Fires

Fire is sometimes essential for forest regeneration, or provides tangible benefits for local communities. In other cases it destroys forests and has dire social and economic consequences.

Forest fires are a natural part of life but shouldn't be. In many, but not all, forest types: in dry tropical forests for example they are a frequent and expected feature, while in tropical moist forests they would naturally be absent or at least rare enough to play a negligible role in ecology.


Fires become a problem when they burn in the wrong places, or in the right places but at the wrong frequency or the wrong temperatures. Fires in forests that burn under natural circumstances become a problem when those forests are used for a particular purpose, such as settlement or timber production.


Globally, most forest fires are probably now directly or indirectly influenced by humans. But in many areas that are hot and dry for part of each year, where frequent fires would be expected, human influence has now become so pervasive that most fires are 'unnatural'.


Objectives and aims of fire management are not synchronized or thought-through, leading to unwanted and wanted fires, which can result in both beneficial and damaging effects. The geographical spread, frequency and intensity of fires are all changing.

Fire is also used as a management tool because it is cheap, simple to apply (particularly important if use is illegal) and sometimes the only option available for poorer people and smallholders. Some people get out of control when they cause it themselves. Got this article from march 6 los angeles times b section.