Permaculture [ pur-muh-kuhl-cher ] verb
A systems design science whereby regenerative actions are taken to build human habitat within a natural context rather than opposed to it.
Peregrination [ per-i-gruh–ney-shuhn ] noun
- travel from one place to another, especially on foot.
- a course of travel; journey.
Here in the American west summer has become synonymous with wild fire. Places where fires were relatively rare and small events now experience fires that char tens of thousands of acres and fill the atmosphere with haze over many states. The landscape becomes a barren scene, foreign to those who lived there pre fire. These fires are burning hotter and moving faster than they did in the past. The heat moving ahead of the flames can create combustion before the fire ever reaches the next place. This is mostly possible due to our mismanagement of forests.
Our mismanagement goes back to the advent of Smoky the Bear.
When we decided all fire is bad fire we set ourselves up for exactly this circumstance.
There are forests, and especially specific species of trees, that require fire. These trees actually have a mineral makeup that attracts lightning. Fire is needed in order to “clean up” the forest floor to make space for seeds to germinate. Fire also signals those seeds that it is time to sprout. Ground fires burn the small and weak trees and only allow the largest and healthiest to continue to stand. These fires have tended to be slow moving “cold” fires because the forests were healthy ecosystems with a high diversity of plants among the trees. High plant diversity makes healthy soils, healthy soils make healthy plants, healthy plants make more healthy soil, healthy soil holds massive quantities of water. It’s a symbiotic relationship that is so complex we will never understand the intricacies of how it really works.
I don’t suppose we need to understand it we just need to be able to respect it and not destroy it.
What we have done by stopping fire altogether is that we have allowed trees to crowd together blocking the sun from hitting the forest floor. In addition the forest litter has built up to smother out the understory plants that contribute to feeding the microbiome in the soil. The soil microbiome hates monoculture and favors diversity. It begins to compete for resources and makes the trees weak. The trees become susceptible to insect attacks and diseases, which in turn makes tinder for fires that burn hot and fast and are completely destructive. Now the trees are gone. Now there is no wind break or buffer. This gives the perception of it being MORE windy when actually the wind has always been just the way it is, it was just buffered. Without the forest the wind has a drying effect. Rain that falls washes away the parched soil because there are no plants, no roots, and no soil microbiome to catch it and hold the water to soak it in. In these circumstances we have just inadvertently created the perfect conditions for flash flooding.
Fire is one way nature works, setting back succession to the beginning. Once a forest is gone the landscape returns to grassland for a time (geologically speaking this can be hundreds or thousands of years) to begin the process of rebuilding the soil microbiome. From grasslands we move into savanna, and then into new growth forest, then into old growth forest. Each time the area can be completely different than previously. Knowing this we can take steps to help it along so that the new grasslands (usually ‘weeds’ first) can begin to hold water sooner than what would happen in a natural succession. Holding water is one of the ways we can help build the microbiome of the soil to get to the next step of succession.
Human planted forest so far doesn’t work well because we tend to think of forests as single species and therefore plant it into single species. This will always create a problem that nature will ultimately resolve, usually in seemingly harsh ways, like more and hotter fires. If we can learn to support the growth of hundreds of species within a forest we will be successful at replanting.
An important aspect is to have a hydrated landscape. In a hydrated landscape, whether it is forested or it is grassland/prairie we have more opportunities for hydration. The hydration on the prairie contributes to the hydration of the forest, the hydration of the forest contributes to the hydration of the prairie. The wind is the vector for carrying that hydration to both and the microbiology is the condensation nuclei that organizes water droplets into rain. Bottom line, we can mitigate the effects of forest fire. We can grow the biology and plant consciously into new forest. We can build better management practices that include selective clearing of understory growth for the benefit of the people and the benefit of the forest and in years where we have good landscape hydration we can have intentional fire to clear what needs to be cleared. And…..we need to consult with and adhere to indigenous practices of land care on a broad scale if we want to fix the mistakes we have made over the last hundred and fifty years.
