Bookshelf

After the Burn

After a forest fire, then what?

For a century, fire in the forests has been viewed as damaging to ecosystems rather than as a natural process of renewal. Early in the 20th century, federal and state agencies began suppressing wildfire as a political response to catastrophic events such as the 1910 burns in Idaho in an effort to protect timber values.

By the late 1970s, however, wildfire acres began to grow in spite of increasingly sophisticated firefighting techniques. In 1994 the National Commission on Wildfire Disasters concluded it was no longer possible to hold wildfires in check.

After the Burn, Assessing and Managing Your Forestland After a Wildfire, by Yvonne C. Barkley, UI Extension associate forester, examines types of Inland Northwest forests (moist, cold, dry), fire regimes (the role fire plays in an ecosystem) and suppression, fire mechanics and behavior, fire and vegetation, wildlife, soils, and watersheds.

The book also considers damages vs. benefits after a burn and post-fire management. An appendix predicts mortality of individual tree types and suggests erosion controls.

This 79-page color publication is the newest UI Extension publication in the Forest, Wildlife and Range Experiment Station, College of Natural Resources series.

It is available for $15 from 208.885.7982, or e-mail calspubs@uidaho.edu. This and hundreds of other CALS and CNR publications are searchable at http://info.ag.uidaho.edu/catalog/.