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Fires Set to Make Forests Healthy

Posted on: Tuesday, 15 November 2005, 00:00 CST

By Ken Leiser, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Nov. 14--MARK TWAIN NATIONAL FOREST -- Wildlife biologist Klaus Leidenfrost drizzled an oily, flaming mix of diesel fuel and gasoline on the forest floor -- sometimes in swirling loops, other times just wavy lines.

"It varies how much you'll need depending on the fuel," Leidenfrost said as flames ignited by his drip torch danced across the rough blanket of faded-brown leaves, downed tree branches and the occasional pocket of pine needles.

Seizing on the combination of fresh leaf fall and good weather, the 10-member U.S. Forest Service team donned their green-and-yellow, fire-resistant outfits and carried out the prescribed burn on 208 acres southwest of Rolla. The two aims of last week's controlled burn were the reduction of hazardous fuels and ecosystem restoration.

The Forest Service, which gave you Smokey Bear and the mantra that "only you can prevent forest fires," is proposing to increase its own use of fire -- under controlled circumstances -- to promote woodland health in the Mark Twain and Shawnee national forests.

The effort is being applauded by conservation groups and some wilderness organizations who see fire as a legitimate land-use tool -- a way to restore sprawling forests to something that more closely resembles their pre-settlement state. Still, a Missouri wood products industry group and regional air quality experts have raised questions about increased burning -- from its effect on the already-fouled air in St. Louis to loss of valuable timberland.

Proposed revisions to the Mark Twain forest plan call for as much as a fourfold increase in prescribed burning over the next 15 years. In neighboring Illinois, managers of the Shawnee National Forest are looking to increase the use of fire in their proposed forest plan.

Native Americans who inhabited Missouri before settlers arrived used fire regularly to keep the forest more open than it is today, said Laura Watts, a Forest Service planner who worked on the proposed Mark Twain forest plan update. There were more savannas, or open areas, and more grassy land.

Decades of private ownership and heavy logging changed the character of the forest over time. Overburning had destroyed some of the land by the time the Forest Service arrived in the 1930s.

"For a long time, fire was seen as sort of the enemy of the National Forest," Watts said. "We tried to put out all fires and didn't really use it in areas where it could be useful. Our understanding of that has changed over the years."

An environmental study published in January found that ecosystems in the Mark Twain Forest "were not as healthy as they should be." Thousands of acres of red, scarlet and black oak have "experienced oak mortality" and attacks from the red oak borer. A likely cause for the declining forest health is lack of historical fire regimen, the study found.

The U.S. Forest Service now uses prescribed burns on 10,000 to 17,000 acres a year, according to the draft environmental report. Prescribed burns in the Mark Twain forest date to the 1960s. The Forest Service isn't alone. Elsewhere in Missouri, the state Department of Conservation, the Department of Natural Resources, the National Park Service and the Nature Conservancy all conduct prescribed burns.

But the use of fire on the Mark Twain forest could increase to 59,000 to 72,000 acres a year beginning in about five years, depending on which forest-management regimen is chosen and the availability of future funding. A decision on the new forest plan is expected as early as this month.

The Shawnee National Forest in Southern Illinois used prescribed fire on 1,600 acres last year and is looking at an increase to more than 10,000 acres in its proposed forest plan, said Scott Crist, district fire management officer for Shawnee's Mississippi Bluffs district.

Doug Ladd, director of conservation science for the Nature Conservancy in Missouri, said the Forest Service has long understood the importance of fire but its use has been restricted by budget limitations and public concerns about catastrophic fires in certain parts of the country.

Ladd applauds the Forest Service proposal to increase the use of fire.

"From the standpoint of Missouri natural heritage and woodland health, that is a good thing," he said.

Both the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Missouri Department of Natural Resources raised concerns about fire emissions at a time when the state is wrestling with fine-particle pollution. The St. Louis region doesn't meet federal standards for the tiny particles that can penetrate lungs, contribute to heart attacks and cause early death.

Jerry Presley, a consulting forester with the Missouri Forest Products Association and former director of the state Conservation Department, said his group opposes such extensive prescribed burning to restore natural forest.

"We don't believe it is good for the oak-hickory climax forests," he said. "If we walked away from our forest today and didn't do anything over a certain period of time, all of the trees would be oak and hickories with just a few pine trees here and there. It's a natural forest."

Shortly before 11 a.m. last Thursday, 10 Forest Service workers gathered at the 208-acre expanse, near the border of Pulaski and Phelps counties.

The day's burn boss, Reggie Bray, briefed the group about the topography of the forest area to be burned, their individual assignments and the hazards in the field. He went over crucial details of that day's weather -- the high temperature, the relative humidity, wind speed and direction.

In its burn plan, Bray said, the Forest Service avoids days in which fire danger is too high -- or so low that the dry vegetation won't burn. Neighboring agencies and landowners are notified in advance.

Burn planners say they take steps to reduce the effects of harmful emissions on neighboring communities, as well.

The prescribed burn is expected to take four to six hours, he said, and will reduce the amount of dry leaves and dead branches that were left following a timber sale within the last year. It should also open the forest floor to more sunlight.

The team split up and went in different directions. Two kept close with a firetruck, just in case.

Leidenfrost was on foot, lugging his 8-pound drip torch along one dirt forest road to widen the fire break while Troy Crowe drove an ATV rigged with a torch of its own.

They know that a fire, even under controlled circumstances, can turn on you quickly if you're not careful.

About 5 1/2 years ago, the Forest Service accidentally ignited a major wildland fire near Los Alamos, N.M., during a controlled burn that was carried out in dry, windy conditions. The fire burned tens of thousands of acres and approached buildings at the Los Alamos National Laboratory.

All it takes is a gust of wind and a pocket of thick fuel.

"Actually, in forest fires, most of the mortalities have been in small fires, when it looks calm and then blows up," Leidenforst said. "You never know."

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Copyright (c) 2005, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

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Source: St. Louis Post-Dispatch

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