The forests always had occasional fires for as long as there had been a forest, but the frequency and the severity of man-made fires resulted in a negative environmental impact as well as social discontent over forest depletion. Large scale fires result in a loss of topsoil. The hot temperatures reached in large fires burns away the topsoil and organic material in the soil that is vital to the health of the forest. Less vegetation as a result of forest fires doubles the amount of runoff flowing into mountain streams, and increases the speed at which snow melts and fills streams. Effects such as these can have unpredictable effects on the environment. The effect of reduced forest size has already had a measurable impact on the composition of our atmosphere in the relatively short amount of time we have been cutting them down(6). Ironically however it is the conversion of forest land to urban and agriculture use that has a more permanent and detrimental impact. Logging and urbanization lead to forest succession. Forest succession happens when there are changes to an environment that causes the composition of plant and animal species to change. New species succeed the existing ones as a result of things like changes in amount of shade, temperature, or the introduction of foreign species. Unintended species brought over by loggers and settlers include fungi and weeds that are detrimental to the existing ecosystem. In 1910 a fungal disease known as “white pine blister rust” was introduced and resulted in a substantial reduction of the existing Western white pine (1). The forest succession, as it is happening in the Pacific Northwest, is making the forest more “homogeneous in their composition and structure” especially since the only trees replanted after logging where Douglas-fir (1)(4) . This makes the ecosystem more vulnerable and weaker to invasive
The effects of one can result in death or serious injury and homes, buildings, or even whole communities. These often affect large areas which allow them to spread so far and be so powerful. Not only just the fire affects people, but the smoke created by it can also give people health problems. Wildfires are most powerful with little to no rain and high wind speeds. Wildfires can kill insects that can spread disease and clean areas with bacteria and scattered pieces of waste. While wildfires do have some positive effects, you can not look towards them when lives are lost. You can not control where a wildfire will lead to and it takes a long time to put one out. In a discussion, someone brought up how your insurance does not cover property that is burned down. I believe this is very absurd considering the fact that you were not responsible for it. Even some planned fire can go out of hand leading to major destruction and injuries. According to npr.org, 60 percent of wildfires in national parks are caused by humans and in all forests human cause 84! Because of this stat, it makes it very hard to debate about this, although I believe instead of debating on the topic, people should try to raise awareness to cause less
There is a debate about using prescribed fires. Prescribed fires are fires that help reduce the catastrophic damage that wildfire creates. prescribed fires work most of the time, but they can be faulty at some points. That's why some people don't agree with using prescribed fires. Even though they sometimes don't work, they can be really helpful when they do work.
Texas is home for 25 million residents and the population will continue to rise in the future. The Lone Star is a great place to start your careers or to build a family because of the available resources and a wide range of opportunities. However, on the other hand, comparing to other states, the weather in Texas is extreme and unpredictable. According to the Texas A&M Forest Service, Texas is one of the three natural disaster states in the nation. Same as other natural disasters, wildfires in Texas can be hazardous because they can burn down resources, destroy wildlife and can put a great cost on property restoration. Fire hazards are at greater risk in regions with a big gap differences between their wet and dry seasons. Rainy season give
It is important to the environment that there be controlled fires for any number of reasons such as, putting the nutrients back into the soil, and clearing out debris that could be hazardous if a wildfire were to occur. This does not come with out it 's faults, sometimes the fire becomes to big to handle and they become near misses or wildfires. Prescribed fires are great for the ecosystem and the overall well being of forests. They make ecosystems more diverse and replenish the soil for new plant growth.
The infamous winds of Santa Ana repeatedly help develop a sky ridden with smoke, but for many on the golden coast this is just a typical day. The winds spiral into flames catching among the wild flowers that flourish on the vast valleys of California. These winds are unstoppable. However, it seems as if many refuse this idea in hopes that the land in california will become untouched by the dry winds if humans decide to build. It seems as if no one realizes that the ash from last year will be buried under tar at first, but soon enough the winds will take over the land and a new layer of ash will settle.. This is a reality among the people of southern california when the Santa Ana winds take over. The essay “Brush Fire” by Linda Thomas is an emotional piece supported through facts and definitions which express how much the Santa Ana winds mean to her. The second essay discussing the winds is a piece which looks at the effects of the santa ana in almost the opposite way. The similarities and differences in “Brush Fire” by Thomas and “The Santa Ana” by Didion both express how meaningful the Santa Ana winds can be in two different writing styles.
For this assignment, I reviewed the Great Fire of Chicago that occurred on October 8, 1871. A man-made hazard that has a lot of similarities to this fire would be the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire. This fire happened on March 25, 1911, and was one of the most notorious industrial fires that have occurred in the United States. The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire happened in the Asch Building located in downtown Manhattan. There were around 230-275 workers distributed throughout two floors when the fire broke out at quitting time. A fire department was located less than six blocks from the building and was able to put the fire out in 18 minutes. When the fire department completely extinguished the fire, the body count was 146 with a complete
The Peshtigo fire of 1871 was a forest fire that occurred around Peshtigo in Wisconsin. The fire claimed more than 15000 thousand lives and left a lot of property destroyed. The fire was augmented by the hot temperatures and the widespread drought which left the dense forest covering the area unusually dry. Clearing of land and harvesting of lumber left large piles of saw dust and waste from the lumbering process throughout the forest. The poor lumbering practises made it easier for the fire to spread quickly. In addition, the cyclonic storm that cycled the area enhanced the intensity of the fire.
In 2015 in the middle of summer there was a conflagration.The conflagration was in a small town of M.T Vernon,Oregon and it burned for days and days.Firefighters tell me that it started because of the conflagration in California it started from the small embers that traveled and landed in a pile of hay,and spread to the dry grass.
Earth, the home to humans, animals, and all of biological diversity, experiences changes every second of every day, and these changes are referred to as biological altercations. Biological altercations, like the Santa Ana winds, are commonly disputed among society due to both the positive and negative outcomes of the altercations. The Santa Ana winds are extremely dry winds that affect Southern California and are known to cause wildfires. Individuals like Joan Didion argue that a Santa Ana brings darkness and danger, whereas other individuals like Linda Thomas argue that it brings beauty and value. Each side of this dispute is discussed in Linda Thomas’ essay “Brush Fire”, and Joan Didion’s essay “The Santa Ana”. Despite each piece’s central idea being about the Santa Ana winds, the author of each piece has a different perspective. Each author’s perspective is based on their own personal connection and experience with the biological alteration of the Santa Ana winds.
Everyone knows about the huge fire that was happened in Chicago in 1871 right? Well if you haven't, why are you reading this first? Go read "The Great Fire" by Jim Murphy! Done? Okay then let's get started! So, In paragraph 13, the author says and I quote " Chicago had been built largely on soggy marshland that flooded every time it rained." When the people who were first building the city had this problem, they came up with a pretty good solution ( at least that's what they probably thought) They decided to build the whole city out of wood, this includes the sidewalks, houses, outhouses, (yuck!) sheds, and a lot of other things. ( see paragraph 11) The thing is that wood can catch on fire very easily, even the author said " the 23,000 acres
Bushfires account for approximately 15% of major disasters in Australia, making them the third most common of Australia’s disasters, following severe storms and transport disasters (1). The Black Saturday bushfires are still, to date, Australia’s worst bushfire disaster and are ranked second among Australia’s natural disasters, causing the highest recorded number of lives lost to Australian bushfires (1, 2). Furthermore, it is one of the world’s worst wildfire disasters in history, costing more than AUD 4 billion (3). With over 400 recorded bushfires occurring on this day, the area damaged was vast and included a combination of areas (1). It involved the collaboration and commitment of a range and high volume of emergency service personnel
On the seventh of February 2009, the Black Saturday Bushfire burnt across the state of Victoria. The most devastating bushfire in the Australian history. It is considered to be one of the deadliest fires to burn in Australia as it managed to burn down over 4500-square-kilometres of land, destroy 2029 homes, kill 173 people, injure 5000 people and kill thousands of animals. Individuals, groups and government stood together to help the victims in any possible way. They did so by donating money individually, communities helping the victims and government assisting them financially.
Hot and dry conditions cause earth surface to be drier and this lead to massive wildfires which destroy wildlife habitat and inject huge amount of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. There are some positive impacts of wildfires on the environment, wildfires clean up a forest of dead and decaying matter. They maintain ecosystem balance by removing diseased plants and harmful insects and regeneration of seeds through sunlight. They kill invasive species, allowing for indigenous species to continue thriving. Wildfires can engender flash flood conditions and enable soil erosion, with an increase in water runoff. Aside from deforestation, wildfires affect habitat of the environment population and distribution of species after incident is not the same. It poses risks to human life and health due to heavy smog released in the atmosphere that can cause respiratory diseases. Damages the
Bojocco et al(2010) Reported that fire has a major role in the determination of diversity and vegetation dynamics. It has influence on landscape structural diversity (Weatherspoon and Skinner 1995). The frequent occurrence of forest fires has been one of the vital reasons for the exhaustion and extinction of most of the biodiversity. This results in partial or complete degradation of vegetation cover or fragmentation of the forest thus modifying the radiation balance by growing the surface albedo, water runoff and raising the soil erosion (Darmawan and Mulyanto, 2001). Historical study of forest fire is significant for ecological and forest management applications(Iniguez et al. 2008). In terrestrial ecosystems, Landuse change and fires are considered as the drivers of global change(Rudel et al. 2005;Fraterrigo et al.