Forest fires are nature's way of making a new start
| Fact File: Outdoor Lab (Studies at Tibbitt Lake burn area) | |
| University of Bremen: | This 1999 field study focused on the effects of fire on taiga vegetation, soil and micro-climate. Comparisons were made of soil temperatures and nutrient levels, seed dispersal density and germination in burn and nearby unburned areas. |
| Environment Canada: | Preliminary results of an ongoing study on the effect of fire on pike spawning habitat show lower abundance and size of pike fry in Tibbitt Lake compared to a control lake outside the burned area. Water quality in Tibbitt Lake was virtually unaffected by the fire. |
| Environment Canada/Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development: | What effects does a forest fire have on the water quality in the burn area? This federal study hopes to provide some answers to that question. Water sampling in Tibbitt Lake was done on a monthly basis in 1999. An instrument that measures physical parameters of the lake was installed near the inflow to Tibbitt. Comparisons are being made between the runoff from burn and non-burn areas. |
| Department of Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development: | The forestry division of RWED is trying to answer questions about how fire changes the way wildlife uses the land. The use of burned and unburned sites by small mammals, such as voles, mice and rabbits, was estimated by trapping surveys and feces counts near Gordon Lake and Tibbitt Lake. |
Richard Gleeson
Northern News Services
Yellowknife (Jun 14/00) - Normally associated with destruction and catastrophe, in the forest ecosystem fire is a natural, and inevitable, form of cleansing.
The Ingraham Trail fire two years ago spread through 165,000 hectares of what was largely a 60-year-old forest.
"Everything has to die," said Lance Schmidt, regional manager of forests for the Department of Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development.
"Take a look at a spruce tree. As it grows the lower branches die off but stay there. Dead, woody material accumulates on the ground ... The only way to get rid of the woody debris in a boreal forest is by fire. Fire is a start of regeneration, it's the end of this crop and the start of a new one."
Schmidt offers an illustration to help people visualize the size of the area burned -- it's almost the equivalent of the length of the Ingraham Trail, stretching out 10 kilometres on both sides.
Signs of life
Before the fire was completely out, signs of new life were springing from the ashes. First to come up are species like fireweed.
"At Tibbitt (Lake) what we're seeing is that the very first ones that came up was the regrowth of birches and willows," said RWED ecosystem biologist Suzanne Carrier.
"Covering the ground last year was liverwort (a small plant)."
When birch trees are burned but their root systems remain intact, five or more trees will spring up where only one stood before.
Other trees, like spruce and pine, need fire to reproduce. The heat of fires releases seeds trapped within cones.
The seeds that fell a year ago are now springing up, said Carrier.
"If you walk in that area you might think there are no trees, but they're there, they're just one or two inches high."
With its close proximity to a road, the Ingraham Trail burn area is now the subject of a number of studies of the natural effects of fire.
Currently under way are studies on the effect fires have on water quality, pike spawning habitat and on wildlife use and habitat.
Battling nature
Because fire is a part of it, the natural life cycle of boreal forests poses a big threat to communities within the forest.
The same forest conditions that contributed to the Ingraham Trail fire still exist on the south side of the trail.
So far this fire season, climate conditions have been ideal for forest fires. Environment Canada reported this is the driest spring on record, with precipitation 44.4 per cent below normal.
Recognizing it is not practical to stop the natural phenomenon of forest fires, fire prevention officials focus their efforts on those that threaten, or could threaten, a community.
"We're excluding large fires very close to communities," Schmidt said. "And that can't last forever in the boreal forest."
Schmidt is visiting each North Slave community this summer to talk about fire prevention.
"What we're trying to do is develop fire smart communities, where they're designed both structurally and throughout the whole community from a fire wise perspective.
Reducing the fire threat to community requires as much attention be paid to the forest as the community. The most effective solution would be to chop down all the trees within two kilometres of each community.
Few communities would be willing to go that far, but there are less dramatic approaches that can help a community survive a forest fire.
"It generally means doing something to the forest, whether you thin it and prune it or change the species or somehow get rid of the high accumulation of dead woody material that's on the ground," said Schmidt.
"It's a huge job. This year we're really pushing it."
