FIRE ECOLOGY
SPECIES: Acer spicatum | Mountain Maple 



FIRE ECOLOGY OR ADAPTATIONS : 
Mountain maple occurs in some habitats, sucah as boreal mixed woods,
which are at least moderately susceptible to fire.  Fire was the major
mode for stand replacement in these forests prior to fire suppression
[41].  Red pine-white pine forests in the northern parts of the Great
Lakes states have a fire regime of relatively short-interval,
low-intensity surface fires, which prevents the development of balsam
fir-white spruce-northern white-cedar and other shade-tolerant invaders,
such as mountain maple [26,42].  Laddering crown fires in pine forests
with balsam fir, spruce, and northern white-cedar understories prevent
the development of tall shrub layers of hazel, alder, and mountain
maple.  Fire exclusion is now encouraging balsam fir-spruce-northern
white-cedar types with mountain maple in the tall shrub layers [8,26].

Mountain maple also occurs in communities that are not susceptible to
fire, such as the red spruce-balsam fir forest of upper elevations, and
the mixed hardwood-conifer forests of lower slopes [26].


POSTFIRE REGENERATION STRATEGY : 
   Tall shrub, adventitious-bud root crown
   Ground residual colonizer (on-site, initial community)
   Secondary colonizer - off-site seed

Related categories for Species: Acer spicatum | Mountain Maple