Page 28 - ARUBA TODAY

A28 SCIENCE
Wednesday 5 september 2018

AP Explains: Driven by climate change, fire reshapes U.S. West

By MATTHEW BROWN grass, which crowds out
Associated Press native plants and is more
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — prone to burning.
Wildfires in the U.S. have That's challenging gov-
charred more than 10,000 ernment efforts to keep
square miles so far this greater sage grouse off the
year, an area larger than endangered species list,
the state of Maryland, with which could restrict eco-
large fires still burning in ev- nomic development.
ery Western state including Areas considered crucial to
many that are not fully con- the bird's survival now get
tained. extra attention: A military-
Whether sparked by light- type Blackhawk helicopter
ning or humans, fire has is under government con-
long been a force shaping tract to deploy quick-reac-
the landscape of the U.S. tion teams to snuff out sage
West. brush fires in portions of
Hot, dry winds can whip Idaho, Nevada, Utah and
flames into firestorms that Oregon.
leave behind charred REGENERATION
wastelands prone to ero- A turning point in public
sion and mudslides. Other understanding of the eco-
fires clear out underbrush, logical importance of fire
open the forest floor to sun- came in 1988 , when 1,240
light and stimulate growth. square miles (3,200 square
Government agencies in kilometers) of Yellowstone
recent decades effec- National Park burned.
tively upended that cycle The devastation, punctu-
of destruction and rebirth. ated by images of wildlife
Fire suppression policies al- fleeing flames, fed into the
lowed fuels to build up in This Jan. 8, 2018, file photo shows standing rain water pools where a Fountaingrove neighborhood perception of wildfires as a
many Western forests, mak- home once stood in Santa Rosa, Calif. menace to be battled.
ing them more susceptible Associated Press The events drew criticism of
to major fires. the park's "let it burn" policy.
Those influences are mag- fish and other aquatic life. change as small particles ways. Officials didn't immediately
nified as development Torrents of muddy debris spiral into the upper atmo- A longer fire season and squelch lightning-caused
creeps ever deeper into following fires last year in sphere and interfere with bigger fires in the boreal for- fires that June because
forests and climate change Southern California killed 21 the sun's rays. ests of Alaska and Canada they did not pose an imme-
brings hotter temperatures. people and destroyed 129 CLIMATE QUESTIONS are burning not just trees diate threat to life or prop-
Recent images of subdivi- homes. Scientists broadly agree but also tundra and organ- erty, but eventually ended
sions ablaze thrust the pow- U.S. Geological Survey sci- wildfires are getting bigger ic matter in soils, which hold up deploying 10,000 fire-
er and ecological role of entists say the problem is in North America and other roughly a third of the Earth's fighters.
wildfires into the spotlight. getting worse as the area parts of the world as the cli- terrestrial carbon, said Da- By that fall, seedlings al-
A look at the environmen- burned annually by wild- mate warms. But still emerg- vid Peterson, a former U.S. ready were emerging in
tal effects of wildfires: fires increases. A study last ing is how that change will Forest Service research sci- some burned out areas.
SMOKE AND RUIN year concluded sediment alter the natural progres- entist. Park biologist Roy Ren-
Most immediately fire brings from erosion following fires sion of fire and regrowth. The carbon enters the at- kin recalls a visitor react-
destruction. would more than double The time interval between mosphere and contributes ing with surprise a decade
Temperatures from extreme by 2050 for about a third of wildfires in some locations to higher temperatures, later when he told her a
fires can top 2,000 degrees western watersheds. is getting shorter, even as leading to bigger fires that thick stand of young trees
Fahrenheit — hot enough Smoke from this summer's there's less moisture to help release yet more carbon. emerging from a burned
to kill all plant life, inciner- Western wildfires — a po- trees regrow. That means BIRD IN THE BALANCE area had come back on
ate seeds hidden beneath tential health hazard for at- some forests burn, then Life and property still top their own.Lodgepole pines
the surface and bake the risk individuals — prompted never grow back, convert- the list of priorities for fire- are commonly cited as
soil until it becomes imper- the closure of Yosemite Na- ing instead into shrub land fighters, but in recent years an example of forest re-
vious to rain. tional Park for more than more adapted to frequent another asset has been siliency. The fire's heat re-
The lifeless landscape be- two weeks and drifted to fire, said Jonathan Thomp- deemed worth extra pro- leases seeds from the pine's
comes prone to severe the East Coast , according son, a senior ecologist at tection in many Western cones.
erosion, fouling streams to NASA. Recent research Harvard University. states: a chicken-sized bird Several species of wood-
and rivers with silt that kills says it also impacts climate "They get stuck in this trap known as the greater sage peckers thrive on insects
of repeated, high-sever- grouse. attracted to fire-killed trees.
ity fire," Thompson said. Fires burned an estimated A plant called fireweed is
"Through time we'll see the 3,240 square miles (8,390 specially adapted to take
California shrub land shift- square kilometers) of the root in fire-damaged soils,
ing north." bird's sage bush habitat multiplying rapidly and
Similar shifts are being ob- in 2017 and have burned forming carpets of pink
served in Colorado, Wyo- almost 2,400 square miles petals against a blackened
ming's Yellowstone Nation- (6,215 square kilometers) so backdrop.
al Park and Glacier Nation- far in 2018. "It's isn't all death and de-
al Park in Montana, he said. When sage brush burns, it's struction," Renkin said.
The relationship between often replaced with a plant "These forests have evolved
climate and fire cuts both from Europe called cheat- with fire."q