{"id":1823,"date":"2019-08-26T16:53:05","date_gmt":"2019-08-26T16:53:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/herofortheplanet.org\/longleaf\/?page_id=1823"},"modified":"2022-01-05T20:25:54","modified_gmt":"2022-01-05T20:25:54","slug":"importance-of-fire","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/herofortheplanet.org\/longleaf\/explore\/importance-of-fire\/","title":{"rendered":"Importance of Fire"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\t<h5>uncover<\/h5>\n<h1>Importance of Fire<\/h1>\n\t<h4>&#8220;I have a question. We keep talking about fire being important for the longleaf pine forest ecosystem, but I thought forest fires were bad. So are fires in forests good or bad?&#8221;<\/h4>\n<p>Longleaf pine forests are what we consider a fire dependent ecosystem, which means that the forest actually depends on regular, low-intensity fires to maintain the ecosystem. These types of fires, which are controlled and where there isn&#8217;t a lot of stuff to burn on the forest floor, are good.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/herofortheplanet.org\/longleaf\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/30\/2019\/04\/eleanor-teaching-right-156x300.png\" alt=\"eleanor-teaching-right\" itemprop=\"image\" height=\"300\" width=\"156\" title=\"eleanor-teaching-right\" onerror=\"this.style.display='none'\"  \/>\n\t<h3>Ingredients for a Fire<\/h3>\n<p>Fires need three things to burn &#8211; oxygen, heat, and fuel. Think about a campfire &#8211; you build the stack of firewood, you light a match, and then you fan the flame to help it catch and grow. How big the fire gets depends on how much wood or fuel you add to it.<\/p>\n<p>A fire in the forest needs the same things. The heat can come from lightening or it be a spark created by people (accidentally or on purpose). The fuel in a forest is the plant material that is available to burn on the forest floor.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/herofortheplanet.org\/longleaf\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/30\/2020\/09\/fire-triangle.png\" alt=\"fire-triangle\" itemprop=\"image\" height=\"472\" width=\"512\" title=\"fire-triangle\" onerror=\"this.style.display='none'\"  \/>\n\t\t<h3>Question to Ponder<\/h3>\t\t\n\t\t\t<strong>Compare the amount of fuel available to burn in the two forests pictured below. If a fire were to start in both places, which fire do you think would burn hotter and grow bigger?<br \/>\n<\/strong>\n\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/herofortheplanet.org\/longleaf\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/30\/2020\/09\/fuel.jpg\" alt=\"Forest #1\" itemprop=\"image\" height=\"450\" width=\"600\" title=\"fuel\" onerror=\"this.style.display='none'\"  \/>\n\t\tForest #1\n\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/herofortheplanet.org\/longleaf\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/30\/2020\/09\/llpfuel-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Forest #2\" itemprop=\"image\" height=\"1536\" width=\"2048\" title=\"longleaf pine forest\" onerror=\"this.style.display='none'\"  \/>\n\t\tForest #2\n\t<p>If you guessed a fire in forest #1 would burn bigger and hotter, you are right! Forest #2 mostly has low grasses and plants, which will burn quickly then go out.<\/p>\n\n\t<h3>Why is fire important for the longleaf forest?<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/herofortheplanet.org\/longleaf\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/30\/2020\/09\/controlled-fire.jpg\" alt=\"Controlled or prescribed fire\" itemprop=\"image\" height=\"835\" width=\"1250\" title=\"controlled fire\" onerror=\"this.style.display='none'\"  \/>\n\t<p>When you were exploring species that live in the longleaf forest, you may have noticed that many of the plant species require lots of sunlight to grow. In turn, many animal species depend on these plants and a wide open forest. Without fire, shrubs and young trees would grow up across the forest floor, eventually creating too much shade for the other grasses and flowers to survive. This would change the ecosystem of the forest.<\/p>\n<p>But with regular fires (every 1-5 years), shrubs and young trees don&#8217;t get a chance to grow too high, so the forest floor remains open and sunny.<\/p>\n\t<p>Frequent fires also mean that fuel or dead plant material doesn&#8217;t get a chance to build up in the forest, so fires burn fast. The bark of the longleaf pine trees is thick so they aren&#8217;t harmed by these fires. Many animal species that live in this forest have good hiding places to avoid being hurt by the fire. And, the important plants growing on the forest floor depend on fire to grow or regenerate.<\/p>\n\n\t\t<h3>Hero Journal<\/h3>\t\t\n\t\t\t<strong>Describe how your species depends on fire to maintain its habitat conditions? How does it survive in a fire? You may have to do some more research to figure this out.<br \/>\n<\/strong>\n\t<h3>Prescribed &amp; Controlled Fires<\/h3>\n<p>Historically, when longleaf pine forests stretched across the southeastern US, fires burned regularly as a result of lightning strikes or controlled burns managed by the native people who lived on the land. After the native people were removed, and the landscape was changed by cutting the forests and building houses and roads, natural fires were suppressed. But today forest managers\u00a0conduct &#8216;prescribed&#8217; burns in longleaf forests. Have you ever gone to the doctor and they prescribed medicine to make you feel better? Same idea! Forest managers prescribe fire to keep the ecosystem functioning. They do this by setting and controlling fires in small sections of the forest at a time. These fires are managed by professionals who keep the forest and the surrounding community safe.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/herofortheplanet.org\/longleaf\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/30\/2020\/09\/prescribed-burn.jpg\" alt=\"prescribed burn\" itemprop=\"image\" height=\"525\" width=\"700\" title=\"prescribed burn\" onerror=\"this.style.display='none'\"  \/>\n\t<h3>Fear of Fire &amp; Fire Suppression<\/h3>\n<p>Many people are afraid of fire &#8211; and for good reasons! Fire is a naturally destructive element that can hurt and kill living things and cause great damage. When people started building homes in and close to forests but stopped actively managing the land, and when people were afraid of losing valuable lumber, fire became perceived as a bad thing that we should prevent and be afraid of.<\/p>\n\t<p>For decades, people and government agencies put a lot of work into preventing and &#8216;suppressing&#8217; fires that would have otherwise naturally burned and kept fuel levels low on forest floors. This &#8216;fire suppression&#8217; has led to some of the really damaging wild fires we have seen in the news, particularly in the Western US, because there is so much fuel in the forest to burn. These big scary fires have increased people&#8217;s fear of fires.<\/p>\n\n\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/herofortheplanet.org\/longleaf\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/30\/2020\/09\/wildfire.jpg\" alt=\"Wild fire \" itemprop=\"image\" height=\"853\" width=\"1280\" title=\"wildfire\" onerror=\"this.style.display='none'\"  \/>\n\t<h3>Fire Regeneration<\/h3>\n<p>When a longleaf forest burns regularly, it burns low and fast, and the forest floor starts growing or regenerating very quickly. Watch this timelapse video to see how quickly a longleaf forest in Georgia regrew after it burned.<\/p>\n\t<iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/cMUnFyz_8mM\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n\t\t<h5>\t\n\tEducator Note<\/h5>\t\t\n\t\t\t\n<ul>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">Ecosystems are dynamic in nature; their characteristics can vary over time. Disruptions to any physical or biological component of an ecosystem can lead to shifts in all its populations. <strong>(MS-LS2-4)<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li aria-level=\"2\"><i><strong>(MS-LS2-4) <\/strong>Construct an argument supported by empirical evidence that changes to physical or biological components of an ecosystem affect populations<\/i><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">Biodiversity describes the variety of species found in Earth&#8217;s terrestrial and oceanic ecosystems. The completeness of integrity of an ecosystem&#8217;s biodiversity is often used as a measure of its health. <strong>(MS-LS2-5)<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li aria-level=\"2\"><strong>MS-LS2-5.<\/strong> Evaluate competing design solutions for maintaining biodiversity and ecosystem services.*<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n<ul>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">Human activities have significantly altered the biosphere, sometimes damaging or destroying natural habitats and causing the extinction of other species. But changes to Earth&#8217;s environments can have different impacts (negative and positive) for different living things. <strong>(MS-ESS3-3)<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n<ul>\n<li aria-level=\"1\"><i>Substances react chemically in characteristic ways. In a chemical process, the atoms that make up the original substances are regrouped into different molecules, and these new substances have different properties from those of the reactants. <strong>MS-PS1-2\u00a0<\/strong><\/i>\n<ul>\n<li aria-level=\"2\"><i><strong>MS-PS1-2.<\/strong> Analyze and interpret data on the properties of substances before and after the substances interact to determine if a chemical reaction has occurred.\u00a0<\/i><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n<ul>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">The amount of energy transfer needed to change the temperature of a matter sample by a given amount depends on the nature of the matter, the size of the sample, and the environment. <strong>(MS-PS3-4)<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<ul>\n<li aria-level=\"2\"><strong>MS-PS3-4.<\/strong> Plan an investigation to determine the relationships among the energy transferred, the type of matter, the mass, and the change in the average kinetic energy of the particles as measured by the temperature of the sample.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n<ul>\n<li aria-level=\"1\"><strong>Longleaf Species Notes:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li aria-level=\"2\">How is fire useful in the llp ecosystem?\u00a0<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"2\">What happens when fire is suppressed in the llp ecosystem?<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"2\">How does your species benefit from fire?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.org\/content\/dam\/tnc\/nature\/en\/documents\/nature-lab-lesson-plans\/FightingFireTeacherGuide.pdf\">Fighting Fire with Fire<\/a> &#8211; NGSS (multimedia) Lesson Plan focused on longleaf pine forest\u00a0<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fs.fed.us\/rm\/fire_game\/\">Living with Fire Game<\/a> &#8211; Use this resource for students to explore topics such as suppression, weather, and planning, etc.) or play the game where students set up a fire to burn in a specific forest for a specific reason using expert advice from the &#8220;fire team&#8221;\u00a0 Requires significant reading.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\"><strong>Turn &amp; Talk<\/strong><strong>:<\/strong>\u00a0 How do you think your species survives and benefits from fires?<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\"><strong>Read<\/strong>: How Native people currently use fire to safe LLP ecosystem\n<ul>\n<li aria-level=\"2\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.texasobserver.org\/how-the-alabama-coushatta-use-fire-to-save-the-longleaf-pine\/\">How the Alabama-Coushatta Use Fire To Save The Longleaf Pine<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\"><a href=\"https:\/\/southernforests.org\/fire\/resources-for-partners\/benefits-of-prescribed-fire\/PrescribedFire_7Benefits_Infographic_Blank_horizontal.pdf\">Prescribed Fire Infographic:<\/a> Focused on the Southeastern United States<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\"><strong>Hero Journal: <\/strong>Describe how your species depends on fire to maintain its habitat conditions?\u00a0 How does it survive in a fire?\u00a0 You may have to do some more research to figure this out.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Discussion<\/b>:\u00a0<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">What have you heard about recent wildfires in California and other states?<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">Why do you think these wildfires are so big and destructive?<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">What happens when fire is suppressed in the llp ecosystem?<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">What do you think the difference is between Burner Bob&#8217;s controlled fire and a wildfire?<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">How do you think a controlled fire might help the plants and animals in this longleaf pine forest? How is fire useful in the llp ecosystem?\u00a0<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">Did you notice at the end of the video on this webpage it advertises the opportunity to support a &#8220;fire-worker&#8221;?\u00a0 Why do you think they call them fire-workers rather than firefighters?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\t\t<h4>\t\n\tDigging Deeper<\/h4>\t\t\n\t\t\t<p>Extend knowledge about wildfires:\u00a0<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li aria-level=\"2\"><b>Article<\/b>: What else contributes to more and bigger wildfires?\u00a0 Heat and low humidity. <a href=\"https:\/\/acespace.org\/2021\/11\/16\/wildfires-and-climate-change-101\/\"><i>Wildfires and climate change 101: <\/i><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"2\"><b>Video<\/b>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=EACa19Phty4\">Mountain pine beetle and wildfires in Colorado<\/a>:\u00a0 Xiuhtezcatl shares how pine beetles coupled with hotter and drier environments are throwing ecosystems out of balance in Colorado.<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"2\"><a href=\"https:\/\/inciweb.nwcg.gov\/\">Map of recent fire incidents in the US<\/a>.\u00a0 You might find a way to use the Incident Table View to look at acres burned by state.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\t\t<h5><a href=\"\/longleaf\/explore\/co-benefits\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener\">What other benefits does a healthy longleaf pine ecosystem provide? <\/a><\/h5>\t\t\n\t\t\t<a href=\"\/longleaf\/explore\/co-benefits\/\" target=\"_self\" role=\"button\" rel=\"noopener\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tNext \n\t\t\t<\/a>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>uncover Importance of Fire &#8220;I have a question. We keep talking about fire being important for the longleaf pine forest ecosystem, but I thought forest fires were bad. So are fires in forests good or bad?&#8221; Longleaf pine forests are what we consider a fire dependent ecosystem, which means that the forest actually depends on [&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"btn btn-secondary cf-quest-read-more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/herofortheplanet.org\/longleaf\/explore\/importance-of-fire\/\">Read More&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":0,"parent":42,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1823","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/herofortheplanet.org\/longleaf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1823","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/herofortheplanet.org\/longleaf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/herofortheplanet.org\/longleaf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/herofortheplanet.org\/longleaf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/43"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/herofortheplanet.org\/longleaf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1823"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/herofortheplanet.org\/longleaf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1823\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/herofortheplanet.org\/longleaf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/42"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/herofortheplanet.org\/longleaf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}