Fire Scar Dates from the Pringle Falls Area of Central Oregon

Abstract

In 1982 the Silviculture Laboratory located in Bend, Oregon provided the University of Arizona's Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research with nine fire-scarred ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) cross sections from the Pringle Falls area in Central Oregon to assess the potential for fire history studies in that locale. The primary problem was to determine whether or not Pringle Falls tree-ring series could be dendrochronologically crossdated so that accurate calendar dates could be assigned to observed fire scars. The results of this study surpassed all initial expectations. The individual ring series did contain enough shared sensitivity for crossdating and the development of a Pringle Falls skeleton plot chronology. This chronology made possible the accurate dating of the tree -ring series and fire scars, resulting in an extraordinarily lengthy record of fire occurrence. This report describes the process of fire scar identification and presents the chronological record of dated fire scars preserved in the nine cross sections from Pringle Falls.