Fire regime in a Mexican forest under indigenous resource management

Abstract

Abstract. The Rara´muri (Tarahumara) people live in the mountains and canyons of the Sierra Madre Occidental of Chihuahua, Mexico. They base their subsistence on multiple-use strategies of their natural resources, including agriculture, pastoralism, and harvesting of native plants and wildlife. Pino Gordo is a Rara´muri settlement in a remote location where the forest has not been commercially logged. We reconstructed the forest fire regime from firescarred trees, measured the structure of the never-logged forest, and interviewed community members about fire use. Fire occurrence was consistent throughout the 19th and 20th centuries up to our fire scar collection in 2004. This is the least interrupted surface-fire regime reported to date in North America. Studies from other relict sites such as nature reserves in Mexico or the USA have all shown some recent alterations associated with industrialized society. At Pino Gordo, fires recurred frequently at the three study sites, with a composite mean fire interval of 1.9 years (all fires) to 7.6 years (fires scarring 25% or more of samples). Per-sample fire intervals averaged 10-14 years at the three sites. Approximately two-thirds of fires burned in the season of cambial dormancy, probably during the pre-monsoonal drought. Forests were dominated by pines and contained many large living trees and snags, in contrast to two nearby similar forests that have been logged. Community residents reported using fire for many purposes, consistent with previous literature on fire use by indigenous people. Pino Gordo is a valuable example of a continuing frequent-fire regime in a never-harvested forest. The Rara´muri people have actively conserved this forest through their traditional livelihood and management techniques, as opposed to logging the forest, and have also facilitated the fire regime by burning. The data contribute to a better understanding of the interactions of humans who live in pine forests and the fire regimes of these ecosystems, a topic that has been controversial and difficult to assess from historical or paleoecological evidence.

Dendrocronopirología: Análisis De La Evidencia Morfológica De Incendios Forestales

“…Sus resultados evidencian que las principales causas de cambio en la frecuencia y severidad de los incendios se deben, principalmente, a los cambios de uso de suelo, desarrollo de infraestructura, políticas de supresión y variaciones de temperatura y precipitación asociadas al cambio climático. Lo que ha derivado en alteraciones significativas en los patrones y procesos de los ecosistemas, en la estructura y composición, así como en la resiliencia de los mismos (Heyerdahl y Alvarado, 2003;Brown et al , 2008;Nowacki y Abrams, 2008;González et al, 2008;Rodríguez, 2008;Brown, 2010;Yocom et al, 2010;Fulé et al, 2011;Williams y Baker, 2012).…”

“…Their results show that the main causes of changes in the frequency and severity of fires are mainly due to changes in land use, infrastructure development, political suppression and changes in temperature and precipitation associated with climate change. What has led to significant changes in the patterns and ecosystem processes in the structure and composition as well as the resilience of these (Heyerdahl and Alvarado, 2003;Brown et al, 2008;Nowacki and Abrams, 2008;González et al, 2008;Rodríguez, 2008, Brown, 2010Yocom et al , 2010;Fulé et al , 2011;Williams and Baker, 2012).…”

“…Therefore, the variability in the rate of forest fires should be regarded as a key aspect in management programs of fire, for their impact on conservation and environmental stability (Fulé et al, 2005;Fulé et al, 2011;Touchan et al, 2012). Thus, the responsible use of fire requires an understanding not only of the handler on how to apply this tool to achieve management objectives, but also to recognize the side effects it produces (Moser and Wade, 2005).…”

“…Es por ello, que la variabilidad en el régimen de los incendios forestales debe ser considerada como aspecto clave en los programas de manejo de fuego, por su impacto en la conservación y estabilidad ambiental (Fulé et al, 2005;Fulé et al, 2011;Touchan et al, 2012). Por consiguiente, el uso responsable del fuego no solo requiere del entendimiento del operador en cómo aplicar esta herramienta para alcanzar objetivos de manejo, sino también en reconocer los efectos secundarios que produce (Moser y Wade, 2005).…”

Linking old‐growth forest composition, structure, fire history, climate and land‐use in the mountains of northern México

“…Despite the limited information about its biological and ecological systems, it has been estimated that temperate forests of the SMOc have a plant endemism rate of 70%, the highest identified for all vegetation types in México (Felger et al 1997). Its temperate forests also offer unique opportunities to study systems with maintained fire frequencies that in some cases have remained unaltered into the 21st century (Fulé et al 2011, Fulé et al 2012.…”