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Regarding the article below, I would caution that this story was
centered on western Montana and, while it is a good article about
western forests, the take-home messages cannot be directly applied to
Nova Scotia forests (not that anyone one has said this in the email
commentary, but in case anyone is thinking it, I cannot resist raising a
red flag). Rocky Mountain ecosystems, for the most part, require a
short fire cycle, with forest ecosystem health relying on fire as a key
renewal agent. Eastern forest ecosystems are not reliant on fire as an
agent of forest renewal. Natural fires in the Acadian forest occur at
very long intervals, 100s to more than 1000 years between catastrophic
wildfire events. It seems that some of our forests may have never
burned at all, in fact. The natural cycle of fire varies across Nova
Scotia depending on the ecoregion, weather patterns, geology, soil
moisture, elevation, natural fire barriers, etc. More commonly, Acadian
forests are renewed through insects, wind events, disease pathogens, and
senescence/decay, causing gaps of varying sizes and intervals. Large
stand-replacement events were rare. Hence old growth was common. The
scientific literature backs this up. Even the early shipping and mill
records support that we featured large dimension timber, much of it old
growth and late successional. Those were the days.
Unfortunately, the frequent land clearance and logging slash fires
during European settlement changed much of our forest character, right
down to the soils in many cases. Presently we have new forest
disturbance agents called feller bunchers and processors becoming the
dominant over-riding signal on the forest landscape to the point that
mature to old forests are becoming hard to find and are very
fragmented. In Annapolis County, few natural patches of forest remain.
Some levels of government continue to focus on disturbance regimes,
but for the wrong reasons. Encouraging us to become concerned about
getting enough disturbance from fire and other agents into our forest
systems, rather than concentrating on a greatly-needed long period of
recovery and restoration. Most of our forests presently require
centuries of recovery just to nurse depleted soils back to health from
fires, acid rain, and clearcutting. One thing each of us can do is
encourage hardwood growth, with deep rooting structures that help
improve soil conditions.
Nonetheless, there are some 'experts' within the Maritimes who will
continue to proclaim that our NS forests are fire dependent ecosystems,
failing to recognize the unique disturbance dynamic and complexity of
Acadian forest. It is easy to confuse the heightened fire frequencies
during the 1780s-/ca./1900 as being 'natural' when they were ignited by
our forefathers for one reason or another. It's rare that a dry
lightening strike actually ignites a wildfire of any consequence in NS,
though it can happen in rare instances, particularly in droughts. In
the Rockies it is common and western and northern ecosystems are adapted
to that.
My 'fire 'n brimstone' sermon for this evening, haha. (I've researched
fire history in NB and to a lesser extent in NS, and am aware of some of
the misinterpretations used by forest industry to justify clearcutting,
stating that it emulates fire. There is a lot that is plain wrong with
this thinking. And so, I take opportunity to write about fire as it
relates to the Acadian forest whenever I can.)
Donna Crossland
Tupperville
On 2019-08-08 8:24 a.m., Richard Stern wrote:
> Great article!
>
> Richard Stern
> sent from my Android device
>
> On Thu., Aug. 8, 2019, 7:58 a.m. Don MacNeill,
> <donmacneill@bellaliant.net <mailto:donmacneill@bellaliant.net>> wrote:
>
> An interesting take on the ecological value of forest fires
>
> https://www.allaboutbirds.org/old-flames-the-tangled-history-of-forest-fires-wildlife-and-people/?utm_source=Cornell%20Lab%20eNews&utm_source=Cornell%20Lab%20eNews&utm_campaign=3243b2af77-Living_Bird_Summer_2019_TOC&utm_campaign=e646205961-Cornell-Lab-eNews-2019-08-07&utm_medium=email&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_47588b5758-3243b2af77-&utm_term=0_47588b5758-e646205961-307532077
>
> --
> Don MacNeill donmacneill@bellaliant.net
> <mailto:donmacneill@bellaliant.net>
>
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<p>Regarding the article below, I would caution that this story was
centered on western Montana and, while it is a good article about
western forests, the take-home messages cannot be directly applied
to Nova Scotia forests (not that anyone one has said this in the
email commentary, but in case anyone is thinking it, I cannot
resist raising a red flag). Rocky Mountain ecosystems, for the
most part, require a short fire cycle, with forest ecosystem
health relying on fire as a key renewal agent. Eastern forest
ecosystems are not reliant on fire as an agent of forest renewal.
Natural fires in the Acadian forest occur at very long intervals,
100s to more than 1000 years between catastrophic wildfire
events. It seems that some of our forests may have never burned
at all, in fact. The natural cycle of fire varies across Nova
Scotia depending on the ecoregion, weather patterns, geology, soil
moisture, elevation, natural fire barriers, etc. More commonly,
Acadian forests are renewed through insects, wind events, disease
pathogens, and senescence/decay, causing gaps of varying sizes and
intervals. Large stand-replacement events were rare. Hence old
growth was common. The scientific literature backs this up. Even
the early shipping and mill records support that we featured large
dimension timber, much of it old growth and late successional.
Those were the days. <br>
</p>
<p>Unfortunately, the frequent land clearance and logging slash
fires during European settlement changed much of our forest
character, right down to the soils in many cases. Presently we
have new forest disturbance agents called feller bunchers and
processors becoming the dominant over-riding signal on the forest
landscape to the point that mature to old forests are becoming
har