TheOak

What if these super forest fires that are burning up thousands of acres of our country periodically are man caused and a result from putting out forest fires and not allowing nature to burn off surface debris naturally?

dam1953

That's not a what it. It pretty much fact. The National Forest Service has documented that the practice of putting out "small burns" allows the fuel (fallen trees, brush, seedlings, saplings, etc.) to accumulate to dangerous levels. Then, when a fire erupts you have a catastrophic event. The attached photograph illustrates the impact of humans on the forest understory.

FYI. Many don't realize that fire "prevention" is also a major cause of desertification. Up until the 1800's large tracts of the southwest US were short grass prairie. Once man arrived and started farming and ranching, the belief was that grass fires destroyed the grassland that the cattle depended on. Unfortunately, the opposite is true. Most grasslands are sustained by fire. A fire quickly burns grassland which can re-sprout from the buried root structure and seeds after the first rainfall. Shrubs, saplings, etc. take much longer to regrow after a grass fire. So, with periodic fires, the habitat becomes an established, regenerative grassland. Man's intervention resulted in the grasslands being overrun with slower growing, invasive species such as creosote, sage, mesquite, etc. that crowd-out grasses. When spring rains appeared the lack of the grass root structure resulted in erosion of the thin top soil, permanently damaging the ecosystem and expanding the SW US deserts. So, fires were actually beneficial to the farmer and cattlemen.

Similarly, fires are essential to sustaining the south Louisiana marsh ecosystems.

Attached Thumbnails

 

”It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.” Charles Darwin