FIRE EFFECTS
SPECIES: Quercus coccinea | Scarlet Oak 



IMMEDIATE FIRE EFFECT ON PLANT : 
Small scarlet oak are easily top-killed by low-severity surface fires,
and larger scarlet oak may suffer severe basal damage [24].  Scarlet oak
is less resistant to basal injury than black oak, white oak, or chestnut
oak.  Scarlet oak is often severely wounded even when the area of
discolored bark is comparatively small.  Fire wounds often extend far
beyond the region of bark discoloration [45].

Because bark thickens with age, the longer the fire interval, the
greater the chance a thin-barked species will develop bark thick enough
to protect it from a low-severity surface fire.  Scarlet oak is reduced
in number by short-interval fires because of its thin bark and slow
growth [22].

Almost all scarlet oak in a 23-year-old mixed oak-hickory stand in
Missouri were top-killed by a spring fire [37].

Acorns cannot withstand the amount of heat usually generated in leaf
litter fires [28].  Acorns buried in the soil by animals may survive,
although documentation of this possibility with respect to scarlet oak
was not found in the literature.


DISCUSSION AND QUALIFICATION OF FIRE EFFECT : 
NO-ENTRY


PLANT RESPONSE TO FIRE : 
Scarlet oak individuals, including seedlings, sprout from the root crown
when top-killed.  Individuals that survive fire often have basal fire
wounds.

Fire-wounded scarlet oaks sometime suffer a reduction in the rate of
diameter growth.  A severe fire in the Bent Creek Experimental Forest in
North Carolina resulted in larger reductions in growth than a
moderate-severity fire.  While unwounded scarlet oaks grew on average of
0.20 inch per year (0.50 cm/yr) in diameter, scarlet oak with 1 to 25
percent, 25 to 50 percent, and more than 50 percent of the base wounded
grew 0.17 inch per year (0.43 cm/yr), 0.14 inch per year (0.36 cm/yr),
and 0.09 inch per year (0.23 cm/y), respectively [23].

The mortality of oak trees from fire is often delayed.  Six months after
two surface fires of different severity in southern New York, living
butt-scorched trees (larger than 1 inch [2.5 cm] in d.b.h.) were tagged
for future study.  In the less severely burned area, 23 percent of the
tagged scarlet oak were dead 1.5 years after the fire.  Smaller diameter
trees, especially those less than 5 inches (12.7 cm), had the highest
mortality.  In the other area that burned more severely because of a
dense understory of mountain-laurel, 100 percent of the tagged scarlet
oaks were dead 1.5 years after the fire.  The authors concluded that at
least one postfire growing season must elapse before fire damage to oaks
can be accurately determined [54].

The density of scarlet oak stems generally increases after fire because
of sprouting.  Two growing seasons after two annual fires in an oak-pine
stand in the Cumberland Plateau in Kentucky, scarlet oak and black oak
stems increased from a prefire density of approximately 1,250 stems per
acre (3,090 stems/ha) to a postfire density of approximately 1,750 stems
per acre (4,320 stems/ha) [63].

If high fire frequency is continued, however, scarlet oak density will
eventually decrease as rootstocks weaken and die.  After 27 years of
annual burning in a Tennessee upland oak forest, both overstory and
understory stem densities of scarlet oak were considerably reduced [11].


DISCUSSION AND QUALIFICATION OF PLANT RESPONSE : 
NO-ENTRY


FIRE MANAGEMENT CONSIDERATIONS : 
Prescribed fire is often used to control hardwoods and promote
establishment of pine.  In a study on the South Carolina Piedmont,
spring felling of leafed-out residual oaks (scarlet, chestnut, and
black) followed by summer burning produced greater reductions of
dominant sprout height and sprout clump crown diameters at the end of
the first postfire growing season than did winter felling followed by
summer broadcast burning.  Spring felling was probably more effective
because carbohydrate root reserves are low after leaves emerge [17].

Because of the prolific sprouting of scarlet oak, prescibed burning
without additional use of herbicides or mechanical removal may not
adequately control this species.  Prescribed burning is not recommended
for hardwood control, including scarlet oak, for shortleaf pine (Pinus
echinata) regeneration on the Cumberland Plateau in Kentucky [63].

Equations have been developed to estimate the fire-caused mortality of
scarlet oak.  In order to predict mortality, a manager needs to know the
tree d.b.h., the height of bark blackening, the width of bark blackening
1 foot (0.3 m) above the ground, and the season of fire.  The equation
should be applied to trees between 3 and 16 inches (7.6-40.6 cm) in
d.b.h. [35].  Equations have also been developed to predict lumber value
losses due to fire wounding of scarlet oak [36].  An equation has been
developed to predict the size of a fire wound on a scarlet oak from the
area of the exterior discolored bark and the diameter of the damaged
tree [45].

Scarlet oak is a preferred species for shelterbelts around farms and
houses to protect them from fire in open country.  The row of trees
reduces wind velocity, filters out air borne debris, slows ground fires,
and readily regenerates after fire [52].

Related categories for Species: Quercus coccinea | Scarlet Oak