Fires in Canada

I don't know how many of you remember that I was a National Park Service Ranger back while I was in Graduate School. I served as a Fire Fighter in addition to my other duties while in the Park Service. Back in 1988 the US news was full of information about the forest fires that burned through Yellowstone and through many other areas around the west. It was the start of some real problems with fire. The fires of 1988 in the US were some of the worst fires ever during documented history in our nations wildlands.
Before about 1965, fires were believed to be destructive to forests and parks. Most management policies were aimed at suppressing fires as quickly as possible, as well as to avoid damage to government and/or personal property. The beneficial role of fire, from an ecological perspective, became better understood in the decades before 1988, and a policy of allowing natural fires to burn under controlled conditions had been highly successful in reducing the area lost annually to wildfires.
Unfortunately for Yellowstone NP, too much understory wood had built up. Fire had not been used as a management tool much at that point. As a tool, fires are used to burn and clear the understory forest floor. Fire fighters would go in and clear fire breaks and clear out larger deadwood. Then, a small and very controlled fire would be burned to clear out the understory without actually causing major damage to the standing live trees. In Yellowstone, several small fires started and burned to merge into one major fire and many smaller fires that burned for months. The accumulation of understory material provided enough fuel for the fire to burn hot, fast, and furious.
Almost 250 different fires started in Yellowstone and the surrounding National Forests between June and August. I was in Idaho fighting a fire for 10 days and worked 20 hour grueling days.
This past week as we have driven beyond the US into British Columbia, we've seen fire damage in Banff, Jasper, and most recently near Toad Lake on the Alaskan Highway. The Toad Lake fire was physically burning and I had a chance to talk with one of the fire fighters who said this was a difficult fire because they have limited access to some of the areas. Indeed, there aren't many roads into the area. Helicopters are bringing water from nearby lakes. They pick up the water in huge containers that look like 10 foot by 4 foot swimming pools and set them on the side of the road. They are also filling tanker trucks equiped with sprayers. The firefighter I spoke with said he had been working on fire suppression for 2 months without a break.
Fire plays an important role in most forest ecosystems. As these ecosystems have evolved over the last 10,000-15,000 years (since the glacial retreat at the end of the last ice age), fire has helped to maintain their health and diversity. Large fires that clear out an area can do one of two things. First they can take out the old growth forest that may have been there for 100s of years. They clear out the largest standing trees and open the areas forest floor. Extremely hot fires may actually scorch the forest soils, killing beneficial microbes and any seed bank in the upper layers. If the fire is really hot, the roots of the plants can also burn. This makes it more difficult for succession to take place and for new plant life to take over. New plant life is important to prevent erosion and loss of soil. One inch of soil can take more than 1000 years to form, so preventing loss is important in forest ecosystems. (check out this site for perspective: http://soil.gsfc.nasa.gov/inch/soiltime.htm)
Canada fires current as of : June 10, 2009
Note:This is the last weekly national report for this season. The yearly report from CIFFC will be available in January 2009. Current information continues to be made available through the various provincial and territorial agencies web sites which can be accessed through the Fire Links located in the left menu.
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Current active fires
uncontrolled9
controlled116
modified response*8


2009(to date)
10-yr avg(to date)
% Normal
Prescribed*
U.S.
Number
2,205
2,264
97%
32
44,351
Area (ha)
79,111
232,067
34%
3,823
648,492

Fires can effect the ecosystems of far away areas too. The Yellowstone ash was reported to have travelled more than 60 miles. Pictures and info on these fires at: http://www.yellowstone-natl-park.com/fire.htm
In Canada we've seen lots of damage. Since the growing season is so much shorter as you end up moving north, the repair takes even longer. We passed one Canadian area of the 1969 fires and it seems to have some regrowth, but not at the rate of repair that you may have seen in the pictures in the link for Yellowstone above. Xiao (2007) writes about the drought and the link to the fires during this time frame. http://www.iop.org/EJ/article/1748-9326/2/4/044003/erl7_4_044003.html
As we continue to use excessive amounts of water in our human daily activies and we take water from one water shed to another, further damage due to fires will continue to be seen around the US and Canada when we do experience drought. This will be true whether or not we use good fire management practices. Drought may also serve to allow insects to damage plant life, weakened by the lack of water.
The connections between what we do in our everday lives can have far reaching effects to ecosystems.