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- Info
Fire seen as vital for nature, igniting ecological debate
| Author: |
Stevens, W.K. |
| Date: |
1994 |
| Periodical: |
New York Times: October 25, 1994 |
| Link: |
http://flame.fl-dof.com/Env/RX/nytimes.html
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| Abstract: |
For some 10,000 years before Europeans came to North America, fires set by lightning and by Indians swept the landscape so routinely that ecosystems became as dependent on flame as on rainfall and sunlight; too little or too much at the wrong time meant ecological disaster. In this century, however, Americans have generally seen fire in the wild as an enemy to be stamped out, an attitude reinforced by a long series of powerful images: Bambi fleeing the burning forest. Smokey Bear intoning that "only you" can prevent forest fires. The 1988 firestorm in Yellowstone, followed by the California blazes of a year ago. This year's epidemic western wildfires, which killed 25 firefighters. Yet despite determined efforts to suppress fire in nature, wildfires are becoming more numerous, intense and difficult to control, and people are compounding the danger by building in fire-dependent ecosystems. By depriving ecosystems of fire, experts in fire ecology say people have allowed dead wood, twigs, bark, leaves and needles to accumulate, providing more fuel to feed bigger wildfires than would be the case if the landscape were allowed to burn naturally. |
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