Wildfire Today

News and opinion about wildland fire

Wildfire Today

Numerous wildfires burning in Russia’s Amur province

Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories UncategorizedTags

Above:  NASA’s Suomi NPP satellite captured this natural-color image of smoke streaming from wildfires on April 4, 2018. Recently charred areas appear black. Rivers, still ice-covered, are white. Heat at the fires is represented by red dots.

NASA reports on wildfires in Russia seen from space:

As is often the case in the spring, satellites detected dozens of fires burning in Russia’s far eastern Amur province in late-March 2018. Fires usually flare up around the time that the winter snow cover melts.

The fires were initially quite small. Most of them were probably lit by people, mainly to burn dried grasses and old crop debris from fields. People in the area routinely light fires in the spring to fertilize the soil, maintain pasturelands, and prevent forest encroachment.

Many of the fires near the Amur and Zeya rivers spread rapidly over the following week. By April, several were raging out of control—in some cases burning through forests. Dahurian larch dominates forests in Amur, though deciduous trees such as birch and aspen are also common.

The Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) on the Suomi NPP satellite captured this natural-color image of smoke streaming from several fires on April 4, 2018. Recently charred areas appear black. Rivers, still ice-covered, are white.

Hundreds of firefighters are working in the region, according to news reports. However, the fires are proving difficult to control and have spread about 20,000 hectares (80 square miles) per day. On April 5, authorities reported extinguishing 15 fires, but 23 new fires emerged on the same day.

Diversity of structure in a forest can make it more resilient to fire

Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories UncategorizedTags ,

Above: A slab of wood from the Stanislaus-Tuolumne Experimental Forest showing a history of very frequent fires, some of them as little as four years apart. Screen grab from the USFS video.

The U.S. Forest Service found some old research plots in the Sierras that have been measured over time dating back to the days of old growth. The evidence suggests that a diversity of species, density, and structure can make a forest more resilient to fire and attacks by insects.

Red Flag Warnings in four states, April 8, 2018

Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories UncategorizedTags

The National Weather Service has issued Red Flag Warnings for areas in Colorado, Arizona, Texas, and New Mexico.

The Red Flag Warning map was current at 10:35 a.m. MDT on Sunday. Red Flag Warnings can change throughout the day as the National Weather Service offices around the country update and revise their forecasts.

California burn projects wrap up before major precipitation event

Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories UncategorizedTags

Above: Forecast published Thursday April 5 by the National Weather Service.

National Forests in California have been busy in recent days completing pile burning and prescribed fire projects as they prepare for heavy precipitation through Saturday.

Most areas in the northern part of the state should expect at least two inches with as much as three to five inches in some locations.

Thursday brought showers but the heaviest rain and snow will occur Friday, transitioning to light showers on Saturday.

rain forecast northern california
Forecast published Thursday April 5 by the NWS.

 

Whites to replace boots worn by burned firefighter

Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories UncategorizedTags 5 Comments on Whites to replace boots worn by burned firefighter

The company is saying they will not ask the firefighter to pay for the replacement pair

White’s Boots Company is saying they will replace at no charge the boots worn by the firefighter who fell into an ash pit in Arizona March 16 and suffered 2nd & 3rd degree burns over 20 percent of his body. He said the boots protected his lower leg, ankle, and foot, but he had severe burns above the boots. Another firefighter was burned at the same time but he was treated and released.

The next day a third firefighter was injured on the same fire. He suffered minor burns and was also treated at the hospital and released.

We asked Brandon Upchurch, a House Account Consultant for White’s, if most leather boots would provide the same protection, and he said, “Not necessarily. Other boots could use thinner leather, or have weak points due to construction.”

More research indicates some forests are not growing back after wildfires

Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories UncategorizedTags , 5 Comments on More research indicates some forests are not growing back after wildfires
Rim Fire, August 21, 2013.
Rim Fire, August 21, 2013. Photo by Robert Martinez.

Recent research in the Rocky Mountains has found what others also determined in a 2013 study in Oregon — significant decreases in post-fire tree regeneration. In a paper titled “Evidence for declining forest resilience to wildfires under climate change”, eight researchers noted reductions in tree regeneration in the 21st century.

Below are some excerpts:

Annual moisture deficits were significantly greater from 2000 to 2015 as compared to 1985–1999, suggesting increasingly unfavourable post-fire growing conditions, corresponding to significantly lower seedling densities and increased regeneration failure. Dry forests that already occur at the edge of their climatic tolerance are most prone to conversion to non-forests after wildfires. Major climate-induced reduction in forest density and extent has important consequences for a myriad of ecosystem services now and in the future.

Climate change is already affecting multiple ecosystem properties, leading to shifts in species composition and state changes (Walther et al. 2002; Donato et al. 2016). In the US Rocky Mountains, we documented a significant trend of reduced post-fire tree regeneration, even over the relatively short period of 23 years covered in this analysis. Our findings are consistent with the expectation of reduced resilience of forest ecosystems to the combined impacts of climate warming and wildfire activity. Our results suggest that predicted shifts from forest to non-forested vegetation (e.g. Bell et al. 2014) may be underway, expedited by fire disturbances (Kemp 2015; Donato et al. 2016; Harvey et al. 2016; Johnstone et al. 2016; Rother & Veblen 2016).

Regeneration failures, as measured by both seedling presence/absence and regeneration thresholds, occurred across all forest types (Figs 3 and 4d). Low-elevation forests, dominated by tree species near the warm, dry edge of their climatic tolerance may be particularly vulnerable to shifts to non-forest vegetation, because of the absence of any tree species that could reestablish under warmer, drier conditions (Harvey et al. 2016). Meanwhile, moist forest types may experience a shift in species dominance and a decrease in tree density. And while only 15% of the moist forest sites we studied lacked seedling after 21st-century fires, 35% of these sites did not meet the recruitment threshold. This represents a substantial increase (300%) relative to the 1985–1999 period, highlighting the impacts of warming in moist forests as well.