Over the course of the last 6 years, I have investigated many of the issues related to our forests, public timberlands and private management. As a forest/wildlife photographer I have covered literally hundreds of thousands of miles of forestland in the United States & Canada. I take between 3000-5000 photographs a year and try to put some sense into many of the environmental issues that seem to dominate our press these days.

One such issue that seems to have a lot of confusion associated with it, is.... fire. Is fire good for our forests? We seem to have heard that it is. Almost every environmental organization and wood products group tend to agree on this issue. Or do they? We’ve heard that fire is a natural occurrence and should be let to burn. Isn’t that right?

To begin with, there are several kinds of fires. I wish to make a distinction between 2 types; controlled, light ground (cleansing) fires and catastrophic wildfires. There is a big difference.

A controlled fire basically, is a natural or human set fire, which has been allowed to burn usually in an area that still has moisture in the surrounding tree stand and ground, whereby the fire doesn’t get hot enough to burn through the mature tree bark or destroy the upper tree needles, which would kill mature trees. We have often heard of lightning fires in the spring or Indian fires, which were intentionally set to burn out underbrush and promote browsing conditions for wild game. These have often been referred to as beneficial to the forest.

A controlled fire will burn the ground cover, eliminating brush and small trees which would compete with the healthy forest stand. This also has the benefit of removing dead and dying material on the ground, harmful tree boring insects which might destroy trees and any ‘down-material’ which is potential fire fuel. This can greatly benefit a forest, by keeping the fuel-load low and keep competing foliage and other trees from over-crowding, while also opening up small areas for regeneration, much the same as clear-cutting mosaics do.

Over-crowding can weaken a forest. All trees must compete for sunlight, water and soil nutrients. A healthy stand therefore has spacing between trees and green plant life on the forest floor. Light fires which do not burn too hot, help keep plant life alive. Many plants, grasses, forbs, flowers, etc., rely on such fires to regenerate and open their seeds.

Catastrophic wildfires, like we saw this last summer, are quite a different type of fire. These usually happen when it’s hot, dry and in our case, after almost 10 years of drought. The forests are at their most vulnerable.

The problems we now face after 50+ years of fire suppression in our national forests and a lack of management in the public forests, is that we have huge forest health problems from over-crowding and bug infestations. This has resulted in millions of acres of dead forests. All of this dead material is fire-fuel, which ‘preservationists’ have sued to prevent it’s removal. This has caused an unprecedented situation where our forests now have a fuel-load, 10-20 times natural levels. Consequently when a fire does get started, like in Yellowstone... we simply can’t put it out.

These types of fires tend to do strange things. In some areas they will burn so hot that the soil is sterilized, preventing a timely recovery of the forest eco-system. Moonscapes are created and as soon as it rains, millions of tons of dirt and debris are washed into our rivers & streams, destroying not only the watersheds but the habitat for all of God’s creatures.

These fires are not natural, and unless management is used to restore healthy conditions to our forests, we will lose all that we are trying to preserve and much more.