Fire Return Frequency in the Plant Communities of Avon Park Air Force Range, FL

ABSTRACT

The 106,000-acre Avon Park Air Force Range (Range) in central Florida has applied prescribed burns, wildfires, and mission-ignited fires to the landscape for land management purposes over its 57-year history. In the last 21 years, records have been kept of fires that have occurred, and this information has been automated into the Range’s GIS as one burn coverage per fire season (Oct-Sept.). The Spatial Analyst module of ArcView has been used to analyze the frequency with which fires have been applied and occurred by accident to the various plant communities on the Range, which include planted pine stands, natural timber stands, cutthroat grass lawns, and marshes. Results include definite trends based on the type of community, annual hydrology, the fire management officer’s preferences, and proximity to targets to which high explosive ordinance are most often delivered. The results also give an indication that some communities are not being burned as often as should be, and where adjustments to the annual prescribed burn plan should be made to ensure better prescribed fire application in the future.