FIRE: NATURE’S GREATEST ENIGMA

At one extreme, fire is nature’s fiercest killer. At the other extreme, it’s nature’s most prolific regenerator.

As of Sept. 1, there were 75 large active wildfires in the U.S., burning 2,050,511 acres. There are 19 active wildfires in California and 13 in Arizona according to the National Interagency Center. 

In Nebraska, the Hubbard Gap Fire in the Wildcat Hills outside of Mcgrew has burned close to 4,000 acres according to the Nebraska Emergency Management Agency. As of Aug. 28, 25 volunteer fire departments were working to put out the fire. Six volunteer firefighters have been injured during these efforts. As of Sept. 1, the Hubbard Gap Fire was 80% contained,

A fire nicknamed Aristocrat burned 391 acres outside of Chadron, Thursday evening. The fire began Thursday night from a lightning strike and was discovered mid-morning Friday. The Forest Service and the Chadron Volunteer Fire Department stopped the forward progression of the fire by Friday evening.

Fire has been a part of ecosystems, even before European settlement, fire burned through ecosystems until they were naturally put out. After settlers began building infrastructure, fire was taken out of the ecosystem causing overstocked forests and overgrown grasslands according to Timothy Buskirk, United States Department of Agriculture Forest Service agent. 

“Science has taught us that fire is one of the best tools we have to sustain the forest,” Buskirk said, “The more we can get it out there on the ground under our terms, the better we will be moving into the future.”

In recent history, to reverse the damage of years of fire suppression, prescribed fires became an important management tool in preventing wildfires and improving ecosystem conditions. 

“We have to acknowledge that we live in a fire prone system,” CSC Professor Anthony Perlinski said.

 Wildfires that are hard to control and burn thousands of acres are deemed megafires. These megafires are damaging to the ecosystem causing soil sterilization. Megafires can be reduced by prescribed burning to decrease fuel loads. To prevent fires in the Chadron area in the future, prescribed burning will continue to be an important management tool.

“There is absolutely potential with wildfire to see some ecological damage,” Perlinksi said.

Prescribed fires help improve the ecosystem by rejuvenating the understory and improving nutritional quality of plants. Large grazing animals are attracted to recently burned areas because of increased nutritional quality. 

Rangeland Professor Teresa Frink said, “Open terrain species like elk and mule deer will be out there in a matter of weeks, grazing in those areas that have been burned as soon as vegetation begins to emerge.”

Prescribed burning has become more common among ranchers to improve land quality and decrease the amount of invasive species. Fire on grazing land can be devastating to a ranch in the  short term, but in the long run, it will improve grazing, making it an economically viable management tool.

“As a general statement, if we were to use prescribed fire routinely to control fuel loads,” Ron Bolze, CSC Rangeland professor said. “Whenever we get the occasional log fire it would be a lot less destructive.”