The concept of community

 Guest post by student Lauren Landis -

When discussing forage, fuels and fire, we hovered around the idea of perspective and community. There are different ways this can be interpreted in that there are different perspectives as to how landowners want to manage their properties, and even the perspective on that of the natural communities and how they keep their ecosystems balanced.

Fire has been created both naturally and by man since very early times, but fire is always utilized as a tool for an ecological reset. The early indigenous residents of the American continents used fire to their advantage to maintain forests and plains and later to clear fields for agricultural purposes. With annual fire comes less damage with future fires, more soil and forage nutrients, and more biodiversity. The process of the life of fire can be described using the fire triangle. Fire needs a few major components to come to life: oxygen, heat, fuel and at the center is an ignition source. Adding or reducing any of these elements can control both the severity and intensity of the fire. Access to fuels is the best way that we can control wildfires. Fuels are basically anything that can be consumed by the flames and feeds the fire. Forage for wildlife and livestock can be a good source of fuel for fires. Forage can be both strategically planted or naturally; this is based on the management plan of the land owner and what they are trying to service their land for. When there is a lack of management of land, that is where fuels build up as both live and dead material and can fuel some of the most powerful fires that are hard to control. The heat output, intensity, and area burned, severity, increase exponentially. Without annual management, things like pine needles and downed trees, which take a long time to decompose, are fair game for a wildfire to consume and increase in power.

When it comes to perspective and community when facing fire, there is a rift. Some people are unknowledgeable in the idea that fire is necessary, as the media perceives fire as a very negative power that causes nothing but the destruction of anything in its path. There is death involved in fire, yes, of both wild flora and fauna especially, however, there is also the rejuvenation of ecosystems post fire. Fire can cut back invasive plant species and provide healthier environments for wildlife to come back to. Nutrients are put back into the soil, and some species, like ponderosa pine, find fire necessary for their survival as their cones are opened when exposed to heat. It is only when people become hesitant to support the use of fire where it can turn catastrophic for both wildlife and humans. Some species get neglected due to the lack of heat and as litter builds up on the forest floor, the heat can become so intense that nothing could survive.

When it comes to fire, people need to build just as much of a community with each other like the grassland wildlife do. Both flora and fauna on the prairie have coevolved to support the balance of the ecosystem; everything has its role in the ecosystem whether we know it or not. We need to find where our role fits into the ecosystem as populations start moving into more wild areas. We have the power to hurt or help the ecosystem that we are living in. Currently, the lack of intervention is not helping. Through education and frequent involvement, we can find out specifically what areas we need to intervene and help our prairie ecosystems prosper.