Tar Run - USTAR001
Saladyga, Thomas; Lawrence, Nathan; Raso, Chance; Miller, Alysan

Dating method: crossdated

Sample storage location: Environmental Geography Lab, Concord University, Athens, West Virginia

Reference:
Saladyga, T.; Standlee, A. 2018. Historical Drivers and Contemporary Perceptions of Wildfire in a Post-Industrial Rural Landscape. Fire. DOI https://doi.org/10.3390/fire1020033. 

Abstract: 
Placed-based fire management planning that considers historical patterns and processes as well as contemporary local knowledge is recognized as an alternative to broad-scale, regional approaches. In this paper, we used dendrochronology and an online survey to assess historical trends and contemporary perceptions of wildfire, respectively, in the fire-prone anthracite coal region of northeastern Pennsylvania. We developed an annual index of fire occurrence and extent from 216 fire-scarred pitch pine (Pinus rigida) distributed across 9 ridgetop study sites for the period 1900–2016. In addition, we collected survey responses from area residents regarding contemporary perceptions of wildfire hazards and management. Our results show that 20th century wildfire activity was not associated with drought, but closely followed fluctuations in the anthracite coal industry, with increased fire occurrence and extent associated with times of severe job losses. Less extensive wildfire continues to occur frequently, with area residents recognizing the need for fuel management (i.e., prescribed fire) and an increase in resources allocated to wildfire prevention and management as well as trash disposal and recycling programs. Our research represents one example of an integrated approach to informing sustainable fire management that considers the link between historical patterns and contemporary perceptions.

NOAA/IMPD web landing page for this fire history site is available at:
https://ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/study/28035

NOAA/IMPD DIF and JSON metadata records for this fire history site are available at:
https://www1.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/metadata/published/paleo/dif/xml/noaa-fire-28035.xml and https://www1.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/metadata/published/paleo/json/noaa-fire-28035.json

FHX filename: ustar001.fhx

IMPD code: USTAR001

Name of site: Tar Run

Site code: TAR

Contributors: Saladyga, Thomas; Lawrence, Nathan; Raso, Chance; Miller, Alysan

Latitude: 40.757176 (WGS84)

Longitude: -76.240169 (WGS84)

Mean elevation: 510 (meters)

Country: United States

State: Pennsylvania

Region: Northeast Pennsylvania (Schuylkill County)

First year: 1882 AD

Last year: 2017 AD

Species name: Pinus rigida [PIRI]

Comments:
Fire scars occurring between annual rings (i.e., dormant season) were assigned to the year of callus tissue response based the preponderance of early spring wildfire in the region.

Fire History Graphs: Fire History Graphs illustrate specific years when fires occurred and how many trees were scarred. They are available in both PDF and PNG formats. The graphs consist of 2 parts, both of which show the X axis (time line) at the bottom with the earliest year of information on the left and the latest on the right. The Fire Index Plot is the topmost plot, and shows two variables: sample depth (the number of recording trees in each year) as a blue line along the left Y axis, compared with the percent trees scarred shown as gray bars along the right Y axis. Below, the Fire Chronology Plot consists of horizontal lines representing injuries by year on individual sampled trees. Symbols are overlain that denote the years containing the dendrochronologically-dated fire scars or injuries. The sample ID of each tree is displayed to the right of each line. The Composite Axis below represents the composite information from all individual series. The symbols used to represent the fire scars or injuries, and the filters used to determine the composite information, are shown in the legend. These graphs were created using the Fire History Analysis and Exploration System (FHAES). See http://www.fhaes.org for more information.