Forest Fires And Its Effects On The Environment

Forest fires kill many animals and usually destroy a large amount of land. Prescribed burns seem like they would be the best idea, but are they? Their claim to fame is to clear out land in order to decrease the burning space for when an actual forest fire occurs. Yet this may seem like a brilliant idea, but one must look at the negative aspects of controlled burnings. People might have a change of heart when they realize the damages and effects of such an interesting act. Keep in mind that not only is your health involved but even such things as the inconvenience of dealing with a smoky town. It is important to understand that prescribed burns cause severe health problems especially to

There is quite a debate when it comes to the idea of controlled fires to protect nature. Many agree that the benefits out way the risks but many also believe that a controlled fire is too dangerous to take that chance. If proper steps are taken, the outcome of the process is not only safe but also effective.

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

Thousands upon thousands of acres are lost in forest fires every year. We always hear about the dramatic losses caused by forest fires and are often concerned by them. There are so many horrible effects from fires and most of them affect so many people. Studies have shown that out of all of the different methods to decrease fire damage, prescribed burns are the most affective. Many people would argue that they are not as affective because they cause so many health problems. Although that is a very important view and may seem valid, those health issues are not as extreme as one might think. People should look at the majority of the benefits form prescribed burns and they will see how affective and important they are.

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.

Policies regarding the handling of wildland fires continue to change and evolve as new information is learned each fire season. Attitudes have changed between complete wildland fire suppression to no suppression at all. We now seem to have reached a balance between the two schools of thought and fall somewhere in the middle.

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.

“Wildfires Devastate California,” a nonfiction article from Scholastic News by Sean Price, describes the dozens of wildfires in California that are affecting lots of Californians by forcing them to evacuate. The main cause of all this is the four-year drought making a lot of the forests and fields very dry and easier to burn. The current wildfires started when lightning struck the dry fields and forests. There are about 1,200 more fires now in 2015 than in the same period in 2014 -- that is a huge difference for just one year! Currently, California has 23 wildfires with 10,000 firefighters risking their lives to protect us and to put the fires out. The worst of all fires is the Rocky Fire which has destroyed 28 structures and caused 6,000

Prescribed burning is effective in most cases. Not only does it cut down fire fuels but its mitigation before fires even start. (Levering,

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.

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

Many people, due to simple logic, may believe that increasing deforestation will cut down on wildfires in dry conditions. If you consider it for a little while it seems to make sense. Less trees means less fuel for a fire to burn through. As said before, it’s simple logic. Except for the fact it isn’t. In fact according to Chad Hanson, commercial logging doesn’t stop wildfires, it causes them! In his article The Big Lie: Logging and Forest Fires, he wrote “Relentless clearing of forests in the Great Lakes region left huge areas largely devoid of the cooling shade of trees, replacing moist natural forest microclimates with the hotter, drier conditions characterized by stump fields.” (Hanson) He then explained that because of these dry and hot

In addition, the results of this study may be used by the U.S. Forest Service to promote and thus improve forest fire prevention projects. The U.S. Forest Service manages large quantities of land, however they may not all be adequately maintained to prevent the severity of wildfires. Seeing the impacts that the Rough Fire caused can be motivation for improving the thinning of the forest to prevent intense fire from occurring hence save money in combatting wildfires in the long run.

Wildfires can be a serious disaster in terms of both human and ecological aspects. When it comes to land ethic though, it certainly serves a purpose as well along with many other natural disasters. These disasters can be viewed as a mechanism that the Earth uses to replenish itself. That is, they can also shape our landscapes and nature as a whole. There has to be some control of the disasters through human intervention. In order for this to be, humans must also evaluate why wildfires exist and the purpose of them. Forests can benefit much from forest fires in moderation as long as there not excessive or widespread.