Oaks (Quercus spp.) currently dominate eastern deciduous forests, but are widely percei ed as declining, with regeneration inadequate to perpetuate many stands. Most stands regenerated following fire in the 9th and early 0th centuries, and a lack of recent fire is iewed as contributing to the shortage of sapling and pole-size stands. But paleoecological studies pro ide conflicting e idence for the role of fire in the long-term maintenance of oak forests. Here I describe the methods used in reconstructing past egetation and fire regimes, re iew the results of pre ious studies, and present new results for sites from Virginia to Maine. Oaks ha e dominated mixed mesophytic forests in western Virginia for more than 6,000 years, with sedimentary charcoal le els suggesting a fire regime dominated by infrequent, light surface fires. The arri al of European settlers and a presumed increase in fire acti ity had little effect on oak abundance. At a higher ele ation on more xeric soils, increased fire with settlement caused a shift from oak to pine dominance. On Long Island, NY, oaks ha e dominated xeric soils for thousands of years, but with more fire than in western Virginia.

Up to the late 20th century, most ecologists tacitly assumed that fire was not an important factor in eastern deciduous forests. Nowhere is fire mentioned in E. Lucy Braun's monographic treatment of this biome (Braun 1950). Oosting (1942) likewise omitted any mention of fire in his survey of the successional and mature communities of the eastern Piedmont. Whittaker (1956) speculated that wildfire played an important role in the maintenance of ridge top shrub and pine dominated communities of the southern Appalachians but not in deciduous hardwoods.