Controlled burn planned for 530 acres in Smokies park

[Olney Blue]

http://tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070223/NEWS01/702230406/1006/NEWS

Friday, 02/23/07
Controlled burn planned for 530 acres in Smokies park

Great Smoky Mountains National Park officials plan to burn parts of a forest near Maggie Valley, N.C., to help restore oak and pine woodlands and create a better habitat for elk.
The prescribed burn was scheduled for Saturday on a 530-acre tract in the Cataloochee Valley area, officials announced Thursday.
The same area was burned in 2004, and park managers are using several treatments to restore the dry oak forest, which includes fire-tolerant species like black, scarlet and chestnut oaks and some kinds of hickory. Areas of xeric oak have been taken over by maples and other species less resistant to fires.
These oak forests allow more sunlight to the ground and support different kinds of grasses and vegetation to better support elk and other wildlife.
— ASSOCIATED PRESS

[superconnected]

1. What about the animals?

[Olney Blue]

2. I hope the animals get away. I don't know.

[Xithras]

3. Don't worry about the animals.

These kinds of fires have been burning on Earth since before the forests even existed. The animals know how to get out of the way.

I'm scratching my head trying to figure out how this rates an AP article?!?! There are hundreds of these fires in national parks and national forests across the country every year, and they're a fairly routine part of modern forest management. Why did this one make the news?

[Olney Blue]

5. I don't know, but I love the Smokey Mountains and have many

friends in Tennessee who might be alarmed by the smoke- so I thought I would post this.

[freethought]

7. It's in the eastern part of the country.

Forest fires and brush fires are more associated with the western forests. No surprise that fire acts as a nutrient re-cycler in those dry western forests.

The eastern part of the U.S. is known as "the asbestos zone" because large scale forest fires or prescribed burns are practically unheard of. As I recall in my earlier college days we had a forester that specialized this field. As I remember he also had a number of sites where there were traces that the native americans in the area at the time would sometimes use fire to alter the habitat of an area, probably to attract various types of game after the area had revegetated.

This prescribed burn could actually be quite interesting. It would be interesting to see what types of flora and fauna return to the area once the burn is complete.

This should not be looked at as a bad thing. I am not worried about highly mobile animals like dear, bear, birds, and the like. They'll be fine. Likely there might me casualties of a smaller less mobile type like snakes, turtles, and other slow moving or small animals.

If I was studying ecology, botany, forestry, or wildlife biology, I might want to keep a close eye on this particular sight for some time.

[Kolesar]

9. The dead, fallen wood on the forest floor serves a purpose: retaining water

I was on a hike with an interpretive naturalist. It was during a 24 hour period of rain in the winter. The naturalist tore a hunk of fungus-decayed wood off of a deadfall, held it up and squeezed out a half a cup of water from it. That dead wood serves the purpose of keeping the moisture on the land instead of it rushing down into the streams and causing flash floods. There are purposes beyond this too, like nutrient recycling, providing cover for salamanders, and as the only home for certain species that live on dead wood.

Those controlled burns also cause a huge amount of local particulate air pollution. I have met people who live near "controlled burns" and they have had incredibly bad air to breathe.

[Xithras]

17. Controlled burns don't destroy all wood.

In fact, wood like you described would hardly be impacted at all by a controlled burn. The burns generally only burn smaller branches and large DRY deadfall. Wet deadfall isn't harmed by them.

Overall, controlled burns actually HELP to increase groundwater retention. By releasing the nutrients back into the soil and opening up the canopy, controlled burns promote the growth of new plant life on the forest floor. The roots from this new growth break up the topsoil and help to eliminate soil compaction, which permits more water to be absorbed by the ground itself.

As for the people who live in that area, I give them a big "tough noogies". If you choose to live in or near a forest, you have to deal with the natural processes of that forest. In the forest, nature must take precedence.

[Kolesar]

18. These Ohioans live in towns from the 19th century

big "tough noogies".

NEW YORK - Low environmental levels of fine and ultrafine particulate matter, as well as carbon dioxide, increase the risk of stroke, but the heightened risk occurs only during warm weather months, Finnish researchers report.

Previous research has linked air pollution with a higher risk of fatal and nonfatal stroke, according to a report in the rapid access issue of the journal Stroke. However, the Finnish study is the first, to the authors' knowledge, to examine the impact on stroke risk of ultrafine particulate pollution, defined as molecules with a diameter of less than 2.5 microns.

Dr. Jaana Kettunen, from the National Public Health Institute in Kuopio, and colleagues compared air pollution levels from 1998 to 2004 with the number of stroke deaths among elderly subjects living in Helsinki, a city known to have relatively little air pollution.

A total of 1,304 stroke deaths in the warm season and 1,961 in the cold season were logged in during the study period.

During the warm season, every 6 microgram per cubic meter increase in current-day levels of fine particulate air pollution was associated with a 6.9 percent increase in deaths from stroke. The corresponding stroke death rate for previous-day fine particulate increases was 7.4 percent. However, particulate air pollution had no effect on stroke during the cold season.


Previous-day levels of ultrafine particles plus carbon monoxide were also linked to stroke mortality. However, Kettunen commented in a statement, "these associations were less robust" than those seen with fine particulate pollution. "Coarse particles were not statistically significantly associated with stroke deaths," she added.

"Our results suggest that the levels of combustion-originating particles rather than coarse particles explain the association between particulate matter and stroke," the authors conclude. "Thus, regulatory efforts should be focused on reducing emissions of combustion particles."

SOURCE: Stroke, February 15, 2007.

[Xithras]

16. That is very interesting. Iknow the eastern forests are very "unnatural".

As in, very different in makeup from the forests originally encountered by the first white settlers, and very different from that lived in by the natives. The modern eastern forest is far more closed in, and has more numerous, smaller trees than the old growth forests that existed before. I wonder if the lack of fire could be the cause.

Anyone who really doubts the effectiveness of controlled burns should really drive into Yosemite National Park using the Big Oak Flat northern entrance. As you come through the Stanislaus National Forest, you first pass through a massive burn caused by decades of fire supression and fuel buildup. When you exit the fire zone, you enter a dense, overgrouwn forest that has very little wildlife, with no understory or forest birds (the forest is actually too thick in many areas for the eagles and falcons that once lived in the area to fly through). Deer have a hard time passing through, and even smaller rodents and birds are scarce because the dense shade in the understory keeps insect populations low and food scarce. The exception, of course, is the bark beetle, which is spreading rapidly in the dense forest and is wiping out huge numbers of trees.

Then you pass into Yosemite. The trees are spaced apart more widely, the understory is actively growing, but not thick. Wildlife is everywhere. Sunlight dapples the forest floor, and the whole place closely resembles the forests once described by its earliest visitors. Is there a magic line in the forest? No. Yosemite does prescribed burns and allows naturally ignited lightning fires to burn themselves out. Stanislaus National Forest doesn't do prescribed burns (except around populated areas to reduce fire risk) and extinguishes lightning fires as soon as they're detected.

Fire in a forest is a good thing.

[juajen]

4. Isn't this too far south and east for elk? Anybody know?

[freethought]

8. Not Really! Before the arrival of Europeans in N.A.

Elk used to have range nearly all over the U.S. They probably performed better in some areas than others. I do know there are elk herds in some of the Southern states where regulated hunts are allowed. According to Wikipedia, they are highly adaptable and are extending their range. I guess in some places they are considered invasive.

[Kolesar]

10. Elk County, Pennsylvania was named in the 18th century

And elk were reintroduced in the 20th century. Please see: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=2743436&mesg_id=2743894

[provis99]

6. shades of the "controlled" fire in New Mexico

that wiped out thousands of acres of pristine woodlands by accident, as well as over five hundred homes? Well, they did succeed in burning the part they wanted, but thats a little like saying, the operation was a success but the patient died.

[bklyncowgirl]

11. I saw that "controlled" fire before it got out of control

We drove through it on the way down to an Anasazi site at the bottom of a canyon near Los Alamos. The ranger down there was very nervous--he was National Parks Service and the guys setting the fire were National Forest Service and he didn't like it either. When we left, the blaze was still smoldering. It was after five and the workers had left for teh day. As old scouts raised on the premise that all fires must be out cold, we were outraged.

We called the park office but they couldn't do anything except call the Forest Service who said everything was under control.

It was not windy that night (we camped a few miles away) but a few days later the wind did whip up and the fire spread damn near wiping out the town of Los Alamos not to mention the weapsons lab and all the "stuff" they must have there.

[Kolesar]

15. "The Canyon of Beans"?

Frijole Canyon??

[GoddessOfGuinness]

14. I'd wager that fewer wildfires are caused by controlled fires gone awry

than are caused by lightning strikes.

Generally speaking, controlled burns are little publicized, if at all. I can remember doing some off-trail hiking through a local park one day, and happening upon a controlled burn. Nobody said anything to us at all. It was pretty freaky.

[ensho]

12. seems like controlled burns have a way of becoming uncontrolled

don't think this is a very good idea

[mike_c]

13. they should do this more often....

Fire exclusion has disastrously disrupted the ecology of North American forests, both western and eastern.

[depakid]

19. How quickly people forget about Yellowstone

(I know it's a completely different ecosystem, but the concept is a broad one and still applies).