Fire and the Prairie-forest Mosaic of Devils Tower National Monument

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Abstract
The pattern of vegetation types has changed markedly at Devils Tower in the past 100 years. Fire scars on ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa Laws.) at the Monument indicate that there has been a marked change in five frequency over this period. Changes in fire regime are clearly important in driving the changes in vegetation pattern. Studies of soil-borne opal phytoliths also indicate the presence of a stable ecotone in the past followed by a dynamic boundary in recent times. Changes in fire frequency from 1770-1900, a time when the Sioux were rapidly expanding into the Black Hills, indicates that native Americans may have dramatically affected the prairie-forest mosaic observed by early Europeans.