Bigthink - Idea Comments Feed

Comment on: Fire and the Forest

Bigthink — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 14:53:13 +0100

Science Education is always the KEY!

Comment on: Fire and the Forest

Bigthink — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 06:43:34 +0100

I agree that fire is a very key thing in maintaining a ecosystem(where plausible). Over the last century we have practiced fire suppressing rather than containment and management. It seems that people see fire as bad because it takes away from the aesthetic values of the land scape. I believe that people need to be taught that fires are a necessary in maintaining ecological integrity of the land. I am worried that because of the last few years of fire weather we have been having causing some huge fire ( California, BC) people will be turned off by the idea of using fire as a tool to help fix the environment and also to let it take its natural course. I think a lot of this is misinformation a lot of these huge fires are in fact increased by no letting the small ones burn in the first place causing a large amount of build up in fine and heavy fuels, in turn cause large crown fires instead of smaller ground fires.

Comment on: Fire and the Forest

Bigthink — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 01:32:22 +0100

Some ecosytems are fire depentent such as the southwestern United States. Fire in these environments prepares the soil for seeding by creating an open seedbed, making nutrients more available for uptake and often killing plants that are invading into the habitat and competing with native species. Some plants are dependent on fire for seed germination. Supression of fire in fire-adapted ecosystems can huge fires and plant speices extinction. So very important!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_ecology