Essay On Wildfires

no surprise that wildfires are a huge issue in the western states. Especially on Indian Reservations. Two articles that focus on this issue are called Secretary Zinke Directs Interior Bureaus to Take aggressive Action to Prevent Wildfires, US Department of Interior & Western US Faces Wildfires Explosion by Kieran Cooke, Climate News Network. Both of these articles argue that wildfires shouldn’t become normalized and that something should be done to prevent and/or be better prepared for when wildfires occur. In essence these articles focus primarily on the amount of land burning and the effect it has on vegetation.

Virtually everywhere in the United States is affected to one degree of another by wildland fires. Even if a community is not directly involved with the fire itself, chances are that some of its members have gone to help fight wildland fires in other areas of the country by providing manpower, financial support, or other humanitarian aid.

On July 10, 2001 four U.S Forest Service Firefighters died while battling the thirty mile fire. Six others injured including two hikers. The thirty mile fire was the second deadliest fire in Washington state history.

As a historically semi-arid environment, California has also suffered heavily from several environmental impacts as a result of the current drought conditions. The first of these is on its forests. The US Forest Service estimates that 12 million trees have died in the past year due to drought; this combined with the drying of forest floor material greatly increases the flammability of the landscape. The result of this is the numerous devastating wildfires that have swept through the state throughout 2015, costing not only wildlife and habitat but also human property (CBS News, 2015) (Lustgarten, et al., 2015) (Google, 2015). Aside from wildfires, the drought and associated loss of habitat is said to be having a negative effect on both flora and fauna due to their contribution to the spread of West Nile Virus, whilst also threatening populations of geese, ducks, salmon and Joshua trees (Lustgarten, et al., 2015) (Beaudry, 2015). Finally, with groundwater contributing up to 50% of stream flow in drought, there is a worry that over usage near the coast could result in irreversible salinization through the drawing in of salt water (USGS, 2016) (Kasler & Reese, 2015).

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.

The following information based on data collected from NFIRS and local computer dispatching queries. Further information gathers from research on the internet.

The county of San Diego is a unique haven to hundreds of state and federally recognized endangered, threatened, or rare plant and animal species (The Nature Conservancy, n.d.). San Diego is also a territory with a long history of environmentally catastrophic wildfires. The Cedar and Witch Creek Fires are two of the most recent and notorious wildfires in California history for their degree of damage in terms of acreage burned and overall expense (The City of San Diego, n.d.). During and after these massive wildfire events is a significant public health concern related to respiratory health from the effects of smoke and ash debris. The challenges presented in mitigating and managing these health issues extends into county budget, public education, and cohesive multi-agency prevention and recovery efforts. Moreover, participatory efforts from the residents of San Diego County is key to the success of mitigating health risks presented by wildfire smoke and ash debris (Phillips, 2009, p. 420).

Wildfires are more prevalent to occur during a drought because the moister in the air is significantly less than it usually is. With less moister in the air, the vegetation cannot absorb the amount of moister that the plants are used to, thus, making them dry. When vegetation becomes dry, this causes the plants to be more susceptible to ignighting. During the drought of 2011 in Texas, wildfires spread across

Fire protection engineering, or the application of science and engineering to protect people and their environment from fire, has been around for centuries. The problem with advancements in this field is that they are preventative and, if ahead of their time, often seen as unnecessary. As a result, they are usually not considered or implemented until after severe tragedy has struck. A prime example of this is also the first recorded use of fire protection engineering. In AD 64, Emperor Nero had regulations drawn up that required fireproof materials used in the external walls to the city. This, of course, happened only after an estimated seventy percent of Rome was lost to fire. More noticeable regulations happened

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.

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

With the completion of this field study, there will be adequate information to understand the short term and long term impacts the Rough Fire imposed on water quality in the Sierra Nevada. The final report will be shared with the U.S. Forest Service, specifically with the Pacific Southwest Region (R5), with the goal that there will be more post wildfire projects that aim in restoring water quality back to its original conditions. According to the paper The Science Behind Wildfire Effects on Water Quality, Erosion, there are actions that can be done to improve the water quality from the effects of wildfires. For instance, mulch can be added to stabilize hillslopes and thus prevent further erosion from occurring. Reseeding and the addition of

Occasionally, during periods of high rain the brush would grow up and the high winds would spread the fire to the tops of the trees creating canopy fires in tress that were otherwise fire-resistant (like the Ponderosa Pine). These canopy fires, however,were not as destructive as the ones that the West is experiencing today because of how the forest was spaced out. If a canopy fire broke out in one area, it would be contained by the grassland border, and be reduced to a low intensity grass fire which would eventually burn out. This meant that some areas of forests would be severely damaged; some would experience moderate damage, while still others might not even have fire. The effect of this kind of sporadic fire was the key to maintaining the mosaic landscape of the West.

Anthropogenic climate change is causing hotter and drier conditions across the southwest United States. Decades of fire suppression campaigns have led to an accumulation of ladder fuels within forests across this region. Both of these factors are now contributing to more frequent and more extreme fires in recent years. These catastrophic fires cause significant changes to ground cover along stream corridors. The loss of ground cover significantly increases the amount of sediment entering watersheds, which can alter both temperature and dissolved oxygen levels throughout the system. The purpose of this paper is to examine the changes in water temperature and dissolved oxygen concentration associated with wildfire, how these changes can be controlled, how effective these controls are, and what more can be done.

Fire prevention is a term being heard more and more today in America. It is starting to become a standard in today’s fire departments. Fire has the ability to keep us warm and also has the ability to make us homeless. As we grow as community and the technology changes, Fire Prevention needs to be made more of a necessity in our homes today. More homes are being built out of lighter material along with being built closer and closer together. Each can lead to extreme destruction, homes being lost, people being displaced, and even death. Why should we not protect homes and defend them against an enemy that can attack at any minute? Fire prevention needs to start in the home and then be carried onward in our lives. There are very