Regeneration of pitch pine (Pinus rigida) stands inhibited by fire suppression in Albany Pine Bush Preserve, New York

Pyrogenic Carbon Increases Pitch Pine Seedling Growth, Soil Moisture Retention, and Photosynthetic Intrinsic Water Use Efficiency in the Field

“…We speculate future experiments could involve jack pine (Pinus banksiana) with which pitch pine sometimes overlap sympatrically in the Great Lakes region, Maine and Canada. The scope of this investigation is limited to seedlings, not regeneration (Lee et al, 2018) or germination studies but at termination of the study we obtained results which allowed us to speculate as to what will transpire when these 6 year-old trees are more mature (say 10 to 15 years old). A previous model (Meigs et al, 2011) provides direction as to how one might scale up PyC application in mixed forest tests.…”

“…Reports of pitch pine response following mechanical thinning indicate scarification increases seedling recovery as a function of soil mineral turnover (North et al, 2015;Lee et al, 2018). Thus, a future key matchup between forest and anthropogenic PyC sorption of soil nutrients should comprise a comparison of disturbance (unrelated to PyC) vs. non-disturbance.…”

“…Researchers find forest soils react quickly to PyC dispersal based on substantial soil surface area (Sigmund et al, 2017)-exponentially greater than bare soilwhich accommodates greater nutrient uptake and improves soil moisture retention (Licht et al, 2017). Where wildfire is no longer experienced, such as in coastal sand plain pitch pine forests (Lee et al, 2018), and prescribed fire is employed, there is a need to determine if alternative sources may be found to replicate positive impacts of prescribed fire PyC. One prominent benefit is ecophysiological; it results from nutrient mobilization and moisture retention.…”

“…We conduct an analysis which determines it is a much more expensive intervention ($3,000 US/0.404 h) than prescribed fire ($300 US/0.404 h), but may be used on a limited basis (cost estimates based on a report by US Fish and Wildlife Service, Hadley MA, USA, 2013). Indeed, tree removal and soil disturbance may be as, or more, effective at controlling pitch pine populations than prescribed fire (Lee et al, 2018).…”

Can restoration of fire‐dependent ecosystems reduce ticks and tick‐borne disease prevalence in the eastern United States?

“…Prescribed burning in urban or suburban residential areas or park spaces (e.g., wooded parks, meadows) can be challenging where fire is not widely used, fire managers are inexperienced in the application of prescribed fire, and public perceptions of fire are negative. However, in areas that already have strong prescribed fire programs, burning in or adjacent to urban/suburban environments is common, with examples of such management in southern New Jersey (Warner et al, 2020), Albany, New York (Lee et al, 2019), around Charleston, South Carolina (Coates et al, 2020), and throughout much of Florida (Teske et al, 2021). Similarly, federal financial and planning assistance supports prescribed burning on private lands in these areas (e.g., the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service), either by consultants or private landowners themselves; however, legislation and a general lack of landowner understanding of prescribed fire remains a limitation on private land burning (Wilbur et al, 2021).…”