[Sca-cooks] forest fires, Iceland and the Middle Ages

[Laura C. Minnick]

At 11:44 PM 8/23/02 -0500, you wrote:
>> El Hermoso Dormido, who feels better now :-)
>>
>> P.S. In regards to the trees - what would YOU do about the fire danger?
Make
>> it illegal for lightning to strike in heavily wooded areas? :-)

>forest fires. For sixty? eighty? years we have taken great pains to
>stomp out any forest fire what-so-ever, where-ever. The end result is
>that the underbrush and deadfall have built up in our forests. This
>means that when a fire does occur it burns hotter and longer than it
>would have under normal conditions. Rather than being a brief fire
>burning through the underbrush, leaving most of the large trees alone,
>these fires get hot enough to burn the trees as well. The extra heat
>also steralizes the forest floor, killing the seeds that would have
>sprouted to rebuild the forest floor or the forest.

Almost but not quite, Stefan- many of the seeds and cones etc *need* the
heat to open fully. What gets killed off is much of the undesireables.

Interestingly enough, we were just talking about this int he past couple of
days, and James pointed out that becasue we've been aggressively fighting
fires for, oh, the past century or so, the forests which have the
marketable trees such as ponderosa pine, sugar pine, and sequoia are being
choked out with junk trees such as the white pine, which is basically a
weed. Problem is, teh white pines burn fast and very hot- which along with
the other undergrowth create a much bigger fire once it's started. So,
supressing fires alows more fuel to grow up, meaning fires that have a lot
more damage.

If the forests were 'managed' more in the manner that the natives Americans
did for many many years before the rest of us were around, we would clear
our teh underbrush by allowing small burns more frequently. And as I
mentioned, it is actually good for teh forest- by clearing out the
undergrowth you reduce competition for sunlight and water, and teh burns
open the seed pods (especially important for sequoia).If you don't allow
the fuels to build up int eh first place, this is doable.

Problem is, now the undergrowth is at dangerous levels- and a fire that
would not be bad and maybe even good for the forest now becomes really
dangerous.

Of course, Mr Bush is suggesting that the timber interests do more logging
to cut down on fuel potential- but if you think for a moment that they will
log out the white pines and clear the undergrowth, there is a bridge near
Master A that I think is for sale. The timber companies will be pulling out
teh cash crop trees and leaving teh white pine because it isn't worth
enough to log it. And then where are we?

Of course these opinions are formed by the nearly 35 years of residence in
the Pacific Northwest, a number of years in Hippie Central (Eugene) and
three years loving a fireman. Your mileage may vary. :-D)

'Lainie
back from moving my daughter, but absolutely bone-deep exhausted
____________________________________________________________________________
Sometimes Life makes drastic changes without our permission...