In the Forests of Montana, Fire Can Only Be Extreme
Post by 2022 student Thomas Buchanan
Fire is a tool that humans have used for millennia to cook and create. It is also an incredibly destructive force that can decimate everything we have built as a species. It is also what gives us the ability to survive on a daily basis from the wholly unremarkable star in our galactic arm of our wholly unremarkable galaxy. We see all of this dynamic nature on this remarkable ranch here in the middle of Montana.
The native Americans used fire across the continental United States both as a device and a form of demolition. They would create and use fires to move the American Bison the direction they needed to hunt. It was also used to create open land to farm. It has been theorized, at least in the east, that they also used the fire to keep the forest and plains healthy because they understood the need and capabilities of the fire. This was useful for not only the natives but the animals and insects that also called the woodlands home.
With the decimation of the native peoples and their culture by the never ending push west by the imperialist Europeans, we have lost much of the knowledge that the native Americans gathered over hundreds of generations. This information was key to understand the land they lived and died on and in. Mark Catesby the explorer, artist and botanist remarked while on his expedition across the southeast of the savages and their fires burning the land’ in the 1700’s. As always, the conquering force thinks its ways must be superior in every conceivable way and all other thought is crushed beneath them. I would be at fault if I did not acknowledge that there is an exception to nearly every rule.
The indescribable devastation caused by the fire here in Montana in 2020 causes philosophunculists like myself to try and pontificate in ways that makes us uncomfortable but makes us feel smart. We go out of our way to try and explain why, in 20/20 hindsight, what went wrong and what should have been done to stop it. But the reality of the matter is that this fire could not be avoided unless we changed what happened 250 years ago. With the fire suppression that has gone on since the Europeans colonized America, forests have grown to tremendous densities and are full of volatile fuels.
With the never before seen densities of the forests in Montana, fire can only be extreme. We have seen on the ranch how mitigation of fire slows the spread and its ruin and how doing nothing has caused whole areas to be essentially sterilized. This likely will not be a problem in the future because almost all of the fuel is gone. Sadly, so are millions of trees and much of the healthy soils. This can all be directly traced back to fire suppression of the past 200 years.
But with the forests overgrown and the nearest time machine at least 6 years away, there seems to be only two options for landowners. The first is to do nothing and just hope and pray that the fires do not start in the first place. This seems rather risky in the sense that lightning seems to be beautiful and common in Montana. Also, the extensive use of farm equipment on the ranches means this option is even less viable. Option two is aggressive fire mitigation. On the ranch there has been a thinning operation that has shown obvious benefits in the face of the fire. Controlled burns are also a possibility but only after the thick forest has been thinned.
