Fire ecologists analysed data from over 10,000 locations and 334 wildfires to assess how post-blaze conditions affect tree growth
For the next few decades, the intensity of wildfires will most affect the likelihood of a forest regenerating afterward, the study found, though eventually, warm, dry climate conditions will make large sections of conifer habitats unsuitable for seedlings. If global average increases 4F compared to the first half of the 20th century, only 74% of the area the researchers studied will have climate conditions suitable for conifer seedlings by 2050.
Conifer species in the west have evolved with fire, even depending on fire to seed and regenerate. Some species, such as the lodgepole pine, are cued up to open up their cones and release seeds with the heat of a fire. Before European colonisation, many wildfires were left to burn naturally, and many were set intentionally by Indigenous practitioners who used controlled burns to manage overgrown vegetation.
Unlike older trees, seedlings have small root systems that cannot reach for water below the top layer of soil. And they lack the thick bark that insulates trees from heat waves. Clearing landscapes – mechanically and with fire – and restoring fire-wrecked forests, can help conifers regenerate in the coming decades.
Hankins, who was not involved in the study, said that recent examples show that thoughtful fire management can transform a forest’s fate. When the Bootleg fire hurtled toward the 30,000 acre Sycan Marsh Preserve in Oregon,In the aftermath, “we were looking at an island of green, surrounded by a dead forest”, Hankins said.
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