The Pine Plains: why a mature forest can stay short

Short trees with a long history

NJDEP’s interpretive guide explains the dwarf pitch pines’ ability to recover through sprouts and through cones whose seeds are released after heating. It identifies repeated, intense fire and selection for fire-adapted plants as principal influences on the low forest. Poor soils and subsurface conditions are listed as possible additional factors. NJDEP, The Pine Plains of New Jersey.

An experiment tests the soil explanation

A state bibliography summarizes Silas Little’s 1981 study comparing existing pitch-pine sprouts, seedlings planted after clearing, and introduced white-pine seedlings on the Plains. The younger planted trees could reach heights comparable to or greater than much older sprouts. Little interpreted the results as evidence that repeated wildfire, with a genetic contribution, mattered more than soil alone in maintaining low stature. 1982 Pine Barrens literature compendium.

That comparison is useful because it asks what can grow at the site under different conditions. An ordinary observation of short trees cannot by itself distinguish nutrient limitations, inherited traits and a history of repeated injury. 1982 Pine Barrens literature compendium.

Counting fires without misreading the clock

Kenneth Buchholz and Robert Zampella examined state records for 1953–1982. Their 1987 study recorded 19 major fires across the study area. For the Pine Plains, they reported an average interval of 2.1 years between fires somewhere in that area, but a 28-year random-point fire frequency based on area burned. Buchholz and Zampella, 1987 study summary.

Those are different measurements. The first does not mean every patch burned every two years. Keeping the geographic scale attached to the number avoids turning a regional fire record into an invented schedule for each tree. The forest’s form emerged from a patterned disturbance history, not a uniform clock. Buchholz and Zampella, 1987 study summary.