(with Kevin McCann and Roy Turkington). This on-going eight-year study has determined that fire is critical for coarse-scale ecosystem function within British Columbia oak savanna, but is highly destabilizing for populations of fire-dependent ground flora at local scales. Empirical data are being used to model the non-equilibrium chaotic dynamics of this system. One of the key drivers of population-level destabilization is the absence of C4 grasses, which dominate many other pyrogenic savanna systems. In those systems, fire promotes C4 dominance by feedbacks between litter production and fire tolerance. Here, fire promotes dominance by small-statured perennial forbs that, although prolific in growth and fecundity following fire, produce no persistent litter. Thus, forb dominance and fire frequency are negatively correlated. As fire frequency drops, grass and woody plant recruitment increases thereby increasing fuel levels. Fire frequency subsequently increases, grasses and woody plants decline, and the perennial forbs once again dominate. The regional species pool contains this full suite of forbs, grasses, and woody plants but locally, the system can fall anywhere along the forb vs. grass/shrub continuum.