Fire Ecology

With frequent fires and their ecological influence at all levels, species, stand, and landscape, drives boreal forest vegetation dynamics. The turn affects the movement of wildlife populations, whose need for food and cover means they must relocate as the forest patterns change. 

Canadian boreal forest is a mosaic of stands and species with ranges in composition from pure deciduous and mixed deciduous-coniferous to pure coniferous stands. Diversity in this forest is largely the result of many fires occurring on the landscape over a long period of time. The fires have varied in frequency, intensity, severity, size, shape, and season of burn. 

Fire strongly influences the structure, growth and renewal of many of Canada’s forest, grassland communities, and many other areas. different species, however, respond to fire differently. After a fire, forest regeneration on burned sites begins with the establishment of pioneer species, notably aspen, white birch, jack pine and lodgepole pine. All of the listed species need full sunlight to thrive, and all are well adapted to landscapes where fires regularly recur. The aspen and birch are able to re-establish quickly from sprouting from stumps and roots of burned trees. They are also able to recolonize burned sites by producing abundant seeds that can be blown by wind over long distances. The jack pine and lodgepole pine have serotinous cones, protected by a waxy coating, that require the heat of fire to release their seeds, making fire a necessary component to the sprouting of new plants. Fires also produce favorable conditions for the seeds of these pines to germinate. The nutrients are released in the soil, mineral soil is exposed, competing species are eliminated and the amount of sunlight on the forest floor is increased. Like the jack and lodgepole pine many species depend on fire to regenerate. There are also many more examples and reasons on why fire is important for environments.

Fire is an extremely vital ecological component to many forests and will always be present. Ongoing challenge for fire management agencies is therefore how to manage fire to protect human values while still letting fire play an important ecological role in maintaining healthy forests.