In the face of changing climate, the need for data driven management practices of Northern Forests, especially with respect to the use of fire, is becoming increasingly vital. Changes in climate, land use, and fire suppression attitudes since the 1910s have decreased the frequency and severity of wildfires in the region, shrinking and fragmenting the fire-adapted forest ecosystems. Some advocate that this absence of fire helps return the Northern Forest to a more natural trajectory following the high fire frequency of the colonial to industrial periods. Another interpretation postulates that fire is a natural and required component for fire-adapted forests, such that continued suppression risks loss of remaining, relic stands of the pre-colonial era. By reconstructing fire histories using a multi-method approach, our research seeks to provide context for wildfire, and aid in managing northeastern forests for future climates, based on historical structure and function, and use of fire as an adaptation tool. In the Upper Saco and Swift River Valleys in northern New Hampshire, we will combine tree-ring records from fire-adapted red pine stands, with charcoal and pollen analyses from nearby lake and bog sediments to build comprehensive regional records of fire from modern to pre-colonial times. These data will be disseminated to the relevant agencies and stakeholder groups, including the Indigenous community, to guide development of evidence-based forest management practices with respect to fire. Additionally, the proposed work will support hands-on experiential learning and training for multiple undergraduate students at Plymouth State University.

Publications:

Hynes, A., Doner, L.A. and Pendleton, S. (2025). “Fire and the Forest: Sedimentary
Charcoal Records of Paleo-Wildfires in New England”. GSA Joint 60th Annual
Northeastern/59th Annual North-Central Section Meeting, Abstract #: 407208.

Virginia Moore, Simon Pendleton, Elizabeth Hastings, Lisa Doner, Oliff Doiron, Gabriel
Talon, Alex Hynes, Mathew Coleman (2025), “13,000 Years of Wildfire History In the
Cone Pond Watershed”, presented at the NH-LIFT summit in Jefferson, NH [Aug. 19-20,
2025].

Simon Pendleton, Lisa Doner, Christopher Guiterman, John Neely, Jenna Moore, Maggie
DelBove, Oliff Doiron, Elizabeth Hastings, Alex Hynes, Aidan Gifford, Gabriel Talon,
Mathew Coleman (2025) “Tree Rings and Mud: An (ongoing) Collaborative
Reconstruction of Historical fire regimes in Northern New Hampshire”, presented at the
2025 Forest Ecosystem Monitoring Cooperative Conference, Burlington, VT, [Nov. 20,
2025].

Maggie DelBove, Lisa Doner, Simon Pendleton and Oliff Doiron (2025), “Reconstructing
Holocene Wildfire Activity in the White Mountain Region Using Paleolimnology”,
Abstract PP23E-1012, presented at AGU 2025, [Dec. 15-19, 2025].

Virginia Moore, Simon Pendleton, Lisa Doner, Gabriel Talon, Elizabeth Hastings, Oliff
Doiron, Alex Hynes and Mathew Coleman (2025), “Entire Holocene fire activity in the
White Mountains, NH reconstructed through sedimentary charcoal”, Abstract PP23E1011, presented at AGU 2025, [Dec. 15-19, 2025].

Doiron, Oliff, Doner, Lisa, Pendleton, Simon., DelBove, Maggie (2025). 12,000 Years of
Environmental Change in New England: A Dual-Site Paleolimnological Study. Poster
presented at the GSA Annual Meeting, San Antonio, TX, Oct 17- 22, 2025.

Chris Guiterman (2025) Historical wildland fire in the northeastern US as reconstructed
from tree rings. Albany Pine Bush Preserve Science Lecture Series, Albany, NY.

Chris Guiterman, Joe Marshall, and Mike Stambaugh (2025) Historical fire in the
Northeast as viewed from tree rings. Northeast Association of Fish & Wildlife Agencies
Conference, Bartlett, NH

Student Involvement:

Virginia Moore, Maggie DelBove, Oliff Dorion, PSU