After the Fire: The Uncertain Future of Yosemite’s Forests
By Brandon Keim
08.30.13
For nearly two weeks, the nation has been transfixed by wildfire spreading through Yosemite National Park, threatening to pollute San Francisco’s water supply and destroy some of America’s most cherished landscapes. As terrible as the Rim Fire seems, though, the question of its long-term effects, and whether in some ways it could actually be ecologically beneficial, is a complicated one.
Some parts of Yosemite may be radically altered, entering entire new ecological states. Yet others may be restored to historical conditions that prevailed for for thousands of years from the last Ice Age’s end until the 19th century, when short-sighted fire management disrupted natural fire cycles and transformed the landscape.
In certain areas, “you could absolutely consider it a rebooting, getting the system back to the way it used to be,” said fire ecologist Andrea Thode of Northern Arizona University. “But where there’s a high-severity fire in a system that wasn’t used to having high-severity fires, you’re creating a new system.”
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2013/08/yosemite-after-the-fire/?utm_source=buffer&utm_campaign=Buffer&utm_content=buffer6ffdf&utm_medium=twitter
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Let it burn? Yosemite park officials won't say that, but it's policy
Unless a naturally occurring fire threatens lives or structures, Yosemite and other national parks are likely to let nature run its course.
By Julie Cart
August 29, 2013
... Although the 4,900 firefighters here operate under a unified command, the park service has a very different firefighting philosophy from that of the forest service or the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
The portion of the Rim fire burning outside the park is fought aggressively by the forest service and Cal Fire. Bulldozers rip fire lines across the landscape, and crews fell trees and set protective backfires. Helicopters and tanker airplanes drop water and retardant.
"We want to send as much equipment to a fire as we can," said Cal Fire spokesman Daniel Berlant. "Our goal is to put it out early and avoid having a large fire."
But inside parks, a policy often called "fire use" accepts fire as a naturally occurring process and often a useful tool.
Park fire managers suppress blazes that endanger people or threaten structures and resources. Fires in tourist-heavy Yosemite Valley, for instance, are "very, very controlled," said Tom Medema, Yosemite's chief of interpretation and education.
http://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-0830-fire-tactics-20130830,0,5188654.story