History Of A Fire Regime And Where We Are Today

On April 29, 1910, the largest forest fire in American history occurred. Some would come to know it as the Big Burn, or the Big Blowup. Later others called it the (the one that says it saved American landscape.) This travesty took more than 100 men. The impact it had on Americans was monumental. Timothy Egan’s The Big Burn, he writes about the many people who perished during this disaster. Stories of people who were engulfed by the flames at Bitterroot Mountain who had little chance of escaping their devastating fate. Even though this is still seen as a travesty, some look at it in a different way. Due to how large the fire was and how far it stretched, it made people aware of the importance to protect Americas forests and natural resources. During the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, reform was occurring. The United States population was on a rise which had an effect on economic growth. This caused expansion in the consumer market and made way for an enormous amount of advancement in technology. Due to all of this, the demand for natural resources vastly increased. Inventions such as cars and trains consumed massive amounts of fossil fuels. Wood was stripped away from forests to make comfort items such as chairs, tables and other items for the large number of families now setting in the United States from foreign countries. People did not seem to pay much attentions to the effects these changes were having on the land. However, President Theodor Roosevelt had

Clearing the Plains, by James Daschuk, provides a rich account of the political, ecological, and economic systems that have led to catastrophes between non-Indigenous Canadians and the Indigenous people of the Plains. The author addresses untruths in the existing literature that attributes the dangerous position of Aboriginal peoples in Canada to cultural characteristics of Indigenous peoples themselves. The author describes the history of Aboriginal peoples as one characterized by struggle in the face of infectious diseases, starvation, suppression, and displacement by settler populations. This compelling book contains nine chapters, each exploring a theme that reveals the historical and ecological experiences that procreated the present dilemma

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.

It destroyed structures, forced civilians to flee their homes and destroyed lengths of forestry. Investigations have been taking place in Fort McMurray to determine the cause of this disaster. “Leading Alberta scientists say climate change likely contributed to the Fort McMurray wildfire.” In the past 40 years, there is an increase in forest fires activity. As temperature have become increasingly warm, there has been a rise in forest fires all around the globe and they are dangers to wildlife and people living around them. There had been no rain in Fort McMurray for two months and everything became dry and hot which sparked the forest fire and enabled it to rapidly grow. The fire was a tragic event that altered the lives of many. Although many see fire as destructive and catastrophic, the symbol of fire represents both good and evil. According to J.C Cooper fire symbolises, transformation, purification, protection and renewal of life. The positive sides of this symbol allows individuals to see the good that can come from a tragedy through allowing new developments and help our society understand the negative impact hyper consumption has on our

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

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

On August 21, 1910, at four pm, a massive wild fire broke out. This Great Fire of 1910, also known as the Big Blowup, spread from Wallace, Idaho to western Montana and into a small amount of Washington. The Great Fire of 1910 lasted for two days and spread because of hurricane winds that shot trees up like flying torpedos ( Quinn ). The cause of the fire was from leftover timber that was heated up from the sparks of the railroad nearby. The timber was from campers, loggers, and homesteaders. The wild fire destroyed over three million acres of forest. Also, 1910 was the driest year and Idaho didn’t get rain since May ( Jamison ). One of the lead firefighters saved all but six of his men while finding safety in an

"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.

Background. On June 12, 2011 in Sierra Vista, Arizona – a city near the Mexican border, a suspected human-caused fire was started within the Coronado National Monument Park, along the southern tip of the Huachuca Mountains in Southern Arizona and quickly shot through the canyons south of the city of Sierra Vista. Over the course of 14 days, the wildfire burned to some extent 100% of the park’s acreage; destroyed a total of 62 homes, 18 outbuildings and 4 businesses (Youberg & Pearthree, 2011) and mandatory evacuations were in effect due to the fires moving quickly towards the outskirts along with the danger of the smoke that blanketed the town. The fire was wind-driven spread and was aided by high temperatures and low humidity.

In 1970, the Chaparral Region of Southern California suffered immense devastation from wildfires that burned for several days, burning more than half a million acres of land, destroying over 700 structures and killing 16 people. During the subsequent debriefing and critiques done by the two primary agencies, Los Angeles County and Los Angeles City Fire Departments, four major obstacles were identified. The two departments agreed that while there was cooperation between the departments, the identified obstacles definitely impeded the efforts put forth to extinguish the fire.

Prescribed burns are utilized throughout the US to prevent devastating wildfires. The use of prescribed burns provides many benefits and few significant deficits to fire-dependent forest ecosystems, therefore, the implementation of controlled burns should continue.

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.

Fires we all know them to be deadly and dangerous, but who would have thought that in Alaska, especially in the Yukon Flats there would be forest fires. These forest fires are causing a major problem with our Earth atmosphere. We can go back to 1939 and see that the fires that are happening right now are exactly the same ones that occurred in the past. The studies are being conducted by Ryan Kelly, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Illinois and Feng Sheng Hu, a professor of plant biology and geology at the University of Illinois. For their studies, they have used actual fire data from previous studies to come up with a conclusion that in a radius of 2,000 km of the Yukon Flats the fires are way higher than what they were 10,000

Fire events have increased ever since the Aboriginals have occupied the landscape about 40,000 years ago (Lindenmayer & Burgman, 2005). They used fire to their advantage and helped change the landscape in addition to lightning.

Humans have been changing the Western forests' fire system since the settlement by the Europeans and now we are experiencing the consequences of those changes. During the summer of 2002, 6.9 million acres of forests was burnt up in the West (Wildland Fires, 1). This figure is two times the ten year annual average, and it does not look like next summer will be any better (Wildfire Season, 1).