Friday, January 8, 2016

Changing my view of fire suppresion


The fire season of 1996 was a pivotal year for me in changing my views of wildland fire management and the role wildfire plays in the regulation of forest and ecosystem health. Prior to that season my training and experience had taught me that the goal of wildland fire management was to slay the “Red Dragon”, to extinguish all fire before the 10 am before it could wreak devastation on the landscape. The excitement of Initial Attack and the frantic pace of felling trees, removing vegetation, and digging line to rob fire of the fuel to burn. After that season I would question these tactics and eventually my view would evolve to one that wildfire management had to be synthesized with other disciplines: like forest, range and wildlife management to meet management objectives.

What changed that summer?
Mature Lodgepole Stand 


One event contributing to this change of view started with a conversation I struck up with an old man alongside a dirt road while our crew waited for a fire assignment during that severe fire season in northeastern Oregon. He had an interesting perspective of the landscape having spent over 80 years living in the area. I remember him directing my attention over to a jack-straw, overgrown lodgepole stand telling me of the days as a kid he could ride a horse through that very forest and it was a shame you could not even walk through that same forest today. I do not think he was providing me a lesson in forestry or wildland fire management, he was simply reminiscing of days of childhood. However, that conversation on an August day in 1996 would start me thinking of forest structure and what causes change over time. Up to that point I never thought much about forests having a history too.
Lodgepole regeneration after Yellowstone Fire 1988

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