Forest Stewardship News Releases
Short articles about aspects of forest stewardship are distributed about ten times a year to news outlets throughout Pennsylvania and to people who request to receive them. To be added to the distribution list, fill out and submit our on-line form.
Forest Stewardship News Release Archive
LATEST NEWS
RELEASE: Fire in the Forest!
April 1, 2008 - For Immediate Release
Contact: Allyson Muth, Phone: 814-865-3208 E-mail:
Fire in the Forest!
Written by: Jim Finley,
Professor of Forest Resources, Penn State School of Forest Resources,
814-863-0401, fj4@psu.edu
As you read this article, Pennsylvania's spring fire season is coming
to an end. You may have heard a forester say, "Pennsylvania has
an asbestos forest." This means that wild fire is not normally common,
except for two times a year -- in the spring and fall.
Why do we consider this an asbestos forest? In the winter and summer, wildfire -- a fire that was accidentally or purposely started and running wild without constraint -- is uncommon. During these seasons, fuels on the forest floor are too damp to burn easily and in most of our forests the fuel is not continuous and any fire that does start will often burn out.
However, in the early spring after the snows are gone and before spring rains bring out canopy leaves, wildfire can happen. Days become increasingly warmer as the sun rises higher into the spring sky and its angle with the earth increases, becoming closer to its summer zenith. You can feel this warming as you walk through spring woods. As the sun warms the leaf and small twig litter on the forest floor, it quickly dries. You may have noticed that the leaves become crunchy, sometimes even seeming to "fluff" up. This light and dry fuel is easy to ignite and it will easily carry fire across the forest floor. Also, some understory plants, such as mountain laurel and white pine will easily burn under these conditions.
As we progress into summer, Pennsylvania's forest fuels under the shady, leafy canopy become moister with an increase in humidity and lower temperatures near the forest floor than in the sun. During our summer months, understory plants are actively growing and their foliage is green and moist -- it is harder to ignite forest fuels under these conditions. Clearly, the conditions in our hardwood forests are much different from those encountered in the Western conifer forests or the chaparral forests in California.
In the fall, as the leaves drop and we move into October, our driest month, the sun again penetrates the canopy and warms the forest floor, drying the newly fallen leaves. Opposite of the spring, the sun each day reaches its daily zenith lower in the sky, and each day it becomes a bit cooler. Depending on when the leaves fall and how much rain we receive, fall can bring wildfire to our forest.
In the winter, cooler air temperatures and the availability of moisture from rain and snow, keep the understory much wetter. You may have noticed that the leaves that fell in the fall in the winter appear matted on the forest floor. It is really hard to have wildfire under these conditions.
While nearly everyone dislikes wildfire and the damage it causes, fire is important to our forests and can be an effective management tool. In the next few years, forest landowners, government, conservancies and others are hoping to reintroduce fire to our forests. These "prescribed" fires will differ from wildfires as resource professionals will plan their intensity and location to stimulate forest regeneration, control invasive plants, and encourage some plant species that depend on fire to create conditions suitable for their growth and renewal.
Fire in Pennsylvania is both a tool and a threat. Using tools correctly and safely takes learning and planning. Enjoy your time afield in Pennsylvania's forests and be careful to protect them from "wildfire."
The Pennsylvania
Forest Stewardship Program provides publications on a variety of topics
related to woodland management for private landowners. For a list of free
publications, call 1-800-235-9473 (toll-free), send e-mail to
, or write to: Forest Stewardship Program, Forest Resources Extension,
The Pennsylvania State University, 320 Forest Resources Building, University
Park, PA 16802. The Pennsylvania Bureau of Forestry and USDA Forest Service,
in partnership with the Penn State's Forest Resources Extension, sponsor
the Forest Stewardship Program in Pennsylvania.
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