The Impact Of Forest Fires On Wildlife And Ecosystem Restoration

Prescriptive Concepts of Burning for Animal Species

Fire can be useful in promoting ecosystem restoration and it can help in managing wildlife habitat. Not all disasters that lead to the destruction and depletion of the forests are caused by human activities. Some are also caused by the forces of nature, and human beings have no control over it. One such instance is the causing of wildfire and the pernicious effects of it on the rich variety of wildlife that depends on the forests for their shelter. However, with the expansion of number of needs of human beings, the requirement to penetrate deep into forests and burn them to clear out the mess is also increasing. Wildfires are a rare occurrence but when they break out they can be disastrous. In the yesteryears it was not possible to control wild fire manually as the logistical help was not available to the people, and only rain was the way in which wildfire could be tamed. The first article Fire Effects on Wildlife in the Central Hardwoods and Appalachian Regions USA” prescriptive concepts of burning can be useful for the animal species. The second article “Wildland Fire in Ecosystems” states that forest fires can help in bringing forth new plants but in the longer run it can be instrumental in harming wildlife. The third article “Managing Forests after Fire” states that adaptive management can be useful in relation to outbreak of forest fire as it helps in building on the existent practices that can improve the practice of fire management. In today’s world it is possible to control forest fire since fire-fighting essentials can be airlifted and before the fire could engulf a major part of the forest, it can be extinguished quickly. However the benefit forest fires cause to the natural habitat of the wild animals is worth the mention. The purpose of this essay for this particular essay is thus going to be about the management of the forest fires from unleashing its harmful effects on the wildlife and the valuable natural resources as well along with a mention of the benefits of low intensity forest fires. In the following sections, the discussion shall be proceeding on the basis of the thesis statement, illustrating the viewpoints of scholars on the issue.

The thesis statement of the first article Fire Effects on Wildlife in the Central Hardwoods and Appalachian Regions USA” is the enquiry into the prescriptive concepts of how burning can be useful for the animal species. The first article states that application of fire on the positions that are best suited in relation to burning can be instrumental in increasing regional landscape heterogeneity. This article states that prescriptive concepts pertaining to burning that can be useful for the different wildlife species in Central Hardwoods.  Harper et al (2016) in their article talks about the issue of forest fires affecting the wildlife of the savanna grasslands and oak forests of the region of Central Hardwoods and the Appalachian mountains of the United States of America. The reason behind the outbreak of the fire as provided by the scholars of this particular article is not a natural one, which is generally caused by the strong wind blowing at a great energy, uprooting trees and making them dash against each other. In that process of the generation of the frictional force immense amount of heat energy is produced and that causes the fire to burn large portions of the forest to be engulfed. On the contrary it has been said by Harper et al (2016) that the forest fires are a result of human activities. There has been a rising wave of activities which involves clearing of the forest canopies for allowing the sunlight to penetrate the forest floor properly so that silviculture could be possible. As a result of it, the forests had to be burnt down. The authors of this particular research article has prescribed that burning of forests is not in totality a menace, it is rather a necessary evil which must be taken into make the forest habitable for many species who would otherwise lose out on their living space in the forest. The intensity of the fire has to be put under check in order to ensure that the foliage from the forest gets effectively cleared without causing much harm to the full grown trees. On the basis of research it has been deduced that a forest area above 12 hectares of land surface area should ideally be burnt down for the sake of making forests habitable for several species. The most preferable season for burning down forest should be in the winters as that would make the woody areas to be easily burnt down, as it is the dormant season and most animals go into hibernation hence they will be saved. This goes as far as the benefit of low intensity fire is concerned, but it must be managed properly so that it does not turn out into menace.

Effects of Wildfires on Animal Habitat

The thesis statement for the second article “Wildland Fire in Ecosystems” states that forest fires can help in bringing forth new plants but in the longer run it can be instrumental in harming wildlife. Fire regimes can alter the landscape pattern along with functional linkage. The article states that changes occurring owing to fire regimes can have an effect on the aspect of animal habitat and it can produce major changes in relation to composition of the faunal communities. This article states that Smith (2000) in her article writes that the patterns in which fire breaks out; the expanse of the fire; the level of the fire, whether it is uniform or it is scattered; and the severity with which it burns are the factors which determines how destructive shall the fire be in causing injury or death to the wildlife. She mentions of the fact that the forest fires have this propensity to harm the slow moving the animals much more than the fast moving ones. The utility of forest fires can trigger the spawning of plants for a very short period of time but it leads to the death of the wildlife which can also lead to their extinction. The methods of managing fire in her article ranges from finding alternatives to managing fire, to resorting to methods that shall proactively counter the instance of the occurrence of fire. The alternative to managing fire can be by suppression of the fire, or by uncontrollabale fire, or by a method that would be a combination of the two. This method seeks to preserve the habitat of the animals rather than creating a new one for them. The vegetation that ought to be cleared should be burnt down as the objective should be to maintain the original habitat of the wildlife the way it is, instead of relocating them to a new place where they might as well die while adjusting with the new environment. She also necessitates the requirement for conducting researches to understand the relationship between the flora and the fauna to their habitat, to understand the question of landscape and gathering information about it vis-à-vis the habitats of the wildlife, and also conducting researches at the site level to understand the dynamism of fighting fire. Most importantly, she hints at gathering knowledge about the fire-fighting techniques that were prevalent in the prehistoric times, and compare the relative advantages and disadvantages of the methods.

The thesis statement of the third article “Managing Forests after Fire” states how adaptive management can be useful in relation to outbreak of forest fire as it helps in building on the existent practices that can improve the practice of fire management. It argues that post fire timber harvest can pave the path for different outcomes that depends on biophysical setting in relation to the forest. This article discusses that the length of time fire-killed tree has commercial value depends on the species (Fs.fed.us). The article titled, ‘Managing Forests After Fire’, published by the Pacific Northwest Research Station concerns itself with the pernicious effect of forest fire on wildlife and on the quality of the timber. The research article says that different species of wildlife respond and behave differently to the outbreak of forest fire. Some tend to succumb easily, while some are relatively resilient. For the purpose of managing the after effects of the forest fire, the collection of data and the usage of the best and the most sophisticated mechanism must be employed for the management of the forest and the fire so that in future the incidence of the outbreak of fire could be controlled. In this regard the collaborative efforts of the resource managers and the scientists is inevitable as they are supposed to be equipped with the necessary knowledge of managing the fire. The situational analysis is of prime importance as it enables one to reconcile the efforts of the scientists with that of the managers and take judicious judgements accordingly. Given the unpredictable nature of the forest fires, the method of adaptive management is the only suitable one. It is based on trial and error and building upon the existing methods to improve the fire management practices. Apart from that, multi-site studies over a long period of time is essential as that would help in filling the gaps that are there in science and in field of post fire management studies. The research article also cautions against the proper implementation of the methods based upon the situations instead of trying to apply the principles per se.

In the concluding section thus it can be said that the fire management methods are quite varied and at the same time they overlap with each other quite a lot. It can be concluded that applying fire in places suited to burning can pave the path for heterogeneity in relation to the regional landscape. It can be deduced that fire regimes can bring about changes in relation to faunal communities. The article makes us conclude that various wildlife species behave differently to that of the outbreak of forest fire. Thus in this way all the three thesis statement has been synthesized. The most common element that can be deduced from the three articles that have been discussed is that the importance must be given to the context and the site most as the inspection of the site shall provide quite a lot of profound implications and indications that shall be beneficial for the fire management. As it has been seen that the benefit of low intensity is quite substantial, as it helps to clear out the forest properly and it makes space for the animals to have their habitat. However, it can turn into a problem if not tamed properly and therefore it has to be managed accordingly.

References

Fs.fed.us. Managing Forests After Fire. 2007, https://www.fs.fed.us/pnw/pubs/science-update-15.pdf. Accessed 24 Nov 2018.

Harper, Craig A., et al. “Fire effects on wildlife in the central hardwoods and Appalachian regions, USA.” Fire Ecology 12.2 (2016): 127-159.

Smith, Jane Kapler. “Wildland fire in ecosystems: effects of fire on fauna.” Ogden, UT: US Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station. 83 p. 42 (2000).