Landscape mosaic of burn severity in the Yukon Territory, 2025.
Though this is not a tree-ring fire scar, for #firescarfriday here is an interesting pic of landscape burn severity patterns from the 2025 Rabbit Creek Fire (DA-007) in the Yukon Territory.
#FireScarFriday
Very old fire-scarred stump. The astute observer will notice two whitetail deer in the background. 🔥
#FireScarFriday
Teresa Hollingsworth (RIP) and I in front of a fire-scarred Douglas fir in the Axolotl Lakes Wilderness Study Area in SW Montana
Ledum and Lingonberry sprouting from a charred mound of desiccated and dead moss. Black spruce needles, orange in death, sprinkle the scene. Black char in background. Life after fire in an Alberta bog.
Rampant #wildfires in #Alberta have now forced several communities to evacuate. Our research sites remain unaffected, however, we know how quickly things can change and how dangerous it is for the crews. #firescarfriday 🔥Be safe out there, friends.
Forgot it was #FireScarFriday because I’ve been in the woods all week, but yes, this definitely qualifies. 😎
Live fire-scarred western larch
Snags with 7 visible fire scars
Snags with 6 visible fire scars
Stump with 2 visible fire scars
Belated #FireScarFriday post.
I saw some cool fire-scarred trees, snags, and stumps on my mtn bike ride today.
Those two snags have 6+ fire scars each. 🔥
A catface showing both fire evidence and CMT
From the central cascades in WA, here’s my #FireScarFriday, a beautiful example of fire suppression. I’m holding the outermost curl in my hand, and pointing to earlier scars that are just a few years apart! It also appears to be a CMT with old cut marks along the face. A beauty!
#FireScarFriday
Fire-scarred western red cedar trees as seen while biking (on a Friday) in #GlacierNationalPark two weeks ago.
Plus a bad picture of a mama black bear with cubs!
Why do fire scars form more on the leeward or uphill sides of trees? For #firescarfriday here's a little time lapse video showing the increased residence time of flame, and thus increased heating and potential cambial injury, in the eddy of air in the lee of this long leaf pine. Florida, USA, 2025.
#FireScarFriday
Me and the amazing Crystal Raymond posing in front of a fire-scarred incense cedar in the Lake Tahoe basin. 🔥
A tree cookie sawed off the top of a stump and laying on the ground. There is duff laying around the sample and disturbed soil where I had to dig out a bit of the stump. Red curved lines mark where the fire scars are located and the outermost curls are pairs from either side of an old catface.
For #FireScarFriday is a sample from WA state. A unique remnant with approx 12 scars! I added in red lines so you can see where the scars are. This piece was sawed off the top of a stump that was cut long ago. I love how the scars and pith were preserved but not much else haha! 🌲🔥❤️
#FireScarFriday
See this little guy? This little guy has five visible fire scars!
As observed in the Mica Mountain Wilderness, Saguaro NP, Arizona.
Stay strong, y'all!
#firescarfriday Here's Chris Baisan from Tree-Ring Lab in Tucson sampling a giant sequoia stump with several "eye socket" fire-scar catfaces. Record was 80+ fire scars in one of these; ground level in the past was higher, hence the whole socket begin visible.
flic.kr/p/QhK6pV
#FireScarFriday
Here are some pics of fire-scarred trees from Tall Timbers Research Station in Northern Florida. Tall Timbers land is burned every 1.8 years, on average. Incredible! 🔥
Reposting this on #FireScarFriday since we used >400 fire scar plots to determine that contemporary wildfires (1985-2020) are less frequent but more severe than historical wildfires (1700-1880) in forests of Arizona and New Mexico.
Read below and check out the paper!
🧪🌎🔥
Flames shooting out of the fire-scarred base of a longleaf pine tree during an Rx burn.
Flaming fire scars at the base of a longleaf pine (Pinus palustris) in the Red Hills of Florida USA. 04/02/25. Interesting how intensely these can burn once they get going. #firescarfriday
My last #FireScarFriday post ignited a fruitful debate around 🔥-scarred redwoods and sequoias being culturally modified by certain Tribes to create sacred spaces, an alternative hypothesis to their "natural" formation. Here is the "Four Directions" tree considered sacred by the Esselen Tribe.🌎🌲🍁🔥🌳🪶
IMO this sequoia was intentionally fire-scarred (culturally modified) by the Native Peoples to create a ceremonial space inside the tree, as well as to induce flaring of the base to enhance the tree's size and longevity. Or is this simply a "natural" occurrence? Your thoughts? #FireScarFriday 🌎🌲🍁🔥🌳🪶
Happy #FireScarFriday
My contribution...
#selfportrait #fineartnude
Happy #FireScarFriday & #InternationalDayOfForests
I celebrated by hiking in the Santa Rita Mountains, a sky island in SE Arizona.
Here are some pics of fire-scarred trees!
A person standing in a giant catface hollowed out at the base of a redwood tree. The person is approximately five and half feet tall and has their arms spread wide and cannot touch the sides now anywhere near the top which is out of frame. Green trees and ferns in the background.
Close up of an educational sign in the woods showing fire scars in tree rings.
An educational sign in the woods showing how trees form rings per year.
A throwback #FireScarFriday to this special catface I visited last fall in the redwoods. It had a short informational trail with some cool diagrams of tree rings and scar evidence. Science in the woods is 🔥🔥🔥
Photos of palm trees in Agua Caliente Park (Tucson, AZ) taken on October 26, 2024. The trees burned during a lightning-caused fire on September 28, 2022. Trees in the foreground are backlit by the setting sun. In the background is the park’s water feature.
Photos of palm trees in Agua Caliente Park (Tucson, AZ) taken on October 26, 2024. The trees burned during a lightning-caused fire on September 28, 2022. Looking up into the canopy of palm trees from the ground. The charred trunks are visible.
Photos of palm trees in Agua Caliente Park (Tucson, AZ) taken on October 26, 2024. The trees burned during a lightning-caused fire on September 28, 2022. The middle of this photo has a tree where one half of the trunk is burned and the other half is not.
Photos of palm trees in Agua Caliente Park (Tucson, AZ) taken on October 26, 2024. The trees burned during a lightning-caused fire on September 28, 2022. A close-up of the cortex/husk of a palm tree that charred.
🔥🌴 In Oct 2024, I observed the 75+ palm trees that burned during the Sep 28, 2022 lightning-caused wildfire in Agua Caliente Park (Tucson, AZ). The park has done a great job with restoration in those two years since the fire.
Check out the interesting burn patterns on the trees. #FireScarFriday
Moss, cotton grass, tiny black spruce in a sea of scorched peat.
Happy #FireScarFriday. Wildfires have moved through the boreal in Alberta with a regularity. Nudge them a little drier or warmer and that interval changes (as does C balance). This baby Black Spruce grew from a fire released seed: photo was taken 3 years post burn. Work here done with NSF funding.
A dead tree with a catface of burnt wood at the base. Much younger and smaller trees filling in around.
A full frame shot of the catface showing a flame like pattern to the shape. Multiple scars indicating frequent fire in the area long ago.
An upclose shot of the scars. Approximately 12 scars are visible and with a clear, regular periodicity to their occurrence. No “curl” is seen which would indicates fire suppression, the tree died before suppression took effect, which is wicked cool to find.
For #FireScarFriday here’s a beaut that’s now a remnant snag. Approx 12 scars, which is incredible for this area, and with clear periodicity in their occurrence, indicating frequent low-intensity fire was the norm for this area. Found in Riverside State Park.
An section of a fire scar cut out from the tree and labeled. The earliest fire scar labeled is from 1683, there are 20 more through to the most recent in 1847. The wood is old, in several shades of brown, and records a lot of history, coming from a tree that was already quite large in 1683.
#FireScarFriday, but its a Monday 🔥
I recently saw this sample cut from a burn scar at Blodgett Research Station, the last records here line up with the California gold rush.
tree rings showing fire scars within them
Consecutive-year fire scars on a ponderosa pine from the Chuska Mtns, AZ. This is a rare occurrence within trees in the SW, but more common in central AZ where ignitions were added by Western Apache. Likewise, multiple examples of every-other-year fire scars within trees. #FireScarFriday (belated)
