GGR227H5 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Jack Pine, Wildfire Suppression, Forest Management
Document Summary
Fires destroy valuable timber, hurt tourism, and of course can put people and homes at risk. Historically we used to try to put out/suppress many forest fires. Fire suppression leads to a buildup of fuel as dead litter on the forest floor and soil organic matter. Less frequent, but more severe! (and hard to control if we have to, e. g. , near a town see ft. mcmurray fires in 2016 and bc in 2017!) Climate change: drier, hotter, extreme (lightning) weather. Climate change during the 21st century is expected to result in more frequent fires in many boreal forests, with severe environmental and economic consequence: fire-prone conditions are predicted to increase across canada. Certain species need fire to initiate cone opening and regeneration (e. g. jack pine-a dominant boreal tree) Releases nutrients in biomass (litter, dead trees, that would otherwise take a much longer time to decompose etc. ) to soil for seedlings to regrow.
