Burning In The Forests

4 Pages 932 Words

Burning in the Forests

The forest is a complicated ecosystem for plants, animals and human inhabitants. All things are connected in nature. From the first evidence of human existence man has used fire to control and change his environmental surroundings to clear land for hunting, farming and population expansion. “Human life probably first made its appearance on our planet some three or so million years age, before the start of the Ice Age” (Goudie1989).
Today only 5% of our North American forest remains today (Jensen3). This means we have managed to all but eliminate one of our most precious resources in America. Realization of this fact should make us question every method of managing the remaining forests. Knowing that all things are connected in nature also means our survival may depend on the health our planets natural resources.
The argument of whether to use prescribed (controlled) burns on public and private lands can be a very impassioned subject for both sides. Does prescribed burning of forest benefit the health of the forest or hurt the ecosystem? Will prescribed burns prevent or lessen the effects of wildfires? Should man try to mimic natural fires behavior in order to manage our remaining forest?
Most natural fires are caused by lightening strikes and are low intensity fires. Not every lightening strikes results in a wildfire (high intensity fire) because fuels are not in a combustible state (Yellowstone).
When old growth forest trees are examined you can see that they have been blackened with scars, evidence that many times fires has passed through the forest and the trees still live. As an example the regeneration of forest accrues when Pine trees seed cones are exposed to heat such as a fire which releases their seeds, thus renewing the forest tree numbers (Jensen64).
In low intensity fires animal can escape by moving out of the area and going underground to return later. Prescribed bu...