Nature is clearing more forest than people can. That may be a good thing

Nature is clearing more forest than people can. That may be a good thing

23 July 2017

USA – Foresters have struggled for decades to bring fire back to a crowded landscape.

The struggle dates to the 1930s, when a new national standard took hold.

Every forest fire was supposed to be out by 10 a.m. the day after it started. The forest would be saved, the thinking went, and the firefighters would be safe.

The 10 a.m. rule gave firefighters a clearly defined goal, which made it simple for firefighters. Maybe too simple.

Because it didnt work.

Maybe it doesnt work like that,” said Stephen J. Pyne, a life-sciences professor at Arizona State University. “Its fine if youre stocking shelves at Walmart. It doesnt work when youre managing nature.

In time, forests grew thicker, and fires couldn’t be put out by morning. The policy ultimately had led to bigger fires.

Decades of fire suppression, accumulations of logging slash and other factors had covered the forest floor with fuel.

Academics talked of bringing back fire. Experiments in “prescribed burns,” where agencies purposely light fires in the forest, were successful in remote areas. But there were questions about how it would work elsewhere.

The fuel loads increased with each passing year, and land managers realized that reinserting fire into these darkened forests was easier in theory than in practice.

The growth of homes on the rural landscape, invasive species, climate change and other factors added to the fuel load, which meant that it would be much trickier to reinsert fires than it was to remove them, Pyne writes in Americas Fires.

Potential public-relations disasters seemed imminent. A 1988 fire in Yellowstone National Park tamped down enthusiasm for bringing fire back to the landscape. But Yellowstone survived, and so did the idea that fire belongs.

Its complicated, but the gist is this: When lightning-caused fires do not threaten homes, let them burn. Thats an overgeneralization for an approach that takes many factors into consideration such as burn scares from previous fires, weather, drought, fuel, resources, firefighter safety and nearby communities.

This season, Arizona firefighters have used fire more freely.

Where fires start, they burn longer and wider, as crews set up perimeters expanding well beyond the original spark. The result looks like a far bigger fire scar. But sometimes that might be a benefit, as nature clears dangerous growth far faster than humans can.

The approach has been more noticeable this fire season because the drought eased up last winter, with heavy snow and rainfall giving high-elevation forests some needed relief, said Mary Zabinski, a public-affairs specialist with the U.S. Forest Service.

These fires are not exactly prescribed burns because nobody is setting them, but they can serve the same purpose. They are suppressed when they threaten homes. They frequently follow the path of previous burns, where fuel has already been thinned.

When reached for an interview, Pyne said he could hear planes carrying fire retardant flying overhead, headed to the Goodwin Fire, which firefighters were actively suppressing, particularly in the early stages as it approached small communities in Prescott National Forest. At the same time, fires in wilderness areas were burning throughout the state.

It’s called ‘box and burn’

Firefighters are frequently going to managed wildfire, or a box and burn strategy, Pyne said. Roads, trails and other barriers serve as fire lines. Those lines are the box. The burn clears brush within them. Each box cleared is less likely to be part of a giant fire in the future.

The consequences of going toe to toe with a big fire can be deadly, as some of Arizonas fires have shown.

Natures in riot mode,” Pyne said. “We cant govern the landscape by sending out the troops every time.

Firefighters take a number of factors into consideration, then look for ways to contain the fire within a perimeter. So firefighters are digging lines, setting backfires. They study burn scars, weather forecasts, fuels, topography. They come up with a plan.

Youre not just walking away and letting it go, Pyne said.

The strategy is not new it has quietly been going on for years, said Zabinski.

Its happening quietly all around, but more so the last few years, she said, because the recent years have brought some drought relief.

Every wildfire is unique. Every wildfire has its own personality, its own needs, said Pam Bostwick of the U.S. Forest Service.

And although experts say that wildfire seasons are longer and hotter, there may be a silver lining to this: less fuel in the backcountry.

As we move forward in time were getting more footprints of fire on our landscape, Bostwick said.

I anticipate as we move into the future that well see more of that.

Faster than people can cut it

After the Wallow Fire burned about half a million acres in 2011, a coalition of foresters, conservationists and entrepreneurs created the Four Forest Restoration Initiative, a plan to thin forest with a combination of cutting and burning.

Part of the plan was to mechanically thin 1 million overgrown acres over 20 years. Fire was also part of the effort, which became known as 4FRI.

The effort has stalled because the private sector has struggled to turn a profit on the small trees in todays forests. Fire has succeeded where mechanical thinning has struggled.

What youre getting is a kind of hybrid, Pyne said. Its not 4FRI, but the result is comparable. More than 350,000 acres have burned in Arizona this season, according to InciWeb, a multiagency fire-information site.

That number includes human-caused fires, which are frequently suppressed, particularly when they burn near homes. But it also includes tens of thousands of acres of lightning-caused fires in wilderness areas.

4FRI began with the idea that we could get ahead of fires, Pyne said, to prevent big fires, but it never got traction to the degree needed.

What were seeing is a mix of things. It makes a lot of sense. Its probably the future of fire management in the Southwest.

The increase in fires also means its important that people be aware of increased flood potential, Ann Youberg writes in a blog for the Arizona Geological Survey.

The strategy is not without risks because natures complicated. People make mistakes. Things happen, Pyne said. But without it, well be playing Whac-A-Mole into the indefinite future. And were not going to win.

Portugal is to reduce the number of eucalyptus groves after the highly flammable plant was blamed for last month’s deadly forest fires.

Parliament voted for the measure Wednesday as part of ongoing forest law reforms that started in April, before the blaze in the central Pedrogao Grande region that killed 64 people and injured more than 250.

Prime Minister Antonio Costa last week urged measures to prevent a repeat catastrophe, while also highlighting the challenges of forest redevelopment.

“We can’t refuse to curb the growth of eucalyptus because we’re worried about its impact on the paper industry,” he said last week, referring to a sector that represents 4.9 percent of Portuguese exports.

Eucalyptus is Portugal’s most widespread forest plant, according to the country’s Institute for Nature Conservation and Forests.

But it is cited as a cause offorest fires that lay waste annually to around 100,000 hectares of vegetation.

Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2017-07-eucalyptus-deadly-portugal-forest.html#jCpPortugal is to reduce the number of eucalyptus groves after the highly flammable plant was blamed for last month’s deadly forest fires.

Prime Minister Antonio Costa last week urged measures to prevent a repeat catastrophe, while also highlighting the challenges of forest redevelopment.

Eucalyptus is Portugal’s most widespread forest plant, according to the country’s Institute for Nature Conservation and Forests.

But it is cited as a cause offorest fires that lay waste annually to around 100,000 hectares of vegetation.

Prime Minister Antonio Costa last week urged measures to prevent a repeat catastrophe, while also highlighting the challenges of forest redevelopment.

Eucalyptus is Portugal’s most widespread forest plant, according to the country’s Institute for Nature Conservation and Forests.

But it is cited as a cause offorest fires that lay waste annually to around 100,000 hectares of vegetation.

Prime Minister Antonio Costa last week urged measures to prevent a repeat catastrophe, while also highlighting the challenges of forest redevelopment.

Eucalyptus is Portugal’s most widespread forest plant, according to the country’s Institute for Nature Conservation and Forests.

But it is cited as a cause offorest fires that lay waste annually to around 100,000 hectares of vegetation.

23. July 2017/by GFMCadmin