It's an excellent point. I think some of both. There are ctnaeirly areas that will burn almost annually and other that will rarely, if ever, burn because of soil moisture, topography, the type of trees above them, etc. However, there are other factors that determine which will burn as well, including the wind conditions when leaves fall (where will the oak leaves fall from a particular tree), weather conditions before and during the burn, and many others. I would guess that the most likely scenario is that a subset of patches will burn annually, a large number of patches will burn periodically, and some areas will rarely or never burn. If so, that would create heterogeneity of plant communities, provide refuges for species that are intolerant of fire, and make pretty good conditions for biological diversity overall. Because the patches that burn or don't burn are often small (living room size, more or less) and interspersed with each other, there's a good chance that species will be able to move around and find patches that suit them best. And the neighboring properties would have different management treatments, further adding to heterogeneity. Chris
