any plowed fire lines should be established outside park 

 boundaries . 



Wildfire was a frequent natural occurrence in this area 



before settlement. The only real danger from fire in this 

 area is damage to loblolly pine plantations. Mature hardwood 

 forest is essentially immune from damage by fire, unless it 

 recurs frequently. There is little litter accumulation 

 under the several climax forest types present on the park, 

 and any fire would only burn lightly across the surface in 

 these areas. It is questionable whether it is even desirable 

 to try to suppress fire on these sites. The only communities 

 on the park capable of supporting a hot fire are weedy and 

 loblolly pine successional areas. When fire occurs in such 

 an area the usual practice is to use fire plows. This is 

 neither necessary nor desirable, since state parks are not in 

 the business of raising pine for sale. Such fires should 

 only be controlled at park roads or boundaries. 



No harm will be done by destruction of young pine stands. 



Fire was a natural determiner of forest types on the uplands 

 in this area, and may serve to redirect the course of 

 succession toward fire-tolerant community types if it occurs. 

 Plant succession following fire can be interpreted by the 

 park to the public. 



^The only exception to the use of fire plows on state parks 



should be in areas such as Weymouth Woods where the dominant 

 forest type was a pyroclimax or in experimental areas where 

 fire may have been a lesser factor. This differs greatly 

 from fighting wildfires, in that park personnel can carefully 

 plan permanent boundaries of areas to be fire-managed, so as 

 to minimize damage to natural values. 



It would be desirable to do this on some small upland tract 



at Merchants Mill Pond since some of the upland communities 

 were probably fire-selected. Much of the present upland 

 vegetation may represent an unnatural grouping resulting 

 from 20th century fire-suppression. None of the slope or 

 swamp communities develop flammable litter, nor would they 

 have been dependent upon fire for their original composition. 



4. MANAGEMENT OF FOREST TYPES 



No management is needed for any of the slope or swamp 



community types in the park. These are natural climax 

 communities. 



Since there is historical evidence for the presence of 



longleaf pine ( Pinus palustris ) on some of the upland sites. 



115 



