Explain Why Controlled Fires Are Important For The Environment

There are also so many animals that go along with the damage from the fires because they are living in the middle of it and do not have any where to go. It makes sense that actions such as controlled burns should be done because so much could be prevented. Then again there are so many people who argue against them because they are a disruption to the environment. “Fire experts argue that prescribed burns are vital for reducing the risk of catastrophic blazes and restoring ecosystems that evolved with fire” (Tobin 2). If a great deal of damage could be prevented, I do not see why there should be any concern. This is especially important when you look at what more damage is done to the environment during a huge forest fire compared to on from a petite controlled burn.

Controlled burning usually cleared the fields used by the Native Americans. Not only did it clear the fields for them, it also enriched the soil. By doing this, they were creating their own kind of fertilizers for their crops. The best thing about it is that it is all natural. Native Americans used the slash and burn method a lot because it made it easier to collect plants and hunt quietly.

Fire is used in multiple ways to transform different materials. For example, to promote a healthy prairie, many land-owners will burn the prairie grasses and flowers in order to provide nourishment to the soil and kill off any plant species that are not intended to be present in the field. Burning the fields is useful in the prairie to provide chances of healthy regrowth. Fire is also used to remove impurities and reshape metals.

It will also produce for Nitrogen into the soil, to help more plants and vegetation grow in the future. With the Nitrogen and other additional nutrients in the soil it is helping farmers with their crops getting the nutrients it needs. Fires can also clear forests of insect infestations and potential diseases Warren (2011). Among the other benefits of prescribed burning are: Insect pest control, Removal of exotic, or non-species that compete with native species for nutrients and other needs, Fires occurring in nature can restore ecological balance and facilitate regeneration Warren

There are many reasons that a controlled fire is very necessary to our environment. It is not only beneficial to nature but also to people as well. For example, many farmers will have controlled fires to improve the land for their livestock. When the land is burned off, new growth will begin to take its place which in turn becomes better "food" for the animals. The new growth is richer and has more nutrients than the old, dried

Adding on, animals can be affected too, like deer and coyotes, along with other small animals. These are burned to death and/or are forced to leave their affected living area. Furthermore, all the burned debris from the fire and smoke can rise to the sky and may cause some pollution in the air we breathe in. Finally, because some plants and animals died off, succession plays a main part as even though some deer and other animals might have relocated, a biodiversity of new animals and plants may starts as plants will get more sunlight and grew even more than when there were trees, making their population grow, and animals would come to settle in and increase the decreased number of their species after the recent wildfire. Adding on, there are also solutions to maintain and restore a biodiverse ecosystem of a variety of animals like deers and squirrels and a variety of plants like oak trees and shrubs after the wildfire had happened, this includes planting plants such as like the chaparral kind and help raise and increase deer populations, for instance, we could modify and/or reduce fuel use to prevent these things from happening as it may cause a

In the event that a fire does start, suppression activities would be carried out faster and more effectively than those areas that have gone without treatment. Proof of this can be found within a study that was done after the 2002 Biscuit Fire that happened within the Kalmiopsis Wilderness in Southern Oregon. Scientists on a research team studied the damage of the fire in areas that had previously been treated by having ground and ladder fuels removed via thinning/cutting and prescribed underburning. These areas showed the least tree mortality of any other areas within the fire. The areas with the highest tree mortality included those that had been thinned but ground fuels had not been removed as well as areas that had had no prior treatment. David Peterson, a research biologist stated, “Biologists have known this in principal for many years…the Biscuit Fire gave us a chance to validate the effectiveness of on-the-ground fuel treatments” (USDA Forest Service).

Wildfires are dangerous natural disasters. They cause a lot of damage to houses and kill lots of people every year. They also cause forests to burn down so lots of animals and plants get killed too. The United States Department of Agriculture says that starting fires that can be controlled would make wildfires easier to put out.It also helps new plants to grow and gets rid of bad plants and insects that make the trees sick.

Examples of positive effects are when the fire destroys some adult trees and burns the branches, trunks and leaves of the others, and burns the undergrowth. This effect is positive because it means the seeds and soil that needed a fire to release them, can now germinate. Young plants can also grow vigorously due to the increase in light caused by the fire. A fire can also change the structure in the soil by making it thinner and releasing its stored nutrients which give the ideal condition for seeds to germinate. However this can also be considered a negative effect, because at the same time it makes the soil easier to be washed or blown away. More examples of negative effects bushfires bring are that they significantly reduce the number of animals in an ecosystem, which can eventually lead to extinction of endangered species. Many animals die while trying to escape the fire, while some escape to a safe area. The escaped animals will not be able to return until food is available again. This damages the food web and can take years to return to normal. Bushfires can easily get out of control, and that leads them into

Forests that are overgrown have trees that are almost on top of each other. Minimum logging opens up the spaces between trees. Therefor bushfires will spread at a much slower rate. Eventually this will end up save lives and preventing damage to the properties near any forests. (Openreader.org, n.d.)

All too often in the Western U.S., we hear things like, "Fire danger is extremely high" or, "We are in a tinder box right now." By mid-summer, our surroundings 'dry-out ' and it seems conditions become perfect as we segue into a fifth season. Wildfire Season. Wildfires can wreak havoc! Millions of dollars are spent annually, preparing for Wildfires. Money is allocated for education, training, and preparing to fight Wildfires. Money is spent fighting them and protecting structures that might be in the way. Wildfires can be costly, but they also impact us in other ways. Wildfires tax our resources. They impact our structures and influence where we build and how we build. Wildfires affect our health, especially for those who have health concerns. Wildfires impact our weather and overall environment. Wildfires can even be deadly, impacting our communities.

The likely short-term impacts of the wildfires will be the air quality which will mean it will be safe to have outdoor exposure after the wildfires are contained and the air quality becomes safe in terms of health conditions. Another short term impact will be the decrease in plants due to the fires that are burning them which will then affect the the carbon cycle due to plants being burned and carbon dioxide becomes abundant in the atmosphere in large amounts which will create an atmospheric disbalance.

After the tall trees in the forests had burned to the ground, more sunlight was able to reach places of the soil that it wasn’t able to before. Together with the burned materials on the ground, the soil absorbed even more nutrients. Besides plant growth, scientists have found evidence about how allowing periodic fires were better for the ecosystem than preventing them. The prevented buildup of woody debris is known to make fires larger, which would spread it across the area faster and make it harder for firefighters to put an end to

Fires were set to prepare soils for planting and helped clear the area for cultivation, but they were not being well supervised, and even burned out of control, which created bad forest fires.

So, why is it good to utilize controlled forest fires? Well, for certain they help tremendously in cleaning forest floors of brush, dead and infected plants, and provides a clean slate for new plants to grow. A common argument to this would be, "It will most and likely become uncontrollable, and therefore should not be used with so many variable conditions available for change." This rebuttal is not only irrational, but completely ignorant of the fact that this will happen anyways whether its man-made or natural. It continues the carbon cycle as the planet itself needs to be able to continue to support life within it's atmosphere. To start with a certain topic, breaking down the idea of cleaning the forest floor is the first topic.