![]() ![]() Larger patches of forest are also burning in so-called stand replacing fires, in which high-severity flames kill most or all of the vegetation, according to UC Berkeley research. More land is burning under increasingly dire conditions - a trend that’s expected to continue as the planet warms.Ī study by researchers at UC Irvine and UC Davis found that solely considering changes in summer temperatures, the amount of land burned in the Sierra Nevada will increase by 26% to 92% by the 2040s. All the growing space is being used for trees, maximizing the potential future revenue.īut over the last decade or so, foresters have had to rethink their goals. Not long ago, this stretch represented the ideal that foresters were striving for, said Brandon Collins, who conducts research at Blodgett in partnership with the Forest Service’s Pacific Southwest Research Station. The plot serves as a reminder that not all forest management techniques are created equal - and not all of them reduce the risk of fire damage, York said. Their modeling predicts that if a wildfire were to reach this land, it would burn more severely than the control plot, probably killing most of the trees. Scientists believe the competition for water has also made pines more vulnerable to bark beetle attacks by decreasing their ability to fight off the pests by saturating them with resin. Species like the ponderosa pine that had adapted to live with fire by developing thick bark, tall trunks and plentiful seeds were in some places replaced by shade-loving cedar and firs, which are more likely to succumb to flames.Īs the mix of species became less varied, it increased the likelihood that an outbreak of disease, fungus or insects, which are usually species-specific, could wipe out a stand. That created a continuous canopy that helps fire spread more quickly and makes it harder for certain plants to thrive. ![]() The desire to preserve commercial timber also caused forest managers to aggressively fight wildfires.ĭeprived of regular low- and moderate-intensity fire, experts say, forests grew denser and less diverse as trees in logged areas grew back at uniform ages and heights. ![]()
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