It may seem contradictory, but everything that be controlled and prescribed, Something like fires good forest, they can be beneficial to the health of natural spaces; as well as for Prevent in the future that there are much more serious incidents in these forests.
At present, the positive aspects of making a fire that is well planned had been forgotten in the fight against forest fires since, as experts say, experts say, “They are a powerful ally in forest management.”
In this sense, from the UN Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change (IPCC) they ensure that “fires are a natural and essential part of many forest and meadow ecosystems, killing pests, releasing plant seeds to germinate, closing small trees and Serving other essential functions for ecosystems”.
Forest fires that are good
Furns prescribed, planned and controlled are used successfully in various parts of the world to improve forest health and prevent catastrophic fires. But they are such a valuable tool in forest management as unknown to the public. Experts recommend extending their use, also in Spain where it is still used.
For millions of years the fire was another part of nature, not its great enemy. For our ancestors, dominating fire was one of the great technological advances that promoted civilization, and one of its multiple uses was to mold the landscape to take advantage of its resources without razing them. But in modern times, the fight against forest fires led to forgetting the benefits of a well -used fire; An error, according to experts: The bones are prescribed, they say, are a powerful ally in forest management.
The idea of a good fire can be shocking, but it should not surprise: it is not that the fire has always existed on Earth, since it needed that oxygen reaches a certain level; But the fossil record of coal, a product of the fire, indicates that it has been present for at least 420 million years, from something after the appearance of the plants. And since humans have been here for very little time to suppress it, it is normal for the long coexistence of terrestrial life with him to lead to a certain adaptation.
Fire can even be necessary. As the Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change of the UN (IPCC) In their sixth evaluation report, “fires are a natural and essential part of many forest and meadow ecosystems, killing pests, releasing seed seeds to germinate, ending small trees and serving other essential functions for the health of ecosystems.”
Indigenous burns in forests
A particular landscape has been historically preserved thanks to the fire: the African savanna. According to geologist Andrew Scott, an expert in fire history and author of dissemination books in the field, this ecosystem was consolidated about seven million years ago, and since then has depended on fires newspapers to maintain their meadows without becoming a scrub or forest.
Scott speculates that around 1.5 million years ago humans of the time – positively homo erectus – would have made an opportunistic use of fire in the savanna, transporting it and keeping it on. Much later the Homo Sapiens learned to light it with flint stones, but only about 7,000 years ago African humans would have dominated him at will to manipulate the environment.
In East Africa, The Masái ethnic group has traditionally used the controlled burning of savanna pieces during the dry season to renew the pastures and prevent major fires. However, the most restrictive regulations and irregular rains have caused this practice to fall into disuse. In other regions such as North America, the expansion of the population and agriculture and livestock led to the cessation of indigenous burns.
In the twentieth century, total fire suppression policies were imposed, with few exceptions such as the opening of firewalls or burning plant remains during winter to reduce excess fuel. But this avoidance of avoidance has denied the benefits it can contribute when it is managed in the right way and in the right place.
One of these places is the coniferous forest. According to ecologist Richard Hutto, from the University of Montana, “Fire is a natural part of coniferous forest communities, and therefore there are numerous species of plants and animals that depend on serious fires that kill most of the trees.”
An example: the secuoya, majestic Californian coniferous that exceeds 100 meters high, is not only fire resistant; In addition, this facilitates the propagation of the species when opening the pineapples and releasing the seeds, while destroying competitors. Not by chance, California was a pioneer in the recovery of fire management in the 60s.
According to Scott Stephens, professor of Fire Environmental Sciences at the University of Berkeley, in Yosemite National Park “they have been doing this for about 50 years, and has generated great benefits.” In a study of two decades, Stephens and their collaborators have shown that prescribed burns improve the health of forests and reduce the risk of mass fires. In addition and as the IPCC report mentions, fire also eliminates pests, including those that affect humans, such as ticks.
Environmental engineering in fires
The prescribed burns are different from the traditional indigenous practices and the simple incineration of plant remains. The difference can be summarized in a word: science. They are engineering projects based on a previous study that analyzes different environmental parameters. Fire behavior simulation models are used to predict the effects on soils and vegetation, and before the execution a burning test is performed.
Burning itself is in charge of forest firefighters, who use instruments such as calling drip torches. Its appearance reminds of a fire extinguisher, but they serve precisely for the opposite: the container is filled with fuel, which is spreading in lines by means of the tube topped by a nozzle with a burner.
“The prescribed burns are probably the most effective technique to eliminate fuel, and the cheapest,” says Víctor Resco de Dios, Professor of Forest Engineering and global change at the University of Lleida and expert in forest fires. In the US, California is increasing this beneficial use of fire, and the positive balance – even with the occasional catastrophic fires – has extended the practice to other states. Australia also has decades applying burning burns successfully.
In our country, prescribed burns are not an unknown practice. But the use made of them is “insufficient”, according to God’s rescus: they apply above all to train the extinction personnel in the management of technical fire, covering an “anecdotal” surface. However, and according to the experience in other places, “so that the burns were really useful as a prevention tool we should apply them on a surface equivalent to three times the one that burns.”
Disco of God puts figures: If almost 300,000 hectares burned in 2022, prescribed burns should be applied to 900,000. “Many may seem, but burn this extension is much cheaper than throwing money in the extinction of 300,000, and has a series of ecological and even economic and social benefits.” Thus, in western Australia it is achieved that 80 % of the surface that burns is the product of prescribed burning.
Nor is the situation homogeneous throughout the state, since forest management is a competence of the autonomous communities. Disco de Dios mentions Catalonia and Gran Canaria as the areas where the prescribed burns are most applied, but “we are usually always far from the objective, in any community,” he warns.
But the expansion of prescribed burning faces a serious obstacle that Hutto summarizes: “Most people have no idea of how natural and necessary the great fires are.” Although experts insist on the need for a paradigm change, the benefits of fire are not a very popular idea, and therefore it is difficult to boost the necessary policies. “We need brave politicians to throw these measures forward and educate society to understand their need,” concludes resco of God.