Wildfires: Disaster... or Lifesaver?

Snap. Crackle. BOOM! The smell of smoke chokes you as the stifling heat of a fire surrounds you. The deadly inferno of fire devours everything in its path. Like a ravenous beast. The red and orange flames lick at your heels as you try to outrun the fire.  Everywhere it goes, it leaves a path of fiery destruction and vengeance.

This is how most people imagine a wildfire, coming with the loss of many lives and obliteration, like the LA fires last summer or the Labor Mountain Fire, burning right now in Washington. When forest fires are described as such, they sound very damaging and horrible, but are they? Forest fires spread easily through dry areas, burning thousands of homes and taking hundreds of lives. But, surprisingly, some fires actually help ecosystems stay healthy.

Fire-Dependent Ecosystems

Some animals and plants actually depend on occasional fires, such as the wild lupine, which depends on wildfires to clear away overhanging plants.Wild lupines are also the primary food source for the endangered Karner Blue Caterpillar. A Lodgepole Pine tree’s seeds are covered in a layer of resin, which must be burned before the seed can grow. This is interesting, since fires could also kill the creatures benefiting from the fire, but it is also essential that Wildfires also clear out dead organic matter. Sometimes the organic matter can prevent nutrients from getting to the organisms in the soil and choke out new plants from emerging. 

Additionally, nutrients from the burned matter are released faster into the soil rather than letting it decay slowly. Sometimes, when there hasn’t been any fires, natural or human-caused, in a while, a buildup of the decaying organic matter will form, and that will be perfect fuel for a fire to burn. So sometimes humans step in with controlled wildfires or “prescribed burns”. These carefully created fires can burn all the decay before an unplanned fire can go out of control.

Ways to Prevent Wildfires

Wildfires are typically caused by lightning strikes, debris burning, vehicles, power lines, railroads, unattended or improperly extinguished campfires, cigarettes or cigars, and matches. Some ways to prevent these unsafe fires are making sure vehicles are working right, putting out campfires before walking away, and telling adults if you see something suspicious or dangerous. (Such as an unusual amount of smoke.)

Conclusion

Wildfires can be both destructive AND beneficial. Think about how you got to school today—most likely in a car or on a bus. Imagine one of your parents driving you to school when all of a sudden the car swerves to the left, barely avoiding a treacherous accident! Wildfires are, in some ways, similar to cars. Cars can be really useful, while also being one of the most dangerous inventions of humankind. Wildfires can be useful, while also being the reason for whole forests smoldering into ashes.