Juniper fire effects
The effects of the Juniper fire on the Ocala National Forest in Florida is evaluated in an article at Ocala.com. Here is an excerpt:
Fire will bring life back to forest
Large spans of charred black earth punctuated with scorched tree trunks eerily blanket more than 10,000 acres of the Juniper Prairie Wilderness where a wildfire started by careless campers has burned through the Ocala National Forest since March 10.
The landscape that looks like an ecological calamity is not truly one at all, U.S. Forest Service officials say.
“It’s kind of a mixed bag a little bit,” said Rick Lint, U.S. Forest Service district ranger for the Ocala forest. “It’s not necessarily great. It’s not necessarily bad. Fire, of course, has a role in the forest. Ecologically, it drives the forest. It has been there for thousands, and thousands and thousands of years. Fire has always been there.”
Of course, Lint would have preferred if the fire had been a “prescribed burn,” one that is planned by the Forest Service. It uses fire to manage the forest by mimicking natural blazes that create new growth and habitat and food for endangered species like the scrub jay. Those fires are set about every seven years or so.
But when this wildfire erupted, Lint and his staff looked for ways to maximize the good that fire does for the ecology.
For all interested I am currently working in Texas as an Air Tactical Group Supervisor and am keeping fairly current my coverage of fire behavior in this area. Check it out at http://www.FBANServices.com . Of course, if anybody has anything to offer that would be useful to this site send it in.