In This Community

Important natural processes in the Mixed Oak / Heath Forest include

• occasional fire
• exposure to sun, wind, and storms
• processes that create extreme dryness in the soils
• canopy gap regeneration

In the Broader Landscape

Some natural processes—such as fire—act on large scales and affect more than one natural community at a time. No fires have occurred in Rock Creek Park in decades, but in the past fires set by lightning and Native Americans burned high and dry areas, including not just the Mixed Oak / Heath Forest, but also the Chestnut Oak / Mountain Laurel Forest. Most of the plant species in these two natural communities have adaptations that allow them to survive occasional fires.

In fact, these two natural communities can be grouped into a larger landscape unit that ecologists refer to as the Dry Oak - Pine Forest Ecological System. An ecological system is a group of several natural communities that share many of the same natural processes and aspects of physical setting. By extension, they may also share many of the same plant and animal species.