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Not all fires are created equal. While fires are a natural part of many ecosystems, many of today’s fires are more powerful and become “ladder fires” where a bu
by gdubs 6y ago
Not all fires are created equal. While fires are a natural part of many ecosystems, many of today’s fires are more powerful and become “ladder fires” where a build-up of fuel on the ground causes the fire to reach the crowns and cause severe damage to even fire-resistant species.
- biophysboy 6y agoAm I being overly optimistic if I think "hey maybe the buildup of fuel on the ground goes away in a fire"?
- komali2 6y agoNo, but the point is if the buildup goes for too long, what the controlled fires were trying to prevent becomes reality: a firestorm strong enough to burn to the tops of the trees.
- njarboe 6y agoWhat is cool about coastal redwoods is that they can survive all of their branches being burned off (i.e., a tree topping fire). The redwood trees in the Oakland fire were just logs in the sky after the fire and now the ones that were not cut down look quite nice. You can see the sprouts coming out of the redwoods left in place after the Santa Rosa fire. And those were just young redwoods (<100yr old). The ancient redwoods have much thicker insulating bark layers and even some insulating bark on some of the larger branches. It takes a lot of heat for a long time to heat up a 12ft diameter insulated redwood tree enough to kill it.
- ummonk 6y agoOld redwoods have high canopies and prevent smaller trees / shrubbery from growing so they’re naturally unlikely to succumb to ladder fires. Also, they can regrow the canopy if it does burn.