear relationships between fire regime type and climate variables. The response data for each model was the occurrence (presence or absence) of a given Regime class in a 100 km cell; models were built for each Fire Regime. We used interpolated global climate surface data prepared by Hijmans et al. (2005) and Willmott and Matsuura (2001, using Willmott and Feddema 1992) to describe variation in 14 climate variables including: annual mean temperature, diurnal range, temperature seasonality, maximum temperature of the warmest month, minimum temperature of the coldest month, temperature annual range, annual precipitation, precipitation of the wettest and driest months, preciptation seasonality, annual water balance and moisture deficit frequency (Krawchuk and Moritz 2007). A final model was selected for each

Fire Regime class; the climate variables retained in the final model were chosen based on the principle of parsimony using the Akaike Information Criterion. Parameter estimates from the final model for each Fire Regime class were used with climate data to predict the distribution of the Fire Regime in the United States and China. A complete description of model development and concepts can be found in Krawchuk and Moritz (2007). The models suggested that Fire Regime II (short return interval (0 to 35 years, surface fire) is most probable in the Songshan Reserve region (Figure 1) based on its climate envelope. In the United States, Fire Regime II dominates in the central plains and eastern forests (Figure 1a). In grassland areas of China such as the Inner Mongolian steppe, this regime would represent replacement severity grassland fire, similar to the prairies of the central United States. In forested regions, this regime would represent the replacement of understory shrubs, grasses and forbs (surface fire), but rarely if ever a stand replacing (crown) fire. Overall, the spatial distribution of Fire Regime II in eastern China appears intuitively sound based on vegetation and climate patterns for the country. Contributors to The Nature Conservancy’s Global Fire Assessment (Shlisky et al. 2007) support the designation of the north and eastern regions of China as fire dependent. While the floristic analogy between the eastern United States (temperate, grassland and north-eastern regions) and eastern China is strong (Qian 2002), the same annual precipitation and temperature, their interaction and seasonality can also produce disparate biotic communities. Furthermore, the two countries are substantially different in the west (Guo et al. 1998; Qian et al. 2005). The U.S. is bounded by ocean on both the eastern and western edges, while China is adjacent to the large Eurasian land mass on its western boundary. The warm, dry, northwest Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region and the cool, dry, southwest Tibetan plateau in the Xizang (Tibet) Autonomous Region of China lack an analogue in the United States. The validity of predicting Fire Regimes into the climates of western China needs further assessment. Overall, further research into fire and fire regimes is required in China to understand the importance of disturbance regimes in the conservation of ecological systems.

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Box 1, continued.

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Box 1, continued.

Probability of occurance

Characteristics • 0-35 year fire return interval. • grassland and eastern forest. • surface fire; understory burn in forested stands, replacement severity fire in grassland.

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The predicted distribution of Fire Regime II in China and the United States. This regime is characterized by a low fire return interval (0 to 35 years) of surface fire. Grasslands would experience replacement severity events, and forested stands would experience understory burns. Stand replacing fire in forested stands (such as in the Songshan Reserve) would be extremely rare. The spatial distribution of Fire Regime II was strongly influenced by five climate variables: annual mean water balance, temperature annual range, precipitation of wettest month, minimum temperature of coldest month, and the annual mean temperature.

The Chinese red pine forests have some features that allow the type to persist and to regenerate after fire, but these characteristics are not pronounced (see Adaptations to fire and other disturbances). We are confident in saying that the species is disturbance-dependent, but not specifically fire-dependent. The dry shrubland/forests type, due to the harsh environment where it is found and due to its growth form, probably has the capacity to re-sprout after fire. It is difficult to categorize this type without knowing the regeneration requirements of its dominant species. The Team only had the opportunity to observe this type from the valley bottom and lower slopes, but we speculate that without periodic burning their biodiversity might decrease. Fuels in all of the vegetation types are primarily leaf litter (including pine needles), which are available to burn during the late

fall, winter and early spring. Crown fires could occur in the dense pine stands under appropriate conditions, e.g. high winds, low relative humidity. Scattered individual pine trees could torch when surface fires reach them. The Team was unable to ascertain when the fire season is at its peak, but we assume that it is in the spring (MarchApril) when leaves are on the ground, and the hardwood and shrub canopy is leafless, thus allowing solar radiation to dry surface fuels, and when daily temperatures and solar radiation are increasing. During the summer monsoon season, fuels are probably too moist and too shaded to effectively carry fire. Disturbance History Past disturbances associated with human activities were evident in the areas visited by the Assessment Team, and most likely are present throughout the Reserve. All of the vegetation was relatively young and of low stature, with few trees over 35 to 40 years of age. Much of the valley bottoms and lower slopes showed the effects of relatively recent, human habitation and use, i.e. abandoned in the decades prior to the establishment of the Reserve in 1985. Remains of home sites and what had been abandoned agricultural fields were evident. At lower elevations, the old agricultural fields tended to be occupied by Chinese red pine plantations, while naturally regenerated stands appeared to occupy these sites at mid-elevations. The latter suggests a rapid colonization of abandoned agricultural fields by Chinese red pine.

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forests are subject to, or can be influenced by, surface fires in the dry season when leaves are on the ground, but the majority of species that make up these forests do not have adaptations to survive fire or to respond positively to fire events. The vast majority of the species in these forest types have little resistance to damage by fire. Mortality and top-kill can be extensive, even from low-intensity fires burning in the leaf litter. Some of the species do have the capacity to re-sprout and others can readily re-seed burned areas or any area where the vegetation is removed or cleared. Betula and Robinia species are usually early successional, and their presence and abundance at the Reserve may be the result of past fires, agriculture abandonment, and other human-induced disturbances.

Reserve staff said that there had been no fires in the Reserve since it was established in 1985. The oral history of the area obtained from the resident of Dazhuangke village emphasized the fact that the 1930’s and 1940’s were periods of social upheaval

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and war that severely impacted the vegetation. Between 1937 and 1945, the occupying Japanese military repeatedly burned much of the area that includes Songshan to drive out resistance forces and sympathizers, and to eliminate food supplies. From 1945 to 1949 the Kuomintang (Chinese Nationalist Party) used the same tactics during the Civil War to drive out Communist sympathizers and fighters. People living in what are now the Reserve and its environs used fire to clear vegetation for agricultural use. This activity continued up to the time of the establishment of the Reserve. Some of these fires were reported to have escaped. Fuel wood collection and cutting of trees for lumber were also widespread. Reforestation efforts began in 1961. At that time the area was largely denuded of forest vegetation. The most recent fires in the vicinity of Dazhuangke village occurred in the 1960’s and in 1982. According to Reserve staff, the Chinese red pine forests had a long history of repeated exploitation for timber. In the 1960’s, logging was banned, forest farms (plantations) were established, and reforestation efforts where undertaken. There were some efforts to plant species not native to the area, but most of the reforestation focused on Chinese red pine, and the Chinese red pine plantings were the most successful. Because of the history of extensive logging and other human activities, few Chinese red pines in the Reserve appear to be older than 35 years. On the lower slopes in the upper reaches of the watershed there is an older growth forest of Chinese red pines that for some reason escaped the final round of logging in the 1960’s. It supports trees in a stand covering 150 ha that are reportedly 85 to 110 years old. The trees

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have an average diameter of 32 cm with the largest individual 86 cm. A sign placed within the stand states that some trees may have an age of 360 years. Regardless of the actual age of the trees, it is claimed that this is the oldest and best protected stand of Chinese red pine north China. The ground cover in this stand is severely disturbed and the soil compacted because the area had only recently been closed to the public. As a contrast, the Team had the opportunity to visit the gardens at the Summer Palace located just outside of Beijing. The gardens have groves of Chinese red pine, and the trees appeared to be very old and were considerably larger than the trees we saw at Songshan. They also had large flat topped crowns, which we did not see in the Reserve. The specific epithet tabuliformis, i.e. table form, comes from this characteristic flat or table-shaped crown. The trees at the Summer Palace gave an inkling of what Chinese red pine forests might have looked like at some time in the past. They must have been quite impressive. At Songshan, the Team observed no fire scarred trees, charcoal in the soil or other evidence of past fires anywhere in any of the stands along the access trail. Reserve staff maintained that they did not have lightning-ignited fires. Scientists from the Chinese Academy of Science (CAS) informed us that lightning fires are rare in China. The Team’s experience is that in many of the world’s fire-dependent ecosystems, lightning ignited fires are markedly under-reported in fire records. When speculating on possible “natural” or ecologically appropriate fire regimes in the Reserve, it is important to keep in mind the very long history of human habitation and land use in this part of China, and how human activities may have altered vegeta-

In North America, the temporal extent of human impacts on fire regimes is generally considered not to exceed 10,000 to 12,000 years. The actual impacts of human-induced fires on fire regimes and vegetation patterns are hotly disputed. Many fire management approaches in North America focus on the “natural fire regime”, i.e. the regime that would occur without human interference. “Desired future conditions” are frequently modeled on assumed or inferred conditions extant prior to settlement by Europeans. This management philosophy thus looks at a history of at the most 500 years, while in many places no more than 200 years. Considerable debate centers on the degree to which pre-European human peoples in North America may have influenced vegetation structure, species evolution, species abundance and the extent of firedependent and fire-sensitive vegetation through their land use and fire use practices. Nonetheless, strong arguments can be made that in many areas of North America, even those with high lightning frequencies, anthropogenic fires were effective in increasing the frequency of fires and may have markedly altered the seasonal distribution of fires. Altering season of burn and fire frequency can significantly affect which species of plants and animals are present, vegetation patterns and structure, and the areal extent of vegetation and habitats.

fact, in China one has to consider a possible hominid influence on fire regimes that predates the appearance of modern humans (Homo sapiens). Peking man (Homo erectus) was in the vicinity of Songshan between 200,000 and 300,000 ybp. Although evidence is equivocal in China on Peking man’s use of fire, elsewhere in Eurasia there is strong evidence that H. erectus used fire at a time considerably earlier than the dated remains of Peking man in China. Even if H. erectus did not use fire in China, there is still a history of over 100,000 years of H. sapiens in China. Agriculture and its associated burning was well established in China at least 4200 ybp. There was no evidence at Songshan of other natural disturbance processes that are known to affect the distribution and regeneration of pine species in other parts of the world, e.g. soil slumping and landslides, severe erosion following intense precipitation events, insect outbreaks, and wind damage. Reserve staff stated that they were unaware of these disturbances occurring in at Songshan. Clearly, the predominant disturbances over the past century at Songshan have been agricultural clearing, logging and fuel wood collection, and fire.

vegetation, fire environment & disturbances

tion, fuel characteristics and ignition frequency and patterns. This long history begs a historical perspective quite different from the conventional perspective that managers and scientists tend to have of humans and fire regimes in North America.

China presents a far longer history of human occupation and probable impacts on vegetation, fuels and fire regimes. In

15

characteristics of Pinus tabuliformis

3

characteristics of Pinus tabuliformis

Distribution Chinese red pine (in some older texts the name is spelled Pinus tabulaeformis), also known simply as Chinese pine, is one of the most abundant and widespread of the 22 pine species found in eastern Asia. It occurs in a broad, discontinuous band from southern Inner Mongolia and southern Manchuria to northeastern Tibet and Yunnan province (Richardson & Rundel 1998) (Figure 7). There are two varieties: Pinus tabuliformis var. tabuliformis, which is found in China except Liaoning Province, and Pinus tabuliformis var. mukdensis, which is restricted to Liaoning and North Korea. It intermixes, and likely hybridizes, with P. yunnanensis in southeastern China (Mirov 1967). It is considered an extremely variable species. Another closely related species is P. hwangshanensis which occurs at scattered sites across central and eastern China (Richardson & Rundel 1998). Richardson & Rundel (1998) state that little is known about the ecosystem processes that affect the structure and dynamics of any of these pine forests. The range of P. tabuliformis corresponds to the region in China subject to a summer monsoonal climate, and its range has expanded and contracted during Holocene intensification and weakening of the summer monsoon zone (Hongyan et al. 2002). Adaptations to Fire & Other Disturbances There is no available information on the role of fire or other disturbances in maintaining Chinese red pine, or on the effects that fire or other disturbances have on pine survival and regeneration. That notwith-

16

standing, fire is known to be an important disturbance factor, and in some cases an essential process, throughout the range of the genus (Pinus). Virtually all pine species regenerate in response to canopy and soil disturbances that create exposed mineral soil and direct sunlight reaching the forest floor. In many cases the predominant disturbance is fire, although there are a few pine species that depend largely on windfall damage, and soil slumping and landslides to create regeneration niches. Chinese red pine at Songshan appeared to have no obvious adaptations to fire. However, older individuals have relatively thick bark and can probably withstand the heat of low-intensity surface fires. Saplings can probably survive very low intensity surface fires. Seedlings would be killed even by very low intensity fires. The trees growing in dense stands self-prune, which would serve to keep the canopy out of lethal reach of low-intensity surface fires. If recurring, such fires would limit the establishment of shade-tolerant species under the pines. Also, the understory vegetation in dense pine stands tends to be very sparse and there is little fine fuel accumulation. This is probably due to the relatively limited availability of light. The low fuel loads and shading would also tend to limit the intensity of surface fires. Single individuals scattered in the lowstature vegetation of upper slopes and ridges have a different growth form and have branches that reach the ground. Their crowns are probably more susceptible to

fires that might occur in the surrounding shrub land vegetation. Chinese red pine apparently has the capacity to produce pollen and cones at a very early age, 1-4 years old (Mirov, 1967), which may be an adaptation to respond to fire and other disturbances. With the exception of the presence of a few younger individuals, all pine stands observed at Songshan seemed to be evenaged, i.e. they likely regenerated all at the same time when competition from other vegetation and pines was low and soils were exposed to sunlight. Most trees were the same size, except for occasional suppressed individuals. This suggests that Chinese red pine, as with most other pines, is shade-intolerant and needs exposed mineral soil and direct sunlight to successfully regenerate to any significant degree.

The distribution of Chinese red pine in the Reserve falls into at least seven categories: (1) Stands of pine on ridge tops and rocky outcrops (Figure 8).

characteristics of Pinus tabuliformis

Figure 8. Chinese red pine stands on ridge tops, around rock outcrops and scattered on a slope of dry shrubland vegetation. Photo by R. Myers.

(2) Scattered individuals and small stands or clumps of pine in the dry shrub vegetation on mid-to-upper slopes (Figure 8). (3) Scattered individuals and clumps in hardwood vegetation types on lower slopes and valley bottoms. (4) Scattered monospecific stands on lower slopes and the lower valley bottom that are plantations. (5) Scattered monospecific stands that had either colonized abandoned agricultural fields and home sites, or regenerated from

17

characteristics of Pinus tabuliformis

Figure 9. Monospecific Chinese red pine stand that probably became established after agricultural abandonment or regeneration after an existing stand was harvested. Although these stands are common in the Reserve, they are an artifact of past land use. They will persist in the landscape through the lifespan of the pine, which is at least several hundred years. Without disturbances like high-intensity crown fires, these stands will eventually be replaced by broad-leaved forests.

adjacent seed sources when existing stands were harvested (Figure 9). (6) Some older growth stands in the upper reaches of watersheds that escaped the more recent exploitation (see cover photo). (7) Plantations and former nursery areas in lower valley bottoms and slopes. Chinese red pine may be able to maintain itself on ridge tops and rock outcrops without any disturbance, except possibly vegetation dieback due to drought. The ridge tops and outcrops are probably the central habitat of the pine from which it will spread downslope if disturbances create suitable regeneration sites. Fire has likely been an important disturbance accounting for some of the current distri-

18

bution of the pine, but the abundance of stands on the lower slopes and valley bottoms are probably more a function of land use and agricultural abandonment. Other disturbances in the Reserve that may play a role in Chinese red pine distribution and abundance are landslides and soil slumping, and flash flooding after heavy rainfall. Reserve staff have never observed these processes. If they occur, they are likely rare and very localized. Ecologically similar species to Chinese red pine in North America are red pine (Pinus resinosa), pitch pine (Pinus rigida), table mountain pine (Pinus pungens), and Virginia pine (Pinus virginiana). Probably the closest analogue is Virginia pine, as the other three species have obvious adapta-

The hypothetical ecological relationships of fire, vegetation types, and pine stand dynamics at Songshan can be illustrated in a qualitative ecological or fire regime model (see Box 2).

characteristics of Pinus tabuliformis

tions to fire. Red pine has the capacity to re-sprout after fire. Pitch pine possesses epicormic buds that can re-sprout after fire and may have serotinous cones in certain parts of its range. Table mountain pine has serotinous cones. All four of these species, like Chinese red pine, tend to be found on top of ridges and on rocky outcrops and readily invade disturbed areas on slopes and valley bottoms. They can be maintained on any of these sites indefinitely by recurring fire.

19

characteristics of Pinus tabuliformis

Box 2. Ecological disturbance model for the Chinese red pine and related vegetation types at Songshan Nature Reserve using the Vegetation Dynamics Development Tool (VDDT).

Ecological models are useful tools in illustrating and summarizing current scientific and management knowledge, as well as inferences and hypothesis, about the dynamics of vegetation and fire regimes. Ecological models illustrate relationships between vegetation types and their disturbance regimes. The Vegetation Dynamics Development Tool (VDDT) is a public-domain, state-and-transition model developed by Essa Technologies Ltd. that provides a framework for quantifying the rate and effects of succession and disturbance on a landscape (Essa Technologies Ltd. 2007). The model (Figure A), representing a Chinese red pine (Pinus tabuliformis) ecosystem, has been used to partition the landscape into states (e.g., combinations of cover and structure) and define the transitions (e.g., disturbances and succession) that cause movement between classes. VDDT is a non-spatially explicit model.

Figure A. VDDT state and transition model of Chinese red pine (Pinus tabuliformis) ecosystem at Songshan National Nature Reserve in Beijing province, China. Five successional stages or classes are depicted: Class A through E. Descriptions of each class and disturbance regime hypotheses are:

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Class A. Early successional development: Primary species present are grasses and/or shrubs including young pine (Pinus tabuliformis) and oak (Quercus mongolica). I Canopy closure from 0% to 100% I Maximum shrub height at this stage of development is approximately 1 meter. I In the absence of disturbance this stage persists for approximately 5 years before succeeding to the next seral stage (Class B). I Disturbances include short return interval fires that maintain the stage as Class A. I With fire or other stand replacement disturbances, other successional stages may return to this stage (Class A.) Class B. Mid-development, open canopy: Primary species present include Chinese red pine (Pinus tabuliformis) saplings with oak (Quercus mongolica) and shrubs in the understory. I Canopy closure from 20% to 60% I Maximum tree height at this stage of development is approximately 5 meters. I This stage persists for approximately 15 years before succeeding to the next successional stage (Class C). I Replacement severity fire occurring on the landscape approximately every 40 years returns vegetation representative of this seral state back to successional stage Class A. I Mixed severity fire occurring on the landscape with an average fire return interval of approximately 40 years maintains vegetation characteristic of this seral state in successional stage Class B.

characteristics of Pinus tabuliformis

Box 2, continued.

Class C. Mid-development, closed canopy: Primary species include immature to mature pine (Pinus tabuliformis) occupying the overstory with a variety of shade tolerant broadleaf species in the understory. I Canopy closure from 60% to 100% I Maximum tree height at this stage of development is approximately 10 meters. I This stage persists for approximately 45 years before succeeding to the next successional stage (Class D). I Replacement severity fire occurring on the landscape approximately every 150 years returns vegetation in this stage back to successional stage Class A. I Mixed severity fire occurring on the landscape approximately every 80 years takes vegetation representative of this seral state back to successional stage Class B. I Surface fire recurring on the landscape approximately every 5 years maintains vegetation representative of this seral state in this successional stage (Class C). I Infrequent wind events would take this stage back to successional stage Class B. I Anthropogenic disturbances such as logging or agriculture would take this seral stage back to successional stage Class A.

21

characteristics of Pinus tabuliformis

Box 2, continued.

Class D. Late development pine, closed canopy: Primary species include mature to over-mature pine (Pinus tabuliformis) and some oak occupying the overstory with a variety of shade tolerant broadleaf species in the understory. I I I I I I I I I I

Canopy closure from 40 to 75 percent. Maximum tree height at this stage of development is approximately 20-30 meters. This stage will persist to the maximum life span of the pines Replacement severity fire occurring on the landscape approximately every 150 years will take vegetation in this stage back to the earliest successional stage (Class A). Mixed severity fire occurring on the landscape after 90+ years will take vegetation representative of this stage back to successional stage Class B. Surface fire occurring on the landscape at any interval will maintain this stage up to the life span of the pines. As mortality creates canopy openings and if the fire return interval permits pine regeneration an uneven aged pine forest could be maintained indefinitely. Wind events occurring infrequently would take this stage back to successional stage Class B. Wind damage, followed by fire, would take this stage back to successional stage Class A. Anthropogenic disturbances such as logging or agriculture would take this stage back to successional stage Class A. The absence of fire or other disturbance for at least the life span of the pines will result in this stage succeeding to successional stage Class E.

Class E. Late development, broad-leaved trees, closed canopy: Primary species include mature oak (Quercus mongolica), possibly with scattered old-growth red pine, occupying the overstory with a variety of shade tolerant broadleaf species in the understory. There may be a stage beyond this where the oak drops out and the canopy is dominated by shade tolerant broadleaved species. With infrequent disturbance this stage persists indefinitely. I Canopy closure from 60% to 100% I Maximum tree height at this stage of development is approximately 25 meters. I With limited or no disturbance this stage persists indefinitely. I Replacement severity fire occurring on the landscape at any time would take this stage back to Class A. Replacement fire would be considered an infreguent event in this successional stage (Class E). I Mixed severity and Surface fire would favor the oaks and stimulate pine regeneration at the expense of the shade tolerant broadleaved species. I Infrequent wind events would take this stage back to successional stage Class B.

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Model Run Outputs The VDDT model was used to perform scenario analysis over a one thousand year time period. Analyses were conducted using four specific scenarios. For the purposes of the simulation specific values for fire return interval and burn severity where used. 1. All fire (replacement severity, mixed severity and surface fire) and anthropogenic (logging and agriculture) disturbances included in the model run (Box A). 2. All fire (replacement severity, mixed severity and surface fire) but no anthropogenic (logging and agriculture) disturbances included in the model run (Box D). 3. Anthropogenic (logging and agriculture) but no fire disturbances included in the model run (Box B). 4. All fire (replacement severity, mixed severity and surface fire) and anthropogenic (logging and agriculture) disturbances excluded in the model run (Box C).

Simulation 1 Results from a model run using Scenario 1 (Box A) illustrate that over time, as a result of both fire and anthropogenic disturbances, representation of Class E, late development closed canopy broad leaf dominated stands, on the landscape becomes negligible. Classes B and C, mid-development open canopy and mid-development closed canopy pine dominated stands respectively, become the more dominant successional stages. Representation of Classes A and D, early successional pine stands and late development closed canopy pine dominated stands respectively, on the landscape would appear to remain consistent over time when modeled under this scenario.

characteristics of Pinus tabuliformis

Box 2, continued.

Simulation 2 Scenario 2 (Box D) outputs illustrate the potential effects of a fire management policy that allow a percentage of the landscape to burn in the absence of logging or agriculture activities. The results are a bell shaped distribution of the 5 seral states being modeled with the majority of the landscape being represented by Class C, mid-development closed canopy pine dominated stands. It is important to note that under this scenario a significant portion of the landscape is also represented by Class D, late development closed canopy pine dominated stands.

23

characteristics of Pinus tabuliformis 24

Box 2, continued.

Simulation 3 Outputs yielded from Scenario 3 (Box B) indicate that, over time, in the absence of fire the pine dominated seral states diminish resulting in a landscape composed predominantly of Class E, late development closed canopy broad leaf dominated stands.

Simulation 4 Outputs resulting from a model run using Scenario 4 (Box C) are similar to those obtained using Scenario 3 where over time the result is a closed canopy broad leaf dominated landscape. Of significance however is that the pine dominated seral states, Classes A thru D, are represented on the landscape to an even lesser extent than in Scenario 3. This might suggest that in addition to fire related disturbances, anthropogenic disturbances such as logging and agriculture may also play a role in the proliferation of pine on this simulated landscape. Results from the four simulations are illustrated in Figure B. Specifically the bar graphs within each scenario represent the percent of each successional class (A thru E) represented on the landscape at the beginning of the model run (Timestep 0), after 100 years (Timestep 100), 500 years (Timestep 500) and finally after 1000 years (Timestep 1000).

Figure B. VDDT model run outputs illustrating the percent of successional Classes A thru E represented on the Songshan Reserve landscape over a 1000-year time period for each of the four scenarios being considered.

characteristics of Pinus tabuliformis

Box 2, continued.

25

fire management at Songshan 26

4

fire management at Songshan

Fire management at the Reserve focuses on prevention and suppression. As a result of government policy fire use has not been an option. The largest administrative unit at the Reserve, in terms of number of staff, is the Forest Protection Division, which includes a professional fire fighting brigade and fire lookout towers scattered through the Reserve. In order to reduce the probability of fires during the dry season, the Reserve is closed to the public from November to April. Fire prevention is also a key component in the Reserve’s fire management strategy. A

prevention campaign is directed at both visitors and at the residents of the village of Dazhuangke. Furthermore, 71 members of the village (25 households) form a brigade of ecological forest guards who work in fire prevention and other management activities, and are available for fire fighting. This aggressive fire exclusion strategy seems to have been successful as no fires have been reported in the Reserve since it was created.

1. Future of Chinese red pine under current management regime The vegetation within the Reserve is in a state of early recovery from past disturbances that were very large-scale, e.g. large repeated fires, escaped agricultural fires, various land use activities, and logging. With the exception of an older growth stand that we visited, the age of most of the vegetation is probably no more than one to three decades prior to the establishment of the Reserve in 1985. If Reserve management continues to exclude fire from the area, this recovery process will continue, with some early successional species eventually becoming less abundant. Although disturbance needs to be recognized as an important ecological process maintaining biodiversity in the Reserve, there is no immediate need to allow or create disturbances through burning or allowing fires to burn. Over time, if the current management regime is maintained, Chinese red pine will become less abundant in the absence of fire or other disturbances, and the current pattern of pine distribution will change, i.e. pine may persist on ridges, rock outcrops, and upper slopes, but larger stands in the valley bottoms and lower slopes will eventually disappear and be replaced by broad-leaved forests. From its current state, it will be several centuries before there is a significant loss of pine. What will be missing are even-aged stands

of different ages and scattered individuals of different ages. In particular, older aged stands will senesce in the near future, regeneration of red pine will not occur in the understory as this is not the evolutionary strategy of the pine. Yet stands at other locations in the landscape will grow to be old. 2. Current fire management approach at Songshan Under current management philosophy throughout China, having any wildfire in a reserve or state forest is considered a failure on the part of managers. This leads to inappropriate management actions for ecosystems that require fire or disturbances to maintain their biodiversity and character. At Songshan, for the foreseeable future, there is no need to alter the fire management approach, i.e. aggressive and effective fire exclusion, but should fire occur it should be recognized that the fire is not necessarily always a negative to the ecosystems and not always a management failure, especially if a fire only affects a small portion of the Reserve.

conclusions & recommendations

5

conclusions & recommendations

At this time, probably the only change that could be made is to have Reserve managers and administrators recognize that disturbance (fire) is an ecological process essential to the maintenance of biodiversity at the Reserve. Should a fire occur at the Reserve, it can and should be aggressively suppressed if it threatens Reserve facilities, the community, or visitors, or will nega-

27

conclusions & recommendations

tively impact the scenic quality of areas accessible to visitors. All fires should not however, be considered ecological catastrophes, especially those that only affect a small percentage of the Reserve. With experience and a change in policy, management decisions on individual fires can focus on using natural fuel breaks rather than always focusing on aggressive direct suppression that is used today to minimize the area of vegetation affected. 3. Future fire management options at Songshan The Reserve could consider including specific quantitative fire management goals within its management plan that state (as an example): no more than an average of 1 percent of the Reserve should burn per year with less than 5 percent of the Reserve burning in any one year. Some years would have no fires. Information for visitors (signs, brochures) could discuss the role of disturbance. Any disturbed areas that develop along trails or are visible from overlooks or vistas could have interpretive signs that discuss the important ecological role of fire and other disturbances. These quantitative goals can be modified when fire regimes and fire effects are better understood. Such goals would acknowledge that fire is an essential disturbance process and would remove the stigma of failure if a small percentage of the Reserve burns over a given period. To gain this understanding, recovery from any fire should be monitored and area burn severity classes should be documented. Feedback from monitored trends will drive future management approaches and actions. Reserve management would eventually have to consider whether they want to

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have management objectives that allow for the creation of a dynamic mosaic of different aged vegetation that will conserve biodiversity and maintain Red pine in evenaged stands of different ages. Achieving this would require active management treatments using prescribed fire, and possibly logging, if prescribed fire is not an option. At this time, however, because of the young state of the vegetation, such active management is not necessary. There is time for study, capacity-building, and changes in fire management policy 4. Fire management options in China In our discussions with government agencies and scientists in China, we learned that the State Forestry Administration (SFA) does use prescribed fire in forest management to reduce hazardous fuels, create fire breaks, and prepare sites for regeneration. This takes place primarily in northeast China. Additionally, the Botany Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has been using experimental prescribed fire in the steppes of Inner Mongolian to evaluate its effect in halting shrub encroachment into grasslands. As a whole, Chinese society has a strong cultural view of all fires being detrimental and believe that all fires should be aggressively suppressed. Although fire is recognized by vegetation scientists in the Chinese Academy of Science as an important ecological process, fire occurrence in protected natural areas is still considered undesirable. The use of prescribed fire in protected natural areas appears not to be an option. What is needed in China as a whole, particularly in protected natural areas, is a review of the role of fire, the classification of vegetation types as firedependent, fire-sensitive, or fireindependent, and the determination of ecologically appropriate fire regimes need-

The Nature Conservancy’s Global Fire Initiative is promoting Integrated Fire Management (Myers 2006) as a conceptual framework for considering and managing fire for the maintenance of sustainable ecosystems and communities. It integrates fire management technologies with ecological needs of ecosystems and habitats, and with the socio-economic needs of communities that use fire or are impacted by fires. This integration can be illustrated by a triangle with three sides: (1) fire management, (2) fire ecology, and (3) the socioeconomic-cultural aspects of fire (Figure 10). In other words, Integrated Fire Management is an approach to addressing the problems of, and issues posed by, both unwanted and beneficial fires within the

context of the natural environments and socio-economic systems in which they occur. Relative risks of fire are evaluated and balanced with the beneficial or necessary ecological, economic and social roles that it may play in a given conservation area, landscape or region. China has a high degree of technical capacity to predict, prevent, detect, and suppress unwanted fires. Their fire organization and programs are very sophisticated, and community involvement in these programs is considerable. What is missing is the integration of this technical capacity and community involvement with ecological knowledge of the benefits of fire in fire-dependent ecosystems. Enhancing technical capacity to include prescribed fire and other fire use actions where they are appropriate, including inside protected natural areas, is a critical next step, that first needs to be supported by administrative policies and laws. Accomplishing this would involve a paradigm shift in the way people and reserve managers and administrators think about fire and how prevention programs are designed. It would also require training to develop technicians skilled in prescribed burning, and developing scientists focused on studying fire ecology and fire effects.

conclusions & recommendations

ed to maintain fire-dependent vegetation types and desired habitats. This information would allow planners and managers to design management scenarios to maintain desired vegetation types and habitats, and would better justify the use of fire in certain instances. It would also begin the process of gradually changing the way scientists, managers, administrators, and society thinks about fire and its effects.

Figure 10. Integrated Fire Management combines the full range of fire management technologies with the fire ecology of the area or vegetation under consideration and with the socio-culturaleconomic necessities of using fire and the perceptions of fire held by different segments of society.

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next steps

6

next steps

1. Translate and disseminate this report to TNC’s China Program, Songshan Nature Reserve, the State Forestry Administration, the Chinese Academy of Science, and other appropriate TNC partners. (GFI) 2. Gather information that will fill in gaps (much of China) in the Global Fire Assessment. (GFI) 3. Consider translating the Integrated Fire Management document “Living with fire…” and the Global Fire Assessment into Chinese. (GFI) 4. Designate a Global Fire Initiative lead for China and a TNC-China staffer who will have responsibility fire-related issues. Provide the latter with training and mentoring opportunities (some of which are mentioned below). (TNCChina & GFI) 5. Meet with TNC-China to discuss strategy and action options, and next steps. (GFI & TNC China) 6. Evaluate the role of fire at other TNC priority conservation areas in China, particularly those with pine species, grasslands, or savannas. (GFI & TNCChina) 7. Enhance TNC-China and staff of select partners; understanding of fire management, fire regimes, and prescribed fire

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by organizing one or more study tours of sites in North America that present equivalent ecological and management situations. TNC’s Maine Chapter, working with the Global Fire Initiative, has already proposed a study tour to sites in the northeast United States that are managed to maintain pitch pineand red pine-dominated ecosystems. The evaluation of fire at other areas in China beyond Songshan and Chinese red pine may suggest other areas in North America that would be useful to visit. (GFI, TNC Maine Chapter, other TNC Chapters) 8. Look for opportunities to include key Chinese fire managers who speak English to attend fire behavior, fire effects, and prescribed fire courses in the United States. These could be courses offered by TNC or by the National Interagency Prescribed Fire Training Center. (GFI) 9. TNC-China’s fire lead (with assistance from the Global Fire Initiative) will identify conservation areas where current fire management approaches need to be modified and identify managers that need to be introduced to Integrated Fire Management concepts and prescribed fire techniques. Consider organizing workshops to present these issues and techniques.

references

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references

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Mirov, N. T. 1967. The Genus Pinus. Ronald Press, New York Myers, R. L. 2006. Living with fire: sustaining ecosystems and livelihoods through integrated fire management. The Nature Conservancy, Global Fire Initiative, Arlington, VA, United States. Qian, H. 2002. Floristic relationships between eastern Asian and North America: Test of Gray’s hypothesis. The American Naturalist 160:317-332. Qian, H., Ricklefs, R.E., and P.S. White. Beta diversity of angiosperms in temperate floras of eastern Asia and eastern North America. Ecology Letters 8:15-22. Richardson, D. & P. Rundel. 1998. Ecology and biogeography of Pinus: an introduction. In: D. Richardson (ed.), Ecology and biogeography of Pinus. Cambridge University Press, UK. Shlisky, A., J. Waugh, P. Gonzalez, M. Gonzalez, M. Manta, H. Santoso, E. Alvarado, A. Ainuddin Nuruddin, D. Rodríguez-Trejo, R. Swaty, D. Schmidt, M. Kaufmann, R. Myers, A. Alencar, F. Kearns, D. Johnson, J. Smith, D. Zollner & W. Fulks. 2007. Fire, ecosystems & people: threats and strategies for global biodiversity con-

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servation. GFI Technical Report 2007-2. Arlington, VA, United States. Wang, S. & Feng, M. 1991. Environmental change and its relation to the SE monsoon in Daihai Lake, Inner Mongolia. Science China B:759-768 (in Chinese). Schmidt, K.M., Menakis, J.P., Hardy, C.C., Hann, W. and D.L. Bunnell. 2002. Development of coarse-scale spatial data for wildland fire and fuel management. Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRSGTR-87. Fort Collins, CO: USDA, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station. 41 p. Willmott, C.J. and J.J. Feddema. 1992. A more rational climate moisture index. Professional Geographer 44:84-87.

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