Mixed Mesophytic Hardwood Fire Regime

The hardwood forests of the Appalachian and Ozark Mountains and the upland hardwoods of the Coastal Plain and Piedmont have been grazed and burned regularly from the time of earliest settlement (Van Lear and Waldrop 1989). In the absence of fire, a mixed mesophytic forest develops. Although little is known about presettlement fire, it appears that fire was much more common in the mesophytic forests west of the Appalachian divide than in those to the east (Harmon 1984).