Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, April 15, 1995 TAG: 9504170073
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CATHRYN MCCUE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: WEBBS MILL LENGTH: Medium
The better news is, fires that ravaged 5,400 acres of Craig County woods this week did little long-term damage.
"Fire is a part of the ecosystem," said John Bellemore, ecological group leader for the George Washington and Jefferson National Forests.
"It's amazing. You look at an area like this, and you say, `My God, this is all dead out there,''' Bellemore said Friday, standing at the foot of a blackened hillside on Sinking Creek Mountain. "You come back in the summer, and it's all greened up again."
In the Appalachian mountains, most wildlife species and vegetation get a boost from an occasional scorcher.
This week's fires killed few trees. Mostly, it burned off the "duff" - leaves, pine needles, ice-storm damage and other forest debris on the ground, leaving only a half-inch layer of charred ash behind. Below that, the soil is undisturbed, damp and cool.
And although the top half of the huckleberry bushes and laurels are wiped out, their roots still live. The ashes will release such nutrients as phosphorous and calcium into the soil, Bellemore said, and cause a new generation of growth to flourish.
Within a month, deer, turkey, songbirds and other wildlife will find a buffet of succulent green shoots sprouting across the woods, where just days ago hundreds of firefighters battled smoke and crackling hot flames.
Insects will benefit in their own way, laying eggs in charred-out trees, for instance, said Steve Croy, a forest ecologist with the recently merged George Washington and Jefferson.
By next year, the berries will be thick, he said, enough for black bear and jam-makers alike.
For thousands of years, way before the New Castle Volunteer Fire Department and the U.S. Forest Service "hot shot" crews came along, these mountains succumbed regularly to fire. Over time, the ecosystem developed its own survival methods.
Thin-barked trees, such as red maple and yellow poplar, probably died in this fire, Croy said. But their demise will let competing species, the pitch pine and oak, grow.
Flames reached a height of 100 feet in some places, setting treetops ablaze in what firefighters call "crown-outs." Those trees were killed, but the heat burst open the pine cones, the seeds for another generation.
"The cycle just goes on and on and on, but man's broken the cycle," said David Giannotti, a Bureau of Land Management fire specialist from Colorado who was in Craig County to help clean up.
The Forest Service's policy is to suppress wildfires. But this can backfire when forest debris builds up.
In an attempt to mimic nature's process, the George Washington and Jefferson conducts prescribed burns on about 5,000 acres a year in the 2 million-acre forest, carefully heeding wind, humidity, rainfall and other conditions. The forest plans to double that in the next few years, Bellemore said.
Some federal land managers, mostly out West, have adopted a "let burn" policy, allowing natural fires to burn when all the prescribed conditions are met. The policy flared into a national debate in 1988 during the devastating blaze in Yellowstone National Park.
Officials had not fully understood the effect of a years-long drought, and the natural fire burned out of control, said Doug Raeburn, fire management officer for the Shenandoah National Park.
The Yellowstone fire blazed for several months, and the controversy still simmers.
Like other Eastern national forests, the Shenandoah jumps on any wildfire immediately. There are more homes close to federal lands in the East, and smoke can cause a serious problem for the more populated Eastern states, Raeburn said.
Another difference between fires in the East and West is the aftermath. Craig County won't have the dramatic mudslides and floods that follow so many California fires, Giannotti said.
When Western species burn, they leave a thin, impervious layer on the soil, like plastic wrap or wax, he said. When the rains come, the water rolls right off it and down to the valleys.
But in the Eastern forests, the weblike, thread-thin root systems hold the soil in place and soak up the rain ... which will nourish the buds ... which will feed the animals ... which will keep the ecosystem in check.
"I used to look at this stuff and just get heartsick," Giannotti said, kicking at the charred ground. "But in 10 years, you can't even tell."
by CNB