Forest Fires - off topic (Was RE: Testing)

[Clive Warren <Clive.Warren@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

At 12:45 pm +0000 2/8/00, Dirk Wright wrote:
>
>
>>Was shocked to hear that 63,270 acres of the Sequoia National Forest,
>>near Ridgecrest on the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada (120 miles
>>north of LA) have been destroyed by fire.
>>
>
>The ecology of the region depends on fires to clear out the dead plant litter
>on the ground in order for seed roots to be able to extend down far enough to
>grow in real soil. The charcoal from the fire is "activated", thus making it
>an excellent water filter. So, when it rains, with an acidic pH and full of
>pollution, the charcoal tree remains will make the water pure with a neutral
>pH. The streams will then better support aquatic life.
>
>Only people think that fire is bad.
>
>--
>Be Seeing You.
>Dirk Wright


Thanks for the ecological clarification. I do appreciate the positive 
aspects of fires in regeneration, however the size of the fires is 
awesome.  In the UK if we had a fire which consumed 100 acres there 
would be uproar and demands for the government to resign for poor 
management of the fire services ;-)

As the forested areas in the world become smaller and smaller, surely 
the wildlife in those areas is threatened as their potential habitat 
becomes smaller. There must have been a lot of roasted animals and 
insects in those fires - which are still burning.....

The question which springs to mind is how big is too big?  What if 
the fires consumed all of the forested areas where they are currently 
burning? Would this be good for the ecology?

Controlled burns seem to be a good idea (until they go out of 
control) and surely a better way of managing forest areas.

Maybe the wildlife also think that fire is bad :-)


-- 
All the best,

              Clive   http://www.cocam.co.uk
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