Fire Suppression And Its Effects On The American Northeast

The fire began as the result of an out-of-control campfire, and because of high wind and drought conditions which resulted in low fuel-moisture spread relatively quickly for an upland fire in the southeastern United States, although not to the scale of western wildfires. Even though the 2000 Linville Gorge fire was mainly a surface fire, the fire burned 4,000 hectares of wilderness area, and forced local management agencies to start paying more attention to upland ecosystems that were not previously thought to be fire-dependent. Considering the magnitude of the fire, it was fortunate that no human lives or homes were lost in the inferno. Vegetative studies show that Mountain Laurel (Kalmia latifolia), an evergreen shrub, reproduced much faster than other understory species (Dumas, Neufeld, & Fisk, 2007). This is attributed to its ability to resprout following a fire. The Linville Gorge Fire has been significant in shaping Southeastern fire mitigation in that it gave foresters an opportunity to study oak-pine forests that had not seen fire for over 50

On the contrary, policies changed in Unit 4. Fire certainly is an important role in natural ecosystems, but it often threatens human lives, such as the Big Burn incident. In Unit 4, the Yellowstone fires of 1988 created a wildfire policy. There is a lot of criticism when wildfire mistakes are made. In Chapter 29, it talked about the Cerro Grande Fire of 2000 in New Mexico. This fire started out as an intentional management fire. Nonetheless, the fire got out of hand and destroyed 400 homes in Los Alamos. The damage from this fire ended up being one billion dollars. There wasn’t a national fire policy until 2009, where agencies developed a Federal Wildland Fire Policy to help with their decisions. Despite the new policy, each agency approaches

Fire has long been understood to have an impact on the ecosystem of our native woodlands, but it is only recently that we have come to understand its importance in maintaining the ecosystem. This report takes samples of the flora structure and growth in two different areas of Anstey Hill Recreation Park. The first was last burnt in 1995, and the second burnt in 2012. The results of these samples can be compared to data sampled in 2011, when the 2012 burnt area had not been burnt since Ash Wednesday in 1983.

In the summer of 1910 Northern Idaho and Western Montana were hit by what seemed like a never ending series of destructive forest fires. With the spring bringing hardly any rainfall and drying winds from the Columbia plains, creeks began to disappear and the montane forests became dry. Intense heat along with high winds and dry vegetation create the perfect environment for forest fires. In June and July several dry electric storms hit the mountains and fires began to develop in isolated corners of the forest. The U.S. Forest Service which had just been developed in 1905 consisted of forest rangers on horseback climbing the mountains and protecting the forest from fires (Bergoffen, 1976). As the

The biomass and density of trees surrounding each plot were also recorded. A static chamber method was used to measure the fluxes of the three GHG. The method was carried out using a closed cylindrical chamber equipped with a small fan, and gas concentrations were measured with an infrared, non-dispersive scope. There were other more detailed, accurate methods used as well to be more accurate with exact numbers for the concentrations of each gas. The concentrations of each gas were compared between each location and results are as follows: As the thickness of the active layer increased, all three greenhouse gas emissions increased. Carbon dioxide fluxes increased with time since the last fire, with the 1969 fire area having the highest CO2 emissions, and the 2012 fire area having the lowest CO2 emissions. Methane fluxes had a significant increase in the 1990 fire area, and a lower influx in all other fire areas. Nitrous oxide had a high influx in every fire area except for the 1990 area, where the fluxes were significantly lower. Addressed in the discussion, the authors write about how their results indicate that areas affected by fire will take approximately 50 years to fully recover to their pre-fire conditions. As well, areas with a recent fire had much lower soil moisture than areas with a long time since last

The rising number of high severity wildfires in California has significant ecological, economic, and health impacts. Many western American forests are adapted to frequent low severity fires. However, the majority of these forests, and particularly the mixed conifer forests of California, are not adapted to high intensity fires and do not possess fire resistance adaptations such as serotinous cones to protect seeds. Consequently, high severity fires have significant negative impacts on California forests, and the absence of low severity fires has considerably altered many fundamental ecosystem processes (Miller et al. 2008). Prior to 1900, low severity fires would burn every 6-15 years. Low severity fires are generally non-lethal, have minimal change to the overstory, and kill mainly small trees. In the past, these fires were started naturally by lightning, or by Native Americans who used low severity fires to manage the forests.

"There was no damn horse fast enough in the country to keep ahead of that fire.” (546). In 1910, the US Forestry Service was in its infancy. Teddy Roosevelt had put Gifford Pinchot in charge of the foundling agency. For instance during the Presidency of William Taft, his term in office he denied the service and the manpower and resources needed to actually protect the growing quantity of land held in public trust. Then, without notice a drought-parched lands of eastern Washington, western Montana and northern Idaho, the greatest forest fire in U.S. history sparked a major change in public consciousness. This is the Big Burn of 1910.

The Appalachians span over a distance of 1,600 miles, ranging across 14 states, from Newfoundland in the North, to Alabama in the South. The Appalachians are the oldest chain of mountains on the North American continent. With forest, comes forest fires, some natural and some prescribed by humans. In order to reduce the calamitous damage caused by natural wildfires, the technique of prescribed fires is used. This is done by diminishing the amounts of trees, shrubs, and brush in the intended area. By doing this, new native plant growth is encouraged and it helps maintain some plant and animal species that depend on the periodic fires. With this man made force comes numerous effects on vegetation, wildlife, and the human impact.

The Rim Fire of 2013 ravaged the slopes of the Stanislaus National Forest leaving many areas severely burned and unable to recover. Restoration efforts have been made and 56,000 saplings were planted in 2016 in the most severely burned areas; but the forest still has a long way to recovery. Fires are a naturally occurring hazard in the Stanislaus National Forest, and have contributed to the replenishment, control, and sustainability of the forest; but fires of the Rim Fire's intensity are very rare. The Rim Fire destroyed over 277,314 acres of habitat, harmed many mature trees, and ruined the layers of topsoil, and increased erosion and runoff. The devastation of the Rim Fire would not be have been so intense if it weren’t for past fire

The F-test values in canopies (0.031271512) and sub-canopies (0.005008424) are both below 0.05 so we can say with 92% confidence that the canopy structures in burned and unburned areas differ and with 97% confidence that the sub-canopies vary between the burned and unburned areas. Unburned areas tended to have better developed structures of canopy and sub-canopy trees because they were given more time to accumulate compared to recently burned areas which have recently undergone a disturbance. The F-test value for DBH (0.022472008) is also below 0.05 so we also have to assume that there is variance in terms of DBH in burned and unburned sites. Unburned sites have larger trees (larger DBH) because these trees had more time to grow compared to trees in recently burned sites. Since the F-tests values for the logs (0.076083352) and shrubs (0.340469754) were calculated to be above 0.05, we are not able to draw definitive conclusions on this data, therefore we have to assume that the logs and shrub structures did not vary within the burned and unburned sites (Klowden et al. 2015). Succession is evident in this experiment as there is an overall greater percent coverage of grasses, woody plants, and annuals & perennials in burned areas compared to open space. Open space is greatest in unburned areas and there is more open space in unburned areas than burned areas; this is mainly because the woody plants in unburned areas store lots of nutrients within themselves, therefore having less grasses and smaller plants on forest floors (Dickman et al 2014). Five different species of canopy trees were identified in unburned sites compared to only three species of canopy trees identified in burned sites which allows me to conclude that there is more diversity in the species of canopy trees in unburned areas than burned areas. There may have been more types of species found in unburned

While not all the effects of prescribed burns are known some are very evident. The first of these common effects is that vegetation and fallen dead material are burned creating an open forest floor. This eliminates any fuel that could contribute to a high intensity fire in the future. When the fire burns the organic material in the forest, nutrient rich ash is left behind. When the first rain comes, the nutrients in the ash dissolve into the soil for the new plants to use. This process is called nutrient recycling. These nutrients left in the soil are a good source of food for the young plants that will begin to grow back. Another outcome of prescribed fire is that new growth begins immediately after the fires have been extinguished. Within

In 1988, a series of fires burned much of Yellowstone National Park (Klotzbach, Thayn 2014). Satellite images were used to measure light reflection, which were used to represent the growth and health of the trees after the fires (Klotzbach, Thayn, 2014). Lodgepole Pine, (Pinus contorta), was one of the species focused on since it is found in about 80% of the park (Turner et all, 1999). Satellite images were taken in late summer to early fall, on cloudless days (Klotzbach, Thayn, 2014). In areas that were only lightly burned, percentage coverage of Lodgepole pine returned to normal, before the fires, in 1991 (Turner et all, 1999). The seed density after the fires varied based on fire severity, areas with severe surface burns had little seed distribution at first, but increased substantially in 1990 (Turner et all, 1999). Areas that had

Understanding of adaptive capacity and regional vulnerability to climate change on forests is not well developed and requires more focused research efforts. They acknowledged the reality of human-caused climate change was a political act, and the Park Service doesn’t discuss politics with its visitors. Mankind activities have damaged dreadfully to the resources and polluted the environment. Therefore, it becomes a threat to the nature and effects the climate in the parks. Increasing drought and disturbance risks will cause adverse effects on the nature itself. These negative impacts are very likely to outweigh positive trends in these national parks. Park managers began setting controlled fires in forests where natural wildfires had long been suppressed; they reintroduced species that had vanished, such as wolves and bighorn sheep. The ecologist and park manager have tried many ways to get the nature “under control” and change it the scientific way. They want to avoid the significant impact of natural disaster that caused damages on animal and habitats. They ignored the fact that nature itself, left to its own devices, does not tend toward a steady, state—landscapes and ecosystems are always being changed by storms or

Forests have covered the earth for millions of years, providing habitat and food for animals and humans. These forests have stabilized different ecosystems and have continued the natural cycle that keeps plants and animals in check. The discovery of fire changed all of this. It was the beginning of deforestation, a process that has continued and increased over the last 200,000 years. Humans are the responsible party for the deforestation that has occurred. Humans discovered that animals could be driven with fire. This led to accelerated forest loss due to uncontrolled burning for hunting use (Miller & Tangley 1991: 28). Agriculture was the next problem

According to Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary, Wildfire means “a sweeping and destructive conflagration esp. in a wilderness or a rural area.” Also according to the same dictionary, wilderness means “a tract or region uncultivated and uninhabited by human beings.” Forest Fires happen when there is a drought because branches and twigs die and dry out creating plenty of fuel for a fire. According to the NIFC (National Interagency Fire Center) there are about 105,534 wildfires that occur each year.