Most people think of forest fires as natural disasters, but according to the former senior research scientist with the Canadian Forest Service, wildland fire is a keystone process – not dissimilar from keystone species, such as grizzly bears. And few understand the complex issues surrounding wildfires better than Dr. Mike Flannigan, the former Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Wildland Fire and global fire authority with the US National Assessment on Global Change, IPCC, IGBP Fire Fast Track Initiative and Global Change Terrestrial Ecosystems. By email, Mike explained why forest fires matter and why managing them is about to get a lot harder.
When did you know you wanted to work in fire management?
I have always been interested in fire. When I was one-year-old I had a birthday cake with one candle and I was so fascinated with the flame I stuck my finger in the flame but did not withdraw my finger despite the pain. Professionally, I started working on fire weather forecasting and fire weather course in the late 1970s. Moved to the Canadian Forest Service in the early 1980s and started doing fire research. Moved to the University of Alberta in 2012 when I became a Professor of Wildland Fire.
Why are wildfires important in maintaining healthy ecosystems and sustaining biodiversity?
Wildfires are a keystone process in systems like our Canadian boreal forest. Fire kills insects and disease and provides a disturbance mediated environment from recently burned areas to old growth forests that gives opportunities for a variety of species.
How do you balance protecting people and places with the need to actually let fires burn?
A good example is what Ontario is doing – Appropriate Response. When a fire arrives, you do an assessment to determine where that fire will spread and how intense the fire will be (through fire modelling). Then examine the pros and cons of allowing the fire to burn. (See write-up in the Canadian Wildland Fire and Smoke Newsletter) Ontario has monitored many wildfires and is allowing fire to play a natural role when and where possible. However, this becomes more challenging when there are a lot of societal values on the landscape such that any fire can’t grow to be too large before it hits a value.
Aside from the need to save communities, are there other factors you weigh when determining which fires are allowed to burn and which ones are controlled?
Infrastructure, industrial operations, insect damaged forests, watersheds – age of the forest – habitat concerns for key species.
How do you explain the past two years of record-breaking forest fires in BC? Do you think there will be a similar situation in the coming years?
In large part climate change. The weather is becoming more conducive to wildfire – hot, dry and windy is becoming more common. Additionally, mountain pine beetle damaged or dead trees may have made the fuels more conducive to fire. Although, the MPB is also partly tied to climate change with fewer extreme cold events in winter. Expect more fire in the future, not every year but on average we will see more fire and we have to learn to live with fire.
What do you think the best strategy is for managing the pine beetle? Should we log the dead trees, even if they are in parks? Should we have more controlled burns? Is there a right answer?
The answer is, it best depends on the situation. Removing infected and dead trees even in parks and wilderness areas is required to help reduce populations. The removal could be done by prescribed burning or mechanical treatment depending on the location and the level of risk for fire.
Historically, should we have managed the pine beetle situation differently when it first was identified as a problem? Are there lessons we should learn moving forward?
Having large swaths of a single tree species can lead to problems so we should have some diversity on the landscape and where possible mimic Mother Nature and the historical conditions. Additionally, we identified potential fire breaks (rivers, ridges, highways etc.) and units so if a fire occurs, we can use these areas to stop the fire from growing too large.
What is the hardest part of your job?
Having to say no! There are so many interesting challenges in fire but there is only so much time.
What advice would you give the new recruits coming into the fire management career?
Observe nature, ask questions, learn how to communicate well and be very comfortable with computers and new technology.
What is the one thing you know now that you wish you knew at 15?
Have fun. Enjoy the little things and closely observe the world around us.
What do you think?
Dr. Mike Flannigan knows fire and its role within our ecosystem.
• Did Mike make you rethink the importance of fire to the health of an ecosystem?
• Is there a difference between natural disturbance, such as a wildfire, and an artificial disturbance such as logging?
• Are we striking the right balance when it comes to forest fire management, allowing the right fires to burn while protecting the areas of cultural and economic importance to people?
• What happens if decisions we make in other parts of society lead to more wild fires. Do we put more emphasis on fire risk management, or might that simply perpetuate impact on the environment, creating more fire risk down the road?
• Can we live with more wildfires? Do we need to protect nature to save our economy from the impacts of wildfires or do we need to grow our economy to be less reliant on industry’s susceptible to fire?
Over to you.