Brule River Preservation LLC Properties Fire History Progress Summary Kurt Kipfmueller & Liam Martin Department of Geography, Environment, and Society University of Minnesota–Twin Cities Brule River Properties Fire history of the Brule River Preservation LLC BRLF001 Properties. Each horizontal line represent a single BRLF002 tree sampled and and each triangle an individual fire event recorded on that tree. The black triangles BRLF003 represent fire years recorded across multiple trees. BRLF004 BRLF005 BRLF006 Fire Event BRLF008 Pith Date BRLF009 Inner Ring Date BRLF010 Bark Date Series ID Outer Ring Date BRLF011 Recording Year BRLF012 Non-Recording Year BRLF013 BRLF014 BRLF015 BRLF016 BRLF017 BRLF018 BRLF019 BRLF020 ���� ���� ���� ���� ���� ��2� ���2 ���� ���� ���� 25% Scarred 1775 1800 1825 1850 1875 1900 1925 1950 1975 2000 Year Figure 1. Fire history of the Brule River Properties. Each horizontal line represents a single tree sampled and each triangle an individual fire event recorded on that tree. The bottom triangles represent fire years recorded across multiple trees. ± Brule River Properties ± Brule River Properties Bois Brule River 2 2 1 1 17 17 15 15 16 16 4 4 18 18 19 20 5 19 5 20 3 6 & 7 8 9 3 6 & 7 8 9 14 13 11 14 13 12 10 11 12 10 X Fire Scarred Samples X Fire Scarred Samples Roads 0 0.125 0.25 0 0.1 0.2 5 Meter Contour Roads Miles Miles Figure 2. Maps of the Brule River Properties Study Site with the locations of the collected fire scar samples.
Brule River Watershed BRLF001 BRLF002 BRLF003 Fire history of the Brule River Watershed . This fire BRLF004 BRLF005 chart includes fire events from the Brule River BRLF006 Properties, Cedar Island, and the Historic Portage. BRLF008 Brule BRLF009 River BRLF010 BRLF011 Properties BRLF012 BRLF013 BRLF014 BRLF015 BRLF016 BRLF017 BRLF018 BRLF019 BRLF020 CIFS001 CIFS002 CIFS003 CIFS004 CIFS005 CIFS006 CIFS007 Series ID CIFS008 CIFS009 Cedar CIFS010 Island CIFS011 CIFS012 �state CIFS013 CIFS014 CIFS015 CIFS016 CIFS017 CIFS018 CIFS019 CIFS020 CIFS021 CIFS022 CIFS023 BHPF001 BHPF002 BHPF011 BHPF012 The BHPF013 BHPF014 Historic BHPF015 Portage BHPF016 BHPF020 BHPF021 BHPF022 BHPF025 BHPF026 BHPF037 1525 1550 1575 1600 1625 1650 1675 1700 1725 1750 1775 1800 1825 1850 1875 1900 1925 1950 1975 2000 Year Figure 3. Initial fire history of the Brule River Watershed. The fire chart includes fire events from the Brule River Properties, Cedar Island Estate and the Historic Portage. Each horizontal line represents a single tree sampled and each triangle an individual fire event recorded on that tree. The bottom triangles represent fire years recorded across multiple trees. Fires occurred at all three sites only in 1774 and 1791. Brule River Watershed: Large Fires 1.5 Lake Superior WET De�arture �actual�si�ulated� 1 N= 21 N= 21 0.5 0 -0.5 -1 DRY -1.5 Fire -3 -2 -1 1 Year Years �rior to Fire Brule River Properties WET 5 Bois Brule River 4 Reconstructed Drought 3 Cedar Island Estate 2 1 0 -1 The Historic Portage -2 -3 -4 -5 DRY ± 1500 1550 1600 1650 1700 1750 1800 1850 1900 1950 2000 0 3 6 Kilometers Figure 4. Map of the study area showing Figure 5. A comparison between fire events and drought patterns using a statistical procedure. Top graphic: The association between fire events and climate. Positive the locations of sites within the Brule bars represent wetter than average conditions. Negative bars represent drier than River Watershed. average conditions. Large fires within the Brule River Watershed are significantly related to regional drought (Clear bars that pass the dashed lines representing the 95% confidence limit). Dry conditions during both the year of a fire and the year prior are statistically related to large fire events. Bottom: A time series showing the relationship between individual fire years and a measure of regional drought (Palmer Drought Severity Index). The blue circles represent unique fire years and the grey and black lines represents tree ring based reconstructed regional drought.
Summary: The Brule River Properties forest experienced fires about every 10 - 15 years from 1770 – 1878. The Cedar Island Estate and The Historic Portage supported a similar rate of fire, however the fires tended to occur in different years. The only fire events that occurred at all three sites were 1774 and 1791. The first reconstructed fire occurred in 1576 at the Historic Portage and the last reconstructed fire occurred in 1918 at the Brule River Properties. Portions of the record appear to be absent from the data collected. The Brule River Properties samples do not extend past 1770, while the Historic Portage samples do not extend through the late 1800s. It is possible that the Historic Portage was logged circa the 1870s, which would explain the lack of data extending into the modern record and the comparatively young, 100-150 year old red pine presently at the site. Cedar Island samples appear to span the middle portion of the record, between the Brule River Properties and the Historic Portage. Widespread fires that occurred within the watershed are driven by regional climate patterns, namely summer drought. Liam plans to defend his thesis in the Fall and will provide copies of his thesis upon request. 2 1 17 15 16 4 18 19 20 5 6 & 7 9 3 8 14 13 11 12 10 ± Fire Scarred Samples ( ! Douglas County Wisconsin Historic Aerial Imagery: 1938 0 0.05 0.1 Miles Contact Information: Liam Martin: mart2493@umn.edu Kurt Kipfmueller: kurt@umn.edu
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