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 Posted: Mon Jul 22, 2013 10:30 am
I grew up on a ranch, just right of the middle of nowhere Alberta. One of the things my father would do annually is burn the front lawn. Yep, he torched it late July without fail. His reasoning (other than being a weirdo) was that, being in the prairies, fire was part of the natural life cycle. I've grown up with. When I hear of fires far from here, far from people and their homes, and how they're trying to put it out, I always think "why bother?" It's what happens in nature and there are some trees that will only seed after intense heat. NPR Article For millennia, fire kept this place a sea of thick, knee-high sagebrush and short grass, patched with clusters of aspen trees. A century ago, the government decided to stop all wildfires. That move upset the balance of the ecosystem. … And the firs really don't belong here anyway — they push out the sagebrush and actually hurt the sage grouse, the iconic bird species that lives in the valley. Hawks roost on the tall firs to spot the grouse in the brush below. The firs give the hawks an advantage that upsets the balance between prey and predator. When fires were allowed to take their natural course, the firs were burned out. What are your thoughts? Are you in an area prone to fires? Do they do controlled fires?
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Posted: Mon Jul 22, 2013 11:30 am
I live in the Okanagan, so we have annual fires usually. I think that sometimes they do "controlled burning" to wipe out a line of flammable stuff in order to stop an approaching fire from getting too close to houses.
Our plants don't seem to grow back quickly at all after a fire though, the biggest one in my memory took at least 3 years for it to look like anything was growing where it had burnt down.
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Posted: Mon Jul 22, 2013 6:37 pm
I forgot you are in BC too!
I know the interior has lots of fires, so control burning around populated areas is a good idea. I wonder if there are native trees that are "fire resistant" like the aspens in the article.
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Posted: Mon Jul 22, 2013 7:45 pm
There don't seem to be, from what I've seen of the burned places.
I won't be for much longer, there's no damn jobs here so we have to mooove. Agaiiin.
(6 months, 3 interviews. Seriously.)
I'll miss it and my garden.
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Posted: Mon Jul 22, 2013 10:04 pm
rilsin-b There don't seem to be, from what I've seen of the burned places. I won't be for much longer, there's no damn jobs here so we have to mooove. Agaiiin. (6 months, 3 interviews. Seriously.) I'll miss it and my garden. I'm going to pay more attention to the landscape next time I'm there. All I remember are rolling brown-red hills. And.... that sucks. Do you think you'll stay in BC or go elsewhere? There are always job openings where I live. ninja
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Posted: Mon Jul 22, 2013 10:14 pm
pirhan I'm going to pay more attention to the landscape next time I'm there. All I remember are rolling brown-red hills. And.... that sucks. Do you think you'll stay in BC or go elsewhere? There are always job openings where I live. ninja There's basically nowhere we can get grownup jobs and afford to feed ourselves. We're moving to Ottawa since my husband's family lives there, and he's going to go to school for the next 5 years. I'm not entirely pleased, but it's not like we have any better ideas. Brown-red hills sounds like you came by in August. Try June instead wink
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Posted: Wed Jul 24, 2013 8:07 am
In the south part of Puerto Rico, many natural fires start due high temperatures and dry plants. Yet they heal due some great patches of vegetation in between the crevices of the mountains.
However, in the central mountains they provoke fires to the high and bad weed-grass because it's hard to get rid of.
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Posted: Mon Jul 29, 2013 3:35 pm
Haruyuki In the south part of Puerto Rico, many natural fires start due high temperatures and dry plants. Yet they heal due some great patches of vegetation in between the crevices of the mountains.
However, in the central mountains they provoke fires to the high and bad weed-grass because it's hard to get rid of. Interesting to know that they have controlled burns in places that provoke a tropical, rainforest feel. We haven't had rain here for a month now. Construction is banned during certain hours and in certain areas (they need to be x amount of distance between the site and wooded area) and they can't use certain tools outside. It rained just a little last night. We need a good week of rain, but I'd take three days of pouring. It was a thunder storm last night. I love thunder storms, but I'm very concerned. I've lived in the area for ten years and in that ten years, I've witnessed only two thunder storms. Last year we had one really good one, and I think last night's storm was #5 for the season. confused I have two more articles from the NPR: Once Resilient, Trees In The West Now More Vulnerable To FiresQuote: But scientists are discovering that some trees in the West that previously would survive and thrive with small fires are now losing their ability to do so. "As we came across areas that were warmer relative to the long-term average, they had a higher chance of mortality, those trees, after they got burned," van Mantgem says. Trees are no strangers to heat and drought — they're pretty tough. But van Mantgem found that the kind of heat we're seeing in the West recently has made some trees vulnerable, even in small fires. How that works isn't exactly clear. Van Mantgem says it appears that drought and heat can create air bubbles inside the trees, like the air bubbles that sometimes jam up an engine's fuel system. Quote: Ironically, the Mount Charleston blue butterfly is dependent on wildfires. For thousands of years, fire cleared out the trees and opened up habitat for the small plants that the butterfly feeds on. But for several decades, people have been fighting fires here and elsewhere in the West. The plants the butterfly needs can't grow in forests
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