Fire Management in the Pine Barrens

Nicolina Anzalone
Stockton University, School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, Galloway, NJ, USA

Prescribed Burns Statistical Data Benefits

The largest forested area along the The formula that I used to determine the Prescribed burns have a more positive
northeastern coast of the United States is soil moisture was subtracting the wet effect on the environment then most
the New Jersey Pine Barrens. The Pine mass sample from the dry mass sample people think. In New Jersey, wildfires
Barrens are dominated by oaks and pine and then dividing that by the dry mass occurs during the summer seasons and
trees (Scheller, Tuy, Clark, Hom, & sample. We were able to get the dry destroys anything that comes in its path.
Puma, 2011 ). The trees that grow in this mass sample by putting the samples into Humans are able to prevent some
area have to be able to survive in poor an oven to extract the water out of the wildfire from happening by preforming
and acidic soil. Having prescribed burns soil. fire management practices. It can remove
in the Pinelands is an effective method Harvest Average invasive species from the ecosystem.
0.18
for forestry management. The purpose of 0.16 Invasive species have a negative impacts
0.14
having prescribed burns is to stop 0.12 on the native species that belong in the
Average

0.1
wildfires from occurring and to improve 0.08 Pine Barrens. It also has a positive effect
Harvest
Series1
0.06
the health for the forest. 0.04
Type on plant growth. Due to the intense burn
0.02
0 treatment, it enhances the growth of
Average of Thin Average of Clearcut Average of Control
Burned Burned Burned plants (Gray, & Dighton, 2009).
Harvest Type

Figure 3 is a graph that represents that data for the harvest types.
There was a significance between the harvest types. (Anzalone,
2017)
Forest Fire Average
0.16
A
0.155
0.15
0.145
Average

0.14
Fire
Figure 1 displays a control burn that was preformed in the 0.135
Series1
Type
Pinelands. (Gallagher, 2015) 0.13
0.125
0.12
Figure 6 displays a control burn that was preformed in New
0.115
Jersey. (Gearin, 2015)
Collecting Samples Average of Clearcut Unburned Average of Clearcut Burned
Forest Fire Type

I collected the soil samples with my
Physical Geology class during the late
winter of last year. The temperature
ranged around 30 degrees to 40 degrees.
The type of forest that the experiment
was in is a temperate coniferous forest.
Within this forest, the soil type is
spodosol/ ultisol.
The purpose of this experiment was to
examine the different types of fire
management effects on soil moisture.
Figure 4 is a graph that represents that data for the forest fire
types. There was a significant different. (Anzalone, 2017)
References
Gallagher, M. (n.d.). (2015). Prescribed Burning,
Terrestrail Carbon Carbon Sequestration, and the Accumulation of
Hazardous Fuels in Pine Barren Ecosystems.
Retrieved December 05, 2017, from
Prescribed burns help control natural https://njforests.org/prescribed-burning-carbon-
disaster like wildfires. Wildfires release sequestration-and-the-accumulation-of-hazardous-
large amounts of carbon into the fuels-in-pine-barren-ecosystems/
atmosphere. Comparing wildfires to Gearin, C. (2015). Controlled Fires Could Actually
prescribed burns, controlling the fire Save Forests and Fight Climate Change. Retrieved
does not have a large impact on carbon December 05, 2017, from
sequestration (Scheller, Tuy, Clark, http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/next/earth/controlle
d-fires-could-actually-save-forests-and-fight-
Hom, & Puma, 2011 ).
climate-change/

Gray, D. M., & Dighton, J. (2009). Nutrient

utilization by pine seedlings and soil microbes in
oligotrophic pine barrens forest soils subjected to
prescribed fire treatment. Soil Biology and
Biochemistry, 41(9), 1957-1965.
doi:10.1016/j.soilbio.2009.06.021

Anzalone, N. (2017). Fire Management. ArcGIS

Map.

Scheller, R. M., Tuyl, S. V., Clark, K. L., Hom, J.,

Figure 2 is a map I created in ArcGIS. It demonstrates the
location of each soil sample that was collected. (Anzalone ,
2017)
& Puma, I. L. (2011). Carbon sequestration in the
new jersey pine barrens under different scenarios of
fire management. Ecosystems, 14(6), 987-1004.
doi:10.1007/s10021-011-9462-6
Figure 5 is a map from a study on terrestrial carbon.
(Gallagher, 2015)

Anzalone, N. (2017). Fire Management in the Pine Barrens.