Posted to PlanPutnam on Monday, June 11, 2007 at 8:01 PM
Forest management may lead to worse
wildfires
- 22:00 11 June 2007
- NewScientist.com news service
- Catherine Brahic
Forestry
management techniques used after wildfires may actually lead to worse
repeat fires, say researchers who studied one of largest forest fires
in recent US history.
The
2002 Biscuit Fire in southwest Oregon engulfed more than 200,000
hectares, over 18,000 of which had been burned previously, in the 1987
Silver Fire. In the three years after the Silver Fire, more than 800
hectares were logged to salvage any wood that could be sold, and the
land was replanted with conifers.
"For
a long time there was a perception that by salvage-logging fire-killed
trees, you would be removing a lot of potential fuel for future fires,"
explains Jonathan Thompson of Oregon State University. Such logging
also enables commercially interesting trees such as conifers to be
planted.
Using
before and after satellite images from both fires, Thompson and
colleagues found that areas that these "managed" areas burned more
severely during the second fire than areas that had been left to regrow
naturally.
This type of forest management should, therefore, not be
used in an attempt to limit risk of future fires, he says.
Read
the rest of the story here
|
|
