By James BlueWolf
Mr. Kubelek”s letter condemning Terry Knight”s column about the benefits of using fire to control fire as “repeating a lie endlessly until it seems a truth” demands a reply. The Native people of Lake County understood the benefits of using fire to control more serious and damaging wildfires. They practiced control burning for 10,000 years.
Fire is a natural part of both forest and grassland ecology. Controlled burning reduces fuel buildup and decreases the likelihood of dangerous and damaging hotter fires as well as stimulating the germination of desirable forest trees, thus renewing the forest. Anyone familiar with forests knows that one of the underlying problems contributing to areas of extreme fire danger in the United States is the cessation of controlled burning, primarily due to complaints by homeowners.
Each year additional leaf litter and dropped branches increases the likelihood of a hotter and seriously uncontrollable fire. Higher fire temperatures harm the soil, damaging it physically, chemically, even sterilizing it, while lower temperature control burn charcoaling can actually improve the quality of soil.
Mr. Kubelek seems to be more concerned with the control of control burning than with the effects of the process itself, but if the authorities responsible are less than experts at this process they can hardly be blamed. The fear of fire and abandonment of controlled burning in the 20th century is responsible for that. It”s like the fear of wolves. It”s more about myths than fact. Ill-advised and expansive development in areas adjacent to forests where fuel has built up is a primary reason for the recent catastrophic structural losses experienced in wildfires. However, populations in these fringe areas often discourage the use of accepted fuel management techniques.
The long term ecological benefit of fire is overridden by the economic benefits of protecting structures and lives. Deliberately starting controlled burns early in the dry season results in a mosaic of burnt and unburnt country which reduces the area of stronger, late dry-season fires. Controlled burning reduces fuels, improves wildlife habitat, controls competing vegetation, improves short term forage for grazing, improves accessibility, helps control tree disease and perpetuates fire-dependent species. As for his statement, “wildlife does not live in meadows,” perhaps he has never heard of the mid-American Great Plains or the savannahs of Africa. We need control burns and we need them everywhere. Terry Knight knows what he”s talking about.
James BlueWolf
Nice
