From grbarry@students.wisc.edu Sat Oct 21 17:57:23 2000
Date: Thu, 19 Oct 2000 00:41:05 -0500
From: Glen Barry 
Subject: BIOD: Fire is Good for Many Forests in the Long Term

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WORLDWIDE FOREST/BIODIVERSITY CAMPAIGN NEWS
Fire is Good for Many Forests in the Long Term
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Forest Networking a Project of Forests.org, Inc.
      http://forests.org/ -- Forest Conservation Archives & Portal

10/19/00
OVERVIEW & COMMENTARY
In all but the most extreme cases, fires are good for forests.  There
are of course exceptions-including most tropical forests.  However,
it is clear that the fires that raged throughout the arid Western
region of the United States this past summer are going to bring
ecological renewal.  Fire is a very important natural disturbance
that maintains and renews most temperate ecosystems, albeit at
different periodicities.  Following are two supportive articles for
these contentions.  The first shows that contrary to the alarmist
press coverage over the summer, the Western fires in many cases
appear to have laid the basis for significant improvement in habitat
quality.  The second details the amazing ecological reawakening that
has occurred in the Yellowstone ecosystem; where some 12 years ago
over 1/3 of the park burned, and yet the natural regeneration
following this major fire has been called "incredible", and is
plainly and indisputably evident.

The presumed ills of fires, even when severe and widespread, are
overblown; with much of the economic and social costs resulting from
inappropriate placement of dwellings within forested landscapes.  The
restorative ecological powers of natural disturbances such as
periodic fires are critical in maintaining and renewing many forest
ecosystems, and must not be hindered.  Logging forests to prevent
natural periodic fires, as is being earnestly pursued to give a false
sense that something is being done, particularly during drought
years, is unnecessary and counterproductive.  It would be criminally,
ecologically devastating to allow increased logging in order to
"prevent" such restorative natural processes.  In this case, nature
knows best.  We absolutely must "learn to live with fire in the West
instead of trying to control it."  To do otherwise dooms the Western
landscape to intensified, spiraling ecological decline.
g.b.

P.S.  An Action Alert by Forests.org on the Internet at:
http://forests.org/emailaction/usfires_sept_00.htm is still
applicable.  Please take the time to let President Clinton know that
commercial logging causes, not prevents, forest fires.

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ITEM #1
Title:  Biologists say fire is good for forest in the long term
Source:  Associated Press, Copyright 2000
Date:  October 6, 2000

While the untrained eye might see only doom and disaster in the
charred trees and black mud washed into Ludwig Creek by last
weekend's rains, others see future food for fish.

"Some people have blown this up into a much bigger deal than it
really is," Salmon Fish and Game fishery biologist Mike Larkin told
Fish and Game commissioners Wednesday while touring areas charred by
the 338-square-mile Clear Creek Fire.

The commissioners, who held their monthly meeting in Salmon, toured
the burned area by land and by helicopter to learn about its affects
on fish and wildlife.

What they learned is that in the short term, fish and wildlife will
be harmed, but in the long run, the fire will have created more or
better habitat for fish, deer and elk.

Despite reports of Panther Creek and Little Deer Creek in the
Salmon-Challis National Forest running "black like tar" last weekend,
a helicopter flight over the fire reassured most of the
commissioners.

"Where it's bad, it's terrible, but it's not as devastated as I
thought it would be," said Commissioner Marcus Gibbs from Grace.
"From a wildlife standpoint I'm not worried."

The Clear Creek Fire burned in a mosaic, marked by different degrees
of intensity. About 5 percent of the area, much of it in watersheds
and elk winter range, was burned to a crisp, while about 25 percent
burned with moderate intensity.

About 70 percent of the 216,000 acres burned at low intensity or not
at all.

Studies show sediment uncovered by fires clogs streams for a few
years, but then provides long-term, nutrient-rich habitat for fish.

Downed trees also provide cover and sediment traps in streams. While
Forest Service employees could not quantify the number of animals
killed by the blaze, they reported finding at least three dead
cougars. Among them was a female with kittens. There are also reports
of elk dying in areas where the fire made big, fast runs and of an
unusual number of lone bear cubs.

One cub has turned to begging for food from bulldozer operators
rehabilitating fire lines, said Terry Hershey, ranger for the Salmon-
Cobalt district.

Commissioners are concerned with how elk and deer will fare this
winter. The Clear Creek Fire and fires in the Frank Church-River of
No Return Wilderness burned some of their prime winter habitat.

The severity of the winter and how the animals respond to the missing
habitat will determine how well they survive the winter, biologists
said.

Some commissioners said feeding elk herds this winter is an option to
be considered.

"The bad thing is they went through drought this summer so they are
not going into the winter in very good shape; those that do survive
won't be in very good shape," said Salmon-Cobalt District ranger
Terry Hershey. "But that's just short term; in the long term this
should be the best thing that's happened to this country in a long
time."


ITEM #2
Title:  Years later, park shows landscape can recover fast from fires
Source:  Associated Press, Copyright 2000
Date:  October 18, 2000
By:  JAN FALSTAD, The Billings Gazette

Stepping over the blackened skeletons of trees felled by savage winds
and fires in the mid-1980s, Yellowstone National Park biologist Roy
Renkin recalls when scientists wondered whether the burned area would
ever grow a forest again.

"This was torched as black as the bottom of a barbecue grill," he
says.

Renkin, caressing a soft branch of a 6-foot lodgepole pine growing
back in one of the worst burn sites, calls the reforestation over the
past 12 years "incredible."

After the world watched more than one-third of Yellowstone Park burn
in 1988, a group of scientists from different disciplines thought, at
best, this area might lack vegetation for decades. But the land took
a different route, the grasses and wildflowers returning the first
spring.

During the volatile first year of the new century, more than 82,000
wildfires burned 6.9 million acres across America. While Yellowstone
is a special case - a national park lying atop an alpine plateau
framed by rugged mountains - this land's recovery may demonstrate how
quickly other burned landscapes rebound.

"An important post-fire lesson is that geology has a lot to do with
what plants grow where," Renkin says. "Forest species grow in forest-
friendly soils. Meadow plants grow in meadow lands."

An area between Canyon and Norris in the center of Yellowstone
probably burned the hottest of any spot in the park's 1988 fires.

A tornado or rogue wind blew down 660 acres of trees in 1984. The
downed timber rotted and dried out for four years and when the flames
of the North Fork fire hit in 1988, the fire had a happy home.
Instead of burning erect lodgepole pines and moving on, the fire
settled in to feast on the downed drought-dried timber, smoldering
for days and searing the ground. The fire vaporized the organic
matter from the soil's upper layers under rotten logs, burning as hot
as 1,200 degrees Fahrenheit over some 800 acres - one-tenth of 1
percent of the park. Some thought the blow-down area would remain
sterile, perhaps for decades.

Renkin and Don Despain have studied vegetation in Yellowstone for
three decades. Despain is a researcher and assistant professor at the
U.S. Geological Survey's Northern Rocky Mountain Science Center in
Bozeman. The pair often work together on research projects.

Twelve years ago as the Yellowstone fires burned, Despain and Renkin
raced around the park measuring off 15-meter by 25-meter plots. They
counted the trees within the plot lines and recorded the forest's
vegetation before the fires hit, then counted seedlings and measured
plant cover through the years.

At the Canyon blow down, the scientists counted growth the year after
the fire, as the grass, sedges and flowers were coming back. The
grasses grew widely spaced across the burn area. However, the trees
came back thicker at the edges of the blow down than in the middle.
That's because there was no seed source in the middle of the blow
down and lodgepole pine seeds don't travel far.

But lodgepole pine is supremely adapted to fire. Many of the trees
produce a resin that keeps the seeds inside the mature cones until
heated by a fire. A tree crown can store up to 30 years of seed,
waiting to be released by the next fire.

Peering out over the blow-down area, Renkin recalls how bleak
everything looked after the fires of '88. Despain remembers standing
with scientists of all disciplines, wondering what would happen in
years to come.

"They said, 'This area burned so hot, it might become a meadow.'
Well, this reforestation was a surprise to those people because I
tried to say, 'Don't say that.' This is forest soil and forest plants
will come back," Despain says.

You cannot understand how a tree grows back without understanding the
forces that built the soil.

Glaciers and volcanoes carved the lands of Yellowstone National Park
and helped to create its unique geology.

Yellowstone sits atop a huge, quite active, volcano.

The last violent eruption, a mere 600,000 years ago, blew an enormous
crater 40 miles across inside the park boundary. Along with other
monster forces like climate and elevation, it determined the park's
vegetation.

But fire and drought have changed parts of these landscapes
overnight, in geologic time.

Mix wind with the twin forces of record-setting drought and heat in
the West and fire is inevitable. That's what happened during the
firestorms in Yellowstone in 1988. And that's what has changed one
man's perception of nature' s power.

"In 1987, if you told me that a fire at the southwestern boundary of
the park would burn up to and out of the north side of Yellowstone,
I'd have said, 'No way.' Now I know it could happen," says Renkin,
speaking about the North Fork fire, Yellowstone's largest, which
consumed 531,000 acres.

Another lesson from Yellowstone Park is that replacing topsoil on
bulldozer or hand-dug fire lines makes a big difference.

"If they put the topsoil back where it came from, it has the
nutrients the plants need and the seeds," Despain said. "If they put
that back on top, the plants will recover relatively quickly."

A couple of miles from the blow down, Renkin points to the 1948 Peter
Kewitt fire, named after the construction company whose worker
started the blaze while building roads and campsites.

He points to a fire line that remains clearly visible like a road
leading into the forest.

"You look around a half-century later and look at the vegetative
growth in here. It's almost nonexistent. This scar on our forest
lands will be evident for centuries," Renkin says. "If left to their
own development, the plant community can respond to the fire, but
they have a hard time responding to our behavior."

For burn areas across the West, Renkin agrees with Despain that
replacing topsoil is paramount where heavy fire-fighting tactics are
used. Erosion control measures, like installing water bars or logs,
across steep slopes can make a big difference.

And Renkin said fighting weeds immediately after a fire is crucial,
especially in last summer's burns across the West, before rains
nourish

Despain says scientists almost to a person agree on one key point:
fire has been a part of the Western landscape for centuries and will
always be a neighbor.

"Ecologically and biologically, the fires have little effect,"
Despain says. "The area wasn't stripped of all life by the fire."

Despain said he has one other piece of advice for people living or
visiting the fire areas of the West.

"Enjoy the flower show starting next spring," Despain said. "What
research I have done is on lupine and it tripled after the fires."

Flowers may blossom, but the dark snags or burned trees may stand as
forest sentinels - a reminder of fire's power - for half a century or
more before falling over.

Both Yellowstone scientists agree that talk of logging forests
outside national parks to keep deadfall from accumulating doesn't
address the central question of drought. After three years of drought
- including a summer drier than any in the last half-century -
forests and prairies, if ignited by man or lightning, are going to
burn.

"Learn to live with fire in the West instead of trying to control it.
That may be the lesson the public takes from the fires of '88,"
Renkin concludes.

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