Hi, class! This week is my last week in Ecuador. Time flies! As I reflect on my time here, I have been thinking about some of the similarities I have seen in the environment here and in other places I have visited. Today's topic is wildfire.
Fires are natural. Many people, especially indigenous tribes in North America, used prescribed, controlled fires to help manage the land. When many of these practices were outlawed, giant, unnatural wildfires began to occur more frequently, partly because dead undergrowth was not cleared out on a regular basis. Also, did you know that many plant species have adapted to survive low-grade fires, and that some even need fire to carry out their functioning? For example, Jack pines have serotinous pine cones that are covered in a sticky resin, or glue-like substance. They love fire because it melts the sticky resin away so that it can release the seeds from the cone!
However, many plants are not adapted to the strength of some of the fires we have been seeing lately. Some plants actually help spread these fires, too. As you may remember, the people and land in Lahaina, Maui experienced a devastating fire. Lives and homes were lost.
