Prescribed Pasture Burning

The National Park Service communicates with surrounding areas to help prevent fires. They also have specialists to investigate when a burn ban needs to be in effect, this is all depending on certain reasons and moisture content in the area Angie (2006). Firefighters fight wildfires by depriving them of one or more of the fire trio basics. Traditional methods include water drenching and spraying fire retardants to

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 centuries, society has been battling these natural disasters with considerable effort, only to come up with charred land and numerous homeless citizens. The one most significant gain, however, that comes with these fires is the vigorous regrowth that occurs years after the devastation. With a freshly cleared area, decaying sediment acting as fertilizer, and a significantly lower chance for fires, new life is easily reintroduced from the waste. The question then becomes whether it is ethical for human intervention with what is completely natural and healthy for the surrounding environment. The idea of allowing uncontrolled burns comes with great potential for animal and plant habitats, however it leaves many citizens in the wake of danger. Finding the balance between these two ideas, excessive interference and absolute surrender of control, is an important endeavor to way

Before the drastic events of the dust bowl, white settlers, lured in by extremely inexpensive land, arrived to have lives as farmers. However, to obtain this land Native Americans were forced off of their own land, leaving millions of acres with thick prairie grass. This seemingly indestructible grass could survive lightning strikes, harsh winters, blazing summers, and the most anhydrous droughts. Sadly, when the settlers arrived, the destruction and removal of the grass from the vast plains began. To accomplish such a feat, farmers used axes, sharp blade plows, and some farmers even used their bare hands. In only two decades, millions of acres of prairie grass was completely obliterated, just for wheat to replace it. Thankfully for the farmers, the wheat was fruitful, for plentiful rain ensued the planting of the wheat. At this time, humans destroyed the prairie grass.

Now, these fires are started under supervision of the city [6]. These low burning fires burn leaf layers on the ground to produce fertilizer and kill invasive species that are not adapted to fire [6]. These fires also “allow more light to penetrate into the savannah habitats”, which has had great success in increasing native plant populations, such as the wild lupine and dryland blueberry [8].

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.

On another note, extensive forests on some reservations made for an attractive target for exploitation in the early twentieth century. One effort to manage timber in the West was to outlaw Indian-set fires. Indians argued that the fires were used to

Sometimes the public’s opinion about burning rangelands and regulations can influence the ability of landowners and range managers to perform controlled burns. Many of the grasslands and areas managers wish to burn have adapted to occasional fires and native grasses can recover quite well, while unwanted woody species are reduced. Suppression of controlled burns, many times because of the public’s opinion, can lead to an increase in these woody species, competing for nutrients with native grasses. If controlled burns continue to be suppressed by the public and

Furthermore, Robin and Sebastian specify the current problem on public land is the over-rest of grass which is arguable just as bad for the grassland area and its biodiversity as overgrazing (Rediscover The

Upon reviewing how frequently historical wildfires have burned near my home (Fire Regime 2017) I had found that my home area fell between the fire regime group 1 and 2. These regimes have a 0-35-year frequency of wildfires occurring with surface fires being the most common. This is due to the fact that the area around my home is made up of mainly 20% herb and tree cover. Most of the wildfire in my area are made up of prairie fires which have an important role in healthy ecosystems near me.

A disease such as a bark beetle infestation can destroy the part of the tree that transfers nutrients throughout the tree. Forest fires kill these pests and some other infected trees which will give other healthy trees the opportunity to be nourished by the burned vegetation that contains nutrients. It also eliminates the number of pests that can infest these trees. Forest fires also allow for new habitats to be formed. Forest animals take shelter in wildlands, and often can get covered in heavy brush. A fire will clear all that away and leave room for new shrubs and grasses. When heavy shrubs are removed from a fire, water supply is increased. This increased water supply can benefit different types of plants and animals that now inhabit that

When you burn the land a lot of the nutrients in the soil are destroyed. So you can only slash and burn for a couple of years and then you have to allow the land to sit and recover. Which means no farming on that land for several years. Because the soil in these regions was already pretty poor this was still a good way to prepare the ground for farming.

Invasive species are known to affect fire regimes in dramatic ways. One example of this is Bromus tectorum, also known as downy brome, Mormon oats, and bronco grass, but called cheatgrass by most people (See Figure 1; Devine, 1993). Cheatgrass is an annual grass that germinates in the winter and is able to rapidly adapt to a specific ecosystem (Chambers et al., 2014). Bromus tectorum creates a feedback loop with fire (Taylor, Brummer, Rew, Lavin, & Maxwell, 2014). It acts as a continuous fine fuel in the sagebrush-steppe, which helps fires to spread (Reisner, Grace, Pyke, & Doescher, 2013; Davies et al., 2011; Devine, 1993). After a fire, re-establishment of native vegetation is nearly impossible as a monoculture of cheatgrass

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).

Wildfires benefit by killing all the dead trees and making them re grow better than they were before. It also helps clean the forest floors from all the dead plants. The ashes can provide nutrients for other plants. It makes more generations every time there's a wild first. Wildfires can clear diseases if an insect in that habitat is carrying it.