Environmental Impact Of The Rodeo-Chediski Fire

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

The Burnt Area of Mount Pilot contains mixed stands of competing, seedlings with slower growing Callitris seedlings and re-sprouting Eucalyptus trees. There is few Callitris endlicheri, as the species is fire sensitive and often destroyed by fire, particularly when in quick succession. Prior to the 2003 fire the site was dominated by Callitris species of tree. The seedlings that emerged were mostly Eucalyptus, with less dense Callitris seedlings proving that the growth of Callitris is not consistent with long term site suitability. Surprisingly, more Eucalyptus seedlings died in the first six years of regeneration that Callitris seedlings; competition in co-existence does not determine survivability. The major trend is that the growth of Eucalyptus seedlings is faster than that of Callitris seedlings. The density of Eucalyptus seedlings is shown to effect Callitris seedlings growth which thrives where Eucalyptus seedlings are sparser. Callitris may take 7-15 years to produce sufficient seeds (Cohn, Lunt, Ross, & Bradstock, 2011; I. Lunt, Jones, N., & Petrow, M.,, 2003; I. Lunt, Price, J.,, 2016; Ian D Lunt, Zimmer, & Cheal, 2011; Zimmer, 2012).

The Great Idaho Fire of 1910, however, burned some three million acres and killed at least 85 people, and the subsequent political outcry led the Forest Service to focus increasingly not just on timber harvesting but also on wildfire suppression. Yet the early proponents of scientific forestry didn’t properly understand the role of fires in woodland ecology. Forest fires are a natural occurrence and serve an important function in maintaining the health of western forests. Shade-intolerant trees, such as ponderosa pines, lodgepole pines, and giant sequoias, require periodic fires to clear areas in which they can regenerate, and once fires were suppressed, these trees were invaded by species such as the Douglas fir. (Lodgepole pines actually require fires to propagate their seeds.)

“The Condor’s Shadow,” written by David S. Wilcove, is a book about the conservation of wildlife in America. It describes multiple species that have been in danger of extinction, or gone extinct. The book goes into depth on how these animals came to the brink of extinction and why they couldn’t be saved or the measures taken to restore them. One of the major themes throughout the book was habitat destruction in forests and aquatic ecosystems alike. This led to the extinction of some species. When it comes to the destruction of forests it affects not only the animals but the trees as well. Many trees

The Eagle Creek fire—allegedly sparked by teenagers playing with fireworks over Labor Day weekend—has so far consumed over 37,000 acres in and around some of the most cherished spots in the Columbia River Gorge. On September 14, with rain on the way, officials said firefighters continue to employ burnout operations along the eastern section of I-84 as the fire continues to grow.

To make matters worse California is in the middle of a devastating drought, causing many forest fires. But these trees remain unfazed, as a matter of fact fire is an innate part of this ecosystems, many animals depend on fires for survival like the black-backed woodpecker who their main source of food are tree inhabiting beetles. When the bark is chard this helps the woodpecker find its food easier. Unlike a lot of other trees sequoias need fire to reproduce. The fire also does 3 things for the sequoias: it heats up and opens the cones releasing seeds, second,the fire makes and opening in the canopy of the trees to allow sunlight to shine through, and finally, the fire gives the sequoias seeds a nutrient rich place to grow (Yosemite, 2017). When winter comes around the ice pack covers the seeds allowing the seeds to be in the right condition to start the process of germination. In the episode they talk to a forest ecologist that works for the U.S geological survey, his job is to monitor the trees response to the drought and in recent years by recording the water content in the clippings they have found that the water content is decreasing. Which is a warning sign that the tree might be dying or under stress from the drought. When a sequoia is healthy is clippings are green and have a higher water content, but since the water content is decreasing that the amount of water to keep the cells at an

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.

The reduction of vegetative cover during and after fire can have a severe negative impact on several different factors including: water quality, soil erosion, wildlife and threatened or endangered species, introduction or spread of invasive and exotic species, and economic or social impacts to the surrounding communities. We will implement a vegetation monitoring protocol that will help guide us in restoration and recovery efforts of the High Park fire scar and the surrounding areas and watershed. A collaboration with the US Forest Service will be aggressively pursued in the hopes that a combined use of the Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) program and our separate vegetation monitoring protocol can be utilized. We will use the burn severity field data collection points and cross-reference them with the FIA data points to see if there is any overlap between them. If there is then the FIA data points will be given preference as those points can possibly provide more information than solely High Park Fire data collection points. If there is not the ability to utilize the FIA data collection points, due to privacy, cost, or unforeseen reasons, then the High Park Fire data collection points will be

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 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 focus of this lesson will be teaching the students to examine the history of wildland fires and their impact on society in America and in their community. Students will explore different approaches to living with fire and will examine various fire management techniques including prescribed fire, fire suppression, and fire prevention. They will take a closer look at the Copper King Fire in Montana, and will conduct a research project of wildfire history in another state. Students will also gain a better understanding of the role of fire in a particular culture and the importance of wildfire in the ecosystem. They will also understand ways to reduce wildfire risk around their home and community. Furthermore, students will increase their knowledge

The fires, which were first recorded in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park on Nov. 23rd, spread over 15,000 acres and 2,000 structures, burning down single-family homes, Churches and other edifices in its wake as it strode through Sevier County, destroying two of the country’s most tourist-heavy towns and an amusement park. The rapid growth and ferocity of the fires, attributed to the drought in the area at the time, exceeded 80 miles per hour.

Comparison of the species and their importance values in the sampled communities of the opposing sides of Coal Road clearly showed a dominant species in the burned region while a more shared community in the unburned region. In the burned region, chestnut oak dominated the area with an importance value of 157.84 compared to the rest of the tree species ranging from 11 to 49. On the other hand, in the unburned side the species were similarly distributed with chestnut oak and scarlet oak having the largest importance values of 58.67 and 53.40 respectively. However, the other tree species followed rather closely; mockernut hickory had an importance value of 37.67, blackgum had an importance value of 35.34, and the rest of the species’ importance values ranged from 10 to 25. Species diversity is usually characterized by an absence of a dominant species. This implicates the unburned side of Coal Road has greater diversity than the burned side. This differs from our hypothesis, as we predicted the prescribed fire region would produce more species diversity while the unburned side would exhibit less species

Native species richness did not decrease after the prescribed extreme fires. Instead of decreasing, native forb species thrived in burned areas when compared to the unburned plots ( t=2.65, df=16, P=0.02). Native grass species did not change between treatments (t = -0.35, df=16, P= .73). Total species richness did not differ between burned or unburned subplots (t= 1.91, df= 16, P= 0.07). Prescribed extreme fires did not have a significant effect on native species.

The first question to be addressed in this study is, will there be varying tree seedling species diversity in relation to varying levels of burn severity? My hypothesis for this question is that we will see the highest tree species diversity where we see a moderate level of burn severity. The second question of the study asks, did the presence of salvage logging lead to a difference in the tree seedling densities as compared to unlogged sites? My hypothesis for this question is that there will be a greater density of tree species in the salvage logged site than the unlogged site.