Northern wildlife versus wildfires
Forest fires often benefit animals by renewing natural environment
Paul Bickford
Northern News Services
Published Monday, July 28, 2014
NORTHWEST TERRITORIES
With some of the scary forest fire scenes in the NWT this summer, it may be hard to recognize the benefits of wildfires to many animal species.
However, it's not difficult for Ken Hudson, a long-time hunter in Fort Smith, to see some of the benefits.
"Whether it's a positive thing or not, fires are a natural occurrence," said Hudson. "Buffaloes really like the burnt country because it grows back pretty well the next year into some really green stuff."
That is not just his educated opinion, but based on actual observance.
"Buffalo, when you shoot them, pretty well no matter where they are they've went through burns and they like it in there because of the feed," he said. "When you shoot them in the wintertime, their hides are just full of that soot from the trees. That's how much time they spend in the burned country."
Tim Gauthier, the fire information officer with Wood Buffalo National Park, also said forest fires are part of the natural environment.
"When you think about animals of the boreal forest, it's important to remember that these animals have evolved with the natural rhythms of this landscape and part of that natural rhythm are wildfires," he said. "So the animals are used to wildfires on the landscape and, as such, have developed a wide variety of ways to respond to it."
For example, Gauthier pointed to whooping cranes, an endangered species which nests in vast wetlands in the northern reaches of the park that affords them a significant amount of protection from wildfires.
Plus, he noted wildfires may actually help whooping cranes.
"It's generally believed that wildfires help the whooping cranes' habitat in that it removes the trees that would otherwise encroach on their wetlands," Gauthier explained.
As for the buffalo after which the park is named, Gauthier said the aftermath of a fire means fresh grasses and sedges, and that creates ideal habitat for bison to return to the year after a fire.
"It entirely renews the landscape. In fact, the boreal forest needs fire to be healthy," he said, noting the park only steps in to fight fires when there are values at risk, such as human lives, communities and infrastructure such as roads and power lines.
Gauthier said the park has no way to quantify how many animals may actually die as a result of forest fires.
"What we do know is that we don't see a lot of carcasses when we're working in fire areas," he said.
Larger animals will simply move out of the way of a fire.
Hudson, recalling his younger days as a forest firefighter, said he used to see lots of rabbits enter a lake as a forest fire approached, and they most likely swam around until they drowned.
"It's not very nice to talk about stuff like that, but that's kind of reality," he said.
Hudson believes that other smaller animals such as squirrels might go underground in the face of a fire, and might be killed by the fire or smoke.
Nathan Clements, a wildlife biologist in Regina with the Canadian Wildlife Federation, also agrees that wildfires are important in forming the landscape occupied by wildlife.
"Fires play an important ecological role in creating the mosaic that we have across the landscape and fires can't be duplicated by any other natural process," he said. "It reduces fuel load. It recycles nutrients in the soil. It creates a diversity of plant communities across the landscape, all of which are important to Canadian wildlife."
According to information on the Canadian Wildlife Federation's website, one species that benefits dramatically from wildfire is the black-backed woodpecker, which can increase by up to 50 times following a fire because insects such as bark beetles can be easily found feeding on burned wood.
"You have a whole bunch of new nutrients that are supporting new plant growth, so you're going to have a whole bunch of new insects that are going to be in the area," said Clements, adding there will also be an abundance of berries.
The Canada lynx is another winner from forest fires because it hunts the snowshoe hare in newly-burned areas.
While forest fires benefit certain species, some mammals such as fishers, certain songbirds and insects can become displaced if they are dependent on old-growth forest. It might take years for some populations to recover, while others may be permanently displaced.
