Pacific Northwest Fire Suppression Effects

In BC, in 2050, the forest fires will have a big impact on the standards of living in Canada. The forest fires will affect both the health and wealth aspects of living standards. For example, forest fires are very expensive, sometimes even costing billions of dollars. This huge cost will affect the economy (or economic value) of Canada considerably. The forestry industry will also influence the living standards if the forest fires do not allow the recently planted trees to grow. Since one in seven jobs are connected to the forestry industry in BC, many people’s jobs will be involved. The standards of living in Canada will be damaged if action is not taken towards properly protecting forests from fires.

It is so horrible to see all of that timber go to waste. Our society depends on timber a lot and we need so much of it to produce so many useful goods. What would happen if we did not have any timber to make homes or proved some type of shelter? We would be lost and have no where to go. Prescribed burns can prevent that great loss of timber and save a lot of trees. Although one purpose of controlled burns is to curve paths for huge forest fires, they are also used to freshen up the area. If an area of trees is left untreated from prescribed burns, the sands are expected to decline in growth (Mitchell 1). Also, to ensure a healthy forest,

For as long as mankind can conceive, fire has been a remarkable tool to conquer. When controlled, it provides necessary heat, energy, and fuel for a consumer to use; however, when fire goes unattended, it has the potential to become a wholly destructive element. The more western states of America, such as Utah and Colorado, have repeatedly experienced this concept in its most devastating form: wildfires. A wildfire is generally considered to be difficult to control and fast moving, swallowing anything that lay in its path, including forest or human habitat. As human incursion reaches more remote areas in wooded mountains, wildfires pose a serious threat to high-end homes and secluded cabins. The untamed nature of these fires also allows them to creep into subdivisions and endanger more

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 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 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

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 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 High Park Fire ignited West of Fort Collins, Colorado on June 9th 2012 and burned over 85,000 acres over the course of containment operations. It eventually became the third largest fire in Colorado history during a highly volatile and active 2012 burn season. Wildfires of this size can have high negative consequences because of the myriad of burn severities throughout the footprint of the fire. Monitoring and inventory protocols need to be established to help determine the effects that fires can have on the landscape and also steer natural resource recovery efforts. This paper will outline a comprehensive monitoring and inventory protocol over the next 30 years from the start of the

The study area is subject to easterly prevailing winds, generally tending to the south-east during the morning, particularly from January through September and changing to easterly or north-easterly in the afternoons. Dry westerly winds are typically experienced during the winter months of June and July. Relative humidity remains fairly constant throughout the year, averaging 71% during the morning and decreasing to around 68% on average in the afternoons, with November typically averaging the lowest morning humidity levels and July experiencing the lowest average afternoon relative humidity. While high relative humidity is generally not conducive with bushfire, and the prevailing winds are from the east, it is noted that conditions and associated bushfire hazard and risk within the site will vary on a daily, seasonal and annual

When both changes of climate and fire regimes were simultaneously accounted for, on average, the climate scenario RCP2.6 resulted in the highest values for NPV, size diversity and total carbon stock under all management intensities, and the highest species diversity under most intensities. In year 2100, in general, the 20-year cutting cycle led to higher total carbon stock and size diversity but lower NPV and species diversity. Low-intensity management caused the highest total carbon stock (10 years: 823 – 854 ton ha-1; 20 years: 864 – 888 ton ha-1) and size diversity (10 years: 1.93 – 2.11; 20 years: 1.95 – 2.10) but the lowest NPV (10 years: 9,318 – 9,955 $ ha-1; 20 years: 3,426 – 4,056 $ ha-1) and species diversity (10 years: 1.28 – 1.31; 20 years: 1.18 – 1.22). Lower total carbon stock (10 years: 778 – 814 ton ha-1; 20 years: 800 – 828 ton ha-1) were expected with medium intensity but satisfactory species diversity (10 years: 1.50 – 1.53; 20 years: 1.36 – 1.39), size diversity (10 years: 1.47 – 1.59; 20 years: 1.91 – 2.02), and NPV (10 years: 18,721 – 19,812 $ ha-1; 20 years: 7,749 – 9,596 $ ha-1). High intensity resulted in the lowest total carbon stock (10 years: 740 – 775 ton ha-1; 20 years: 768 – 794 ton ha-1) and size diversity (10 years: 0.89 – 1.02; 20 years: 1.27 – 1.40), but the highest NPV (10 years: 26,749 – 27,440 $ ha-1; 20 years: 13,302 – 13,757 $ ha-1) and species diversity (10 years: 1.58 – 1.61; 20 years: 1.53 – 1.56) (Tables 2-4).

The extraordinary wildfires that burned in 2015 worried many British Columbians. That year, 304,460 hectares of land was burned by wildfires in the province (Lori Daniels, personal communication, Oct. 30, 2015). Compared to the 10 year average of 115,000 hectares per year (Lori Daniels, personal communication, Oct. 30, 2015), this is a staggeringly large number. With almost three times the area of forest burned in 2015, one might ask why this increase occurred. The wildfire regime in British Columbia (BC) can be traced back to a time when Indigenous people occupied and managed their relationship with the land without the influence of colonialism and the modern day government of Canada. When the government did start interfering, much of the land previously burned by First Nations was no longer permitted to burn. The landscape was changed because of this fire exclusion practice, and as a result, the province of BC is seeing many negative changes in the landscape, including an increase in the severity of wildfires. The purpose of this paper is to prove that wildfire has shaped the landscape of BC through Indigenous burnings, and as a result of wildfire exclusion in the 20th century, there is an increase in wildfire severity and frequency today.

The Pinus palustris, or more commonly referred to as longleaf pine trees, were once the dominant tree type in the Southeastern United States and has been further exterminated at about 97% of its original range (Frost 1995). When you think of fire, you typically will think of destruction, but with the right fire regime in certain ecosystems it can actually help the area become more successful. Due to the degradation of the longleaf pine forests, prescribed burning has become a necessary factor to keep the forests successful (Lavoie et al., 2014). The biodiversity of the longleaf pin ecosystem depends on a lot of rainfall, porous, sandy soils, and a cycle of fires (Greenberg, 2002). Longleaf pine trees have a tolerance of and ability to regenerate in a high frequency fire regime (Loudermilk et al., 2011). Once longleaf pines grow above the height most fires tend to be, they have a high survival chance where as if they were in the shrub state, then they would be burned from being exposed and lack of structure maturity. Most longleaf pines will grow in an area where there are also hardwoods growing

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).

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.