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Back to Forest Management Fire Rangers Forest Fires Logging Today Restricted Fire Zones |
Nowadays, forest fires have been recognized as a vital part of the forest's reproduction process. The fire clears the land of dead trees and grassland, and provides fertilizer for new trees to grow. Most seedpods produced by a tree fall to the ground unopened, and will not even grow into a new tree. When an area of trees catches fire, the tree is destroyed, but all of the seedpods crack open from the heat and are scattered into the ash where they will grow into new trees in a matter of months. In a timespan of 30 years, all of the burnt area is full of new trees, and the process should start all over again. Banff Provincial Park has been using applied burning now for a couple of years to preserve tree reproduction in the forest. The process involves highly skilled men to control the fire's direction and to put out the fire after the job is done. For the forest to remain productive and alive, research scientists have come to the conclusion that the forest should be burned every 30 years. Applied burning is very simple: the men set a small area of forest or grassland on fire and control its direction with water hoses. When the fire is out the area may look devastated, but in three months the charred area will be gone and in its place there will be new grass growing, trees sprouting, and the wildlife will soon have moved back into the area. |