Forest Fire Research Questions the Wisdom of Prescribed Burns

In 2003, a forested mountainside was charred in a wildfire and Richard Hutto, a university ornithologist, recorded a black-backed woodpecker drumming on a tree of the nearly destroyed forest. But, was it really destroyed? Not according to Hutto who states that "this forest may have been burned, but that doesn't mean its dead. Theres a lot going on". This woodpecker signals life back to the forest and it also serves as a clue toward resolving debates over how much, or whether or not, to try to prevent large forest fires all together. Some scientists believe that the thinning of forests brings an ecological advantage to the planet but, some claim that this only diminishes ecological processes and biodiversity. So what do they do to prevent these fires? They thin the forests by cutting down a variety of trees, ranging in size, and use prescribed fire to burn the forest. Using this process, scientists hope to reconstruct forests suffering damages from large wildfires. Except, others claim that this process is only causing ecological damage. Research and history combined shows that the ecology of a forest depends on fires of varying degrees of severity, including those catastrophic fires we are trying to prevent. These blazes actually are responsible for stimulating biodiversity. This is where the woodpecker comes back into play. This type of bird almost lives exclusively in severely burned forests. It thrives on the fire-chaser beetle and the jewel beetle and relies on the charred trees to stay hidden from their predators while they peck away. Both species (the woodpecker and the beetle) lay eggs in the scorched trees whose defenses have been wiped out by fire, causing biodiversity. Tracking the presence of such a species can help indicate whether there are enough severe fires to stimulate their ecosystems, which are responsible for keeping their numbers up and healthy. Dr. William Baker, a fire and landscape ecologist at the University of Wyoming, contends the idea that land of limited fires that are being employed to control bigger fires were not as common in nature as it has been thought. So, he went about and employed an unorthodox method to reconstruct fire history. He examined thousands if handwritten records up until the nineteenth century. The surveyors who created these records used an ax to mark trees at precise locations and took note of the surrounding vegetation. In the end, he found that low-intensity fires that occurred naturally were not as widespread as other research holds and he concluded that big fires are inevitable, and that it is best for ecosystems to put up with such fires. Many others who have explored this famous question have arrived at a very similar conclusion; "disturbances are very important; they are huge" because of the biodiversity they cause.