Fire suppression created monocultural forests that mid-frequency burning heals
Evidence
The Intermediate Disturbance Hypothesis has been verified in a host of other ecosystems: prairies, rivers, coral reefs, and forests. The pattern it reveals is at the core of the Forest Service’s policy on fire. Fire suppression with Smokey Bear’s vigilance produced a disturbance frequency which was too low and the forests became a monocultural tinderbox. Too high a fire frequency left only a few scrubby species. But like Goldilocks and the Three Bears (one must have been Smokey himself), there is a fire frequency which is “just right,” and here diversity abounds. Creation of a mosaic of patches by mid-frequency burning creates wildlife habitat and maintains forest health, while fire suppression does not. — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Gathering Moss, 303
Categorization
- XREF: Directly feeds the disturbance-history thread of Reading the Landscape — moss floods and Smokey Bear fires are the same pattern. — connects to: Disturbance is an act of renewal when its frequency is balanced — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural…, 305; The entire BWCA ecosystem was fire-dependent — Miron L. Heinselman, Fire in the Virgin Forests of the…, 1; BWCA management excluded fire despite its dominant ecological role — Miron L. Heinselman, Fire in the Virgin Forests of the…, 25 (+9 more)
Broader Connections
- Slope erosion after fire can prevent forest regrowth for centuries
#qualifies(0.80) — Vinson Brown, Reading the Woods, 411 - Jack pine, birches, and aspen colonize fire and logging damaged soils
#corroborates(0.75) — Vinson Brown, Reading the Woods, 861 - Localized disturbances turn sessile assemblages into a patch mosaic
#expands(0.72) — S. T. A. Pickett and P. S. White, eds., The Ecology of Natural Disturbance and…, 681