[NatureNS] Cornell Article

DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; q=dns/txt; c=relaxed/relaxed;
To: naturens@chebucto.ns.ca
References: <71ca145d-2145-1d41-59ad-e3f29b221ac6@bellaliant.net>
From: Doug Linzey <doug@fundymud.com>
Date: Fri, 9 Aug 2019 01:15:48 -0300
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; WOW64; rv:60.0) Gecko/20100101
Precedence: bulk
Return-Path: <naturens-mml-owner@chebucto.ns.ca>
Original-Recipient: rfc822;"| (cd /csuite/info/Environment/FNSN/MList; /csuite/lib/arch2html)"

next message in archive
next message in thread
previous message in archive
previous message in thread
Index of Subjects

&gt;&gt;     https://www.allaboutbirds.org/old-flames-the-tangled-history-of-forest-fires-wi
Thank you, Donna Crossland, for this very clear and concise portrait of 
the Acadian forest and its natural aversion to fire -- in contrast to 
some unfortunately common theories to the contrary. Your post deserves 
to be seen beyond this forum of naturalists. The least I can do is copy 
it to my MLA.

Cheers,
Doug Linzey

On 8/8/2019 7:24 PM, Donna Crossland wrote:
>
> 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
>
>

next message in archive
next message in thread
previous message in archive
previous message in thread
Index of Subjects