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WORLDWIDE
FOREST/BIODIVERSITY CAMPAIGN NEWS
Fire is
Good for Many Forests in the Long Term
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Forest Networking a Project of Forests.org
http://forests.org/ -- Forest
Conservation Archives & Portal
10/18/00
OVERVIEW
& COMMENTARY
In all
but the most extreme cases, fires are good for forests. There
are of
course exceptions-including most tropical forests. However,
it is
clear that the fires that raged throughout the arid Western
region
of the United States this past summer are going to bring
ecological
renewal. Fire is a very important
natural disturbance
that
maintains and renews most temperate ecosystems, albeit at
different
periodicities. Following are two
supportive articles for
these
contentions. The first shows that
contrary to the alarmist
press
coverage over the summer, the Western fires in many cases
appear
to have laid the basis for significant improvement in habitat
quality. The second details the amazing ecological
reawakening that
has
occurred in the Yellowstone ecosystem; where some 12 years ago
over
1/3 of the park burned, and yet the natural regeneration
following
this major fire has been called "incredible", and is
plainly
and indisputably evident.
The
presumed ills of fires, even when severe and widespread, are
overblown;
with much of the economic and social costs resulting from
inappropriate
placement of dwellings within forested landscapes. The
restorative
ecological powers of natural disturbances such as
periodic
fires are critical in maintaining and renewing many forest
ecosystems,
and must not be hindered. Logging
forests to prevent
natural
periodic fires, as is being earnestly pursued to give a false
sense
that something is being done, particularly during drought
years,
is unnecessary and counterproductive.
It would be criminally,
ecologically
devastating to allow increased logging in order to
"prevent"
such restorative natural processes. In
this case, nature
knows
best. We absolutely must "learn to
live with fire in the West
instead
of trying to control it." To do
otherwise dooms the Western
landscape
to intensified, spiraling ecological decline.
g.b.
P.S. An Action Alert by Forests.org on the
Internet at:
http://forests.org/emailaction/usfires_sept_00.htm
is still
applicable. Please take the time to let President
Clinton know that
commercial
logging causes, not prevents, forest fires.
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ITEM #1
Title: Biologists say fire is good for forest in
the long term
Source: Associated Press, Copyright 2000
Date: October 6, 2000
While
the untrained eye might see only doom and disaster in the
charred
trees and black mud washed into Ludwig Creek by last
weekend's
rains, others see future food for fish.
"Some
people have blown this up into a much bigger deal than it
really
is," Salmon Fish and Game fishery biologist Mike Larkin told
Fish
and Game commissioners Wednesday while touring areas charred by
the
338-square-mile Clear Creek Fire.
The
commissioners, who held their monthly meeting in Salmon, toured
the
burned area by land and by helicopter to learn about its affects
on fish
and wildlife.
What
they learned is that in the short term, fish and wildlife will
be
harmed, but in the long run, the fire will have created more or
better
habitat for fish, deer and elk.
Despite
reports of Panther Creek and Little Deer Creek in the
Salmon-Challis
National Forest running "black like tar" last weekend,
a
helicopter flight over the fire reassured most of the
commissioners.
"Where
it's bad, it's terrible, but it's not as devastated as I
thought
it would be," said Commissioner Marcus Gibbs from Grace.
"From
a wildlife standpoint I'm not worried."
The
Clear Creek Fire burned in a mosaic, marked by different degrees
of
intensity. About 5 percent of the area, much of it in watersheds
and elk
winter range, was burned to a crisp, while about 25 percent
burned
with moderate intensity.
About
70 percent of the 216,000 acres burned at low intensity or not
at all.
Studies
show sediment uncovered by fires clogs streams for a few
years,
but then provides long-term, nutrient-rich habitat for fish.
Downed
trees also provide cover and sediment traps in streams. While
Forest
Service employees could not quantify the number of animals
killed
by the blaze, they reported finding at least three dead
cougars.
Among them was a female with kittens. There are also reports
of elk
dying in areas where the fire made big, fast runs and of an
unusual
number of lone bear cubs.
One cub
has turned to begging for food from bulldozer operators
rehabilitating
fire lines, said Terry Hershey, ranger for the Salmon-
Cobalt
district.
Commissioners
are concerned with how elk and deer will fare this
winter.
The Clear Creek Fire and fires in the Frank Church-River of
No
Return Wilderness burned some of their prime winter habitat.
The
severity of the winter and how the animals respond to the missing
habitat
will determine how well they survive the winter, biologists
said.
Some
commissioners said feeding elk herds this winter is an option to
be
considered.
"The
bad thing is they went through drought this summer so they are
not
going into the winter in very good shape; those that do survive
won't
be in very good shape," said Salmon-Cobalt District ranger
Terry
Hershey. "But that's just short term; in the long term this
should
be the best thing that's happened to this country in a long
time."
ITEM #2
Title: Years later, park shows landscape can
recover fast from fires
Source: Associated Press, Copyright 2000
Date: October 18, 2000
By: JAN FALSTAD, The Billings Gazette
Stepping
over the blackened skeletons of trees felled by savage winds
and
fires in the mid-1980s, Yellowstone National Park biologist Roy
Renkin
recalls when scientists wondered whether the burned area would
ever
grow a forest again.
"This
was torched as black as the bottom of a barbecue grill," he
says.
Renkin,
caressing a soft branch of a 6-foot lodgepole pine growing
back in
one of the worst burn sites, calls the reforestation over the
past 12
years "incredible."
After
the world watched more than one-third of Yellowstone Park burn
in
1988, a group of scientists from different disciplines thought, at
best,
this area might lack vegetation for decades. But the land took
a
different route, the grasses and wildflowers returning the first
spring.
During
the volatile first year of the new century, more than 82,000
wildfires
burned 6.9 million acres across America. While Yellowstone
is a
special case - a national park lying atop an alpine plateau
framed
by rugged mountains - this land's recovery may demonstrate how
quickly
other burned landscapes rebound.
"An
important post-fire lesson is that geology has a lot to do with
what
plants grow where," Renkin says. "Forest species grow in forest-
friendly
soils. Meadow plants grow in meadow lands."
An area
between Canyon and Norris in the center of Yellowstone
probably
burned the hottest of any spot in the park's 1988 fires.
A
tornado or rogue wind blew down 660 acres of trees in 1984. The
downed
timber rotted and dried out for four years and when the flames
of the
North Fork fire hit in 1988, the fire had a happy home.
Instead
of burning erect lodgepole pines and moving on, the fire
settled
in to feast on the downed drought-dried timber, smoldering
for
days and searing the ground. The fire vaporized the organic
matter
from the soil's upper layers under rotten logs, burning as hot
as
1,200 degrees Fahrenheit over some 800 acres - one-tenth of 1
percent
of the park. Some thought the blow-down area would remain
sterile,
perhaps for decades.
Renkin
and Don Despain have studied vegetation in Yellowstone for
three
decades. Despain is a researcher and assistant professor at the
U.S.
Geological Survey's Northern Rocky Mountain Science Center in
Bozeman.
The pair often work together on research projects.
Twelve
years ago as the Yellowstone fires burned, Despain and Renkin
raced
around the park measuring off 15-meter by 25-meter plots. They
counted
the trees within the plot lines and recorded the forest's
vegetation
before the fires hit, then counted seedlings and measured
plant
cover through the years.
At the
Canyon blow down, the scientists counted growth the year after
the
fire, as the grass, sedges and flowers were coming back. The
grasses
grew widely spaced across the burn area. However, the trees
came
back thicker at the edges of the blow down than in the middle.
That's
because there was no seed source in the middle of the blow
down
and lodgepole pine seeds don't travel far.
But
lodgepole pine is supremely adapted to fire. Many of the trees
produce
a resin that keeps the seeds inside the mature cones until
heated
by a fire. A tree crown can store up to 30 years of seed,
waiting
to be released by the next fire.
Peering
out over the blow-down area, Renkin recalls how bleak
everything
looked after the fires of '88. Despain remembers standing
with
scientists of all disciplines, wondering what would happen in
years
to come.
"They
said, 'This area burned so hot, it might become a meadow.'
Well,
this reforestation was a surprise to those people because I
tried
to say, 'Don't say that.' This is forest soil and forest plants
will
come back," Despain says.
You
cannot understand how a tree grows back without understanding the
forces
that built the soil.
Glaciers
and volcanoes carved the lands of Yellowstone National Park
and
helped to create its unique geology.
Yellowstone
sits atop a huge, quite active, volcano.
The
last violent eruption, a mere 600,000 years ago, blew an enormous
crater
40 miles across inside the park boundary. Along with other
monster
forces like climate and elevation, it determined the park's
vegetation.
But
fire and drought have changed parts of these landscapes
overnight,
in geologic time.
Mix
wind with the twin forces of record-setting drought and heat in
the
West and fire is inevitable. That's what happened during the
firestorms
in Yellowstone in 1988. And that's what has changed one
man's
perception of nature' s power.
"In
1987, if you told me that a fire at the southwestern boundary of
the
park would burn up to and out of the north side of Yellowstone,
I'd
have said, 'No way.' Now I know it could happen," says Renkin,
speaking
about the North Fork fire, Yellowstone's largest, which
consumed
531,000 acres.
Another
lesson from Yellowstone Park is that replacing topsoil on
bulldozer
or hand-dug fire lines makes a big difference.
"If
they put the topsoil back where it came from, it has the
nutrients
the plants need and the seeds," Despain said. "If they put
that
back on top, the plants will recover relatively quickly."
A
couple of miles from the blow down, Renkin points to the 1948 Peter
Kewitt
fire, named after the construction company whose worker
started
the blaze while building roads and campsites.
He
points to a fire line that remains clearly visible like a road
leading
into the forest.
"You
look around a half-century later and look at the vegetative
growth
in here. It's almost nonexistent. This scar on our forest
lands
will be evident for centuries," Renkin says. "If left to their
own
development, the plant community can respond to the fire, but
they
have a hard time responding to our behavior."
For
burn areas across the West, Renkin agrees with Despain that
replacing
topsoil is paramount where heavy fire-fighting tactics are
used.
Erosion control measures, like installing water bars or logs,
across
steep slopes can make a big difference.
And
Renkin said fighting weeds immediately after a fire is crucial,
especially
in last summer's burns across the West, before rains
nourish
Despain
says scientists almost to a person agree on one key point:
fire
has been a part of the Western landscape for centuries and will
always
be a neighbor.
"Ecologically
and biologically, the fires have little effect,"
Despain
says. "The area wasn't stripped of all life by the fire."
Despain
said he has one other piece of advice for people living or
visiting
the fire areas of the West.
"Enjoy
the flower show starting next spring," Despain said. "What
research
I have done is on lupine and it tripled after the fires."
Flowers
may blossom, but the dark snags or burned trees may stand as
forest
sentinels - a reminder of fire's power - for half a century or
more
before falling over.
Both
Yellowstone scientists agree that talk of logging forests
outside
national parks to keep deadfall from accumulating doesn't
address
the central question of drought. After three years of drought
-
including a summer drier than any in the last half-century -
forests
and prairies, if ignited by man or lightning, are going to
burn.
"Learn
to live with fire in the West instead of trying to control it.
That
may be the lesson the public takes from the fires of '88,"
Renkin
concludes.
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