DOI: 10.25921/qbfq-kz55
title: NOAA/WDS Paleoclimatology - Copes-Gerbitz fire data from Williams Lake Community Forest - Ne Sextsine, central interior, Cariboo Region - IMPD CANES001

description: Indigenous land stewardship and mixed-severity fire regimes both promote landscape heterogeneity, and the relationship between them is an emerging area of research. In our study, we reconstructed the historical fire regime of Ne Sextsine, a 5900-ha dry, Douglas-fir-dominated forest in the traditional territory of the T’exelc (Williams Lake First Nation) in British Columbia, Canada. Between 1550 and 1982 CE, we found median fire intervals of 18 years at the plot-level and 4 years at the study site-level. Ne Sextsine was characterized by an historical mixed-severity fire regime, dominated by frequent, low-severity fires indicated by fire scars, with infrequent, mixed-severity fires indicated by cohorts. Differentiating low- from mixed-severity plots through time was key to understanding the drivers of the fire regime at Ne Sextsine. Low-severity plots were coincident with areas of highest use by the T’exelc, including winter village sites, summer fishing camps, and travel corridors. The high fire frequency in low-severity plots ceased in the 1870s, following the smallpox epidemic, the forced relocation of Indigenous peoples into small reserves, and the prohibition of Indigenous burning. In contrast, the mixed-severity plots were coincident with areas where forest resources, such as deer or certain berry species, were important. The high fire frequency in the mixed-severity plots continued until the 1920s when industrial-scale grazing and logging began, facilitated by the establishment of a nearby railway. T’exelc oral histories and archaeological evidence at Ne Sextsine speak to varied land stewardship, reflected in the spatiotemporal complexity of low- and mixed-severity fire plots. Across Ne Sextsine, 63% of cohorts established and persisted in the absence of fire after colonial impacts beginning in the 1860s, resulting in a dense, homogenous landscape that no longer supports T’exelc values and is more likely to burn at uncharacteristic high severities. This nuanced understanding of the Indigenous contribution to a mixed-severity fire regime is critical for advancing proactive fire mitigation that is eco-culturally relevant and guided by Indigenous expertise.
description: This site was sampled as part of a project to reconstruct historical fire regimes in the central interior of British Columbia in Secwepemcúl’ecw. 
Ring-boundary fire scars were assigned to the preceding calendar year.

Sample Storage Location: Sugarcane Archaeology, 315 Yorston Street, Williams Lake, British Columbia, V2G1H1
Dating Method: crossdated
Related ITRDB_Chronology: Not Applicable

Fire scar data from this site are available in FHX2 format at:
  https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/pub/data/paleo/firehistory/firescar/northamerica/canes001.fhx
along with associated metadata, including links to supplemental information files and Fire History Graphs, at:
  https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/pub/data/paleo/firehistory/firescar/northamerica/canes001-noaa.txt

CORRECTION MADE: On August 17, 2022 a correction was made to the canes001.fhx, and the fire history graphs depicting it: canes001-fire-hist-graph.pdf, and canes001-fire-hist-graph.png. REASONING: Sample 42-102 erroneously contained a 'D' (fire scar) in 1693 and no inner-most ring date. CORRECTION: the 'D' was changed to '{' (inner-most ring date).

Fire History Graphs: Fire History Graphs illustrate specific years when fires occurred and how many trees were scarred. They are available in both PDF and PNG formats. The graphs consist of 2 parts, both of which show the X axis (time line) at the bottom with the earliest year of information on the left and the latest on the right. The Fire Index Plot is the topmost plot, and shows two variables: sample depth (the number of recording trees in each year) as a blue line along the left Y axis, compared with the percent trees scarred shown as gray bars along the right Y axis. Below, the Fire Chronology Plot consists of horizontal lines representing injuries by year on individual sampled trees. Symbols are overlain that denote the years containing the dendrochronologically-dated fire scars or injuries. The sample ID of each tree is displayed to the right of each line. The Composite Axis below represents the composite information from all individual series. The symbols used to represent the fire scars or injuries, and the filters used to determine the composite information, are shown in the legend. These graphs were created using the Fire History Analysis and Exploration System (FHAES). See https://www.fhaes.org/ for more information.