Burning a Forest to Save It

Controlled burning of grasslands and forests has been used for thousands of years to stimulate plant germination, replenish the ground with valuable nutrients, thin out trees and burn dry pine needles and tree limbs on the ground. When humans were not intentionally setting fires, lightning strikes completed the job. Early in the 20th century, concerns over a dwindling wood supply led to fire suppression. Such efforts, combined with the displacement of Native Americans who had often conducted controlled burns, caused the trees to gain the upper hand and create canopies that blocked sunlight, sometimes causing shifts in plant and animal life. Thickening stands of trees became a combustible danger. Forest fires have also become more frequent and severe elsewhere around the globe as a result of climate change and drought. In New Mexico’s Santa Fe National Forest and Jemez Mountains, Jeremy Bailey of the Nature Conservancy is spending this week as he did last week: showing a dozen bilingual forest experts from Mexico, Argentina, Costa Rica and Spain and another dozen domestic firefighters how to set the woods on fire to save them. As the coordinator of the Fire Learning Network, Mr. Bailey is supervising scientifically based controlled burns in New Mexico’s ponderosa pine forest. The training program brings Spanish-speaking and bilingual forest experts together to discuss prescribed burns, fire management and grassland and forest conservation practices. The Fire Learning Network, a cooperative program of the Forest Service, the Interior Department and the Nature Conservancy, began the exchange programs in 2008 to address a shortage of qualified burners. It has since played host to 19 exchanges resulting in the treatment of more than 65,000 acres of forestland in the United States...more