Fire and the Forest

Fire and the Forest. . , A wildfire can be devastating, but it can also be a natural disturbance that renews the landscape. While European settlers viewed fire as a menace to be controlled, the Anishnaabek burned land to make it more productive. , , Grayling Threatened by Fire , In 1917, Grayling barely escaped destruction when a fire raged so close that the village was engulfed in smoke for days....[A]n army of 700 men, including 500 from the nearby national guards' camp, was mobilized along a fire line that stretched seven miles long. , Thomas D. Yutzy, Michigan Conservation, 1938 , , Full Suppression , Government policy once viewed all wildfires as bad. In 1935, the U.S. Forest Service mandated that all wildfires were to be extinguished by 10 A.M. the day after first report, calling for "fast, energetic, and thorough suppression of all fires in all locations." , , During the Great Depression, the Civilian Conservation Corps built lookout towers to spot fires and put them out quickly. This rapid suppression of fire allowed dead wood and natural fuels to accumulate, causing wildfires to become more severe. , , Forest Fire Experiment Station , In 1929, the State of Michigan founded the Forest Fire Experiment Station near Roscommon. The purpose was to develop methods of controlling the large wildfires that swept across Michigan during the white pine logging era (1870-1900). Most of the buildings on the 6,000 acre property were built by the Civilian Conservation Corps during the early 1930s. , , Types of suppression equipment that have been developed there include fire-line plows and engines with offroad capability. In 2023, the station continued to assist wildfire mitigation efforts across the United States with research and innovation. , , Modern Fire Management , Fire science and forestry practices have evolved. In the late 1970s, land managers started to use fire as a tool to help ecosystems thrive through prescribed burning. , , Low intensity fires are purposefully set to refresh grasslands and forests, clearing undergrowth and cycling minerals back into the soil. This encourages new plant growth, producing food and cover for wildlife. , , Prescribed burns also decrease the threat of catastrophic wildfires by removing dead fuel on the forest floor. , , The Four Mile Fire of 2008 , There were flames right up to the road with embers shooting onto the road. There was so much smoke you could hardly see the road. It was just like going into heavy fog. The flame was right up to the edge of the freeway, 150-200 yards of fire back off the road and a cloud of smoke that you could see forever. , Morley Cook , , Look around. Do you see evidence of a fire? In April of 2008, a locomotive without a spark arrester started the "Four Mile Fire." The fire burned over 1,300 acres of forest and threatened the city of Grayling. , , The dense smoke and flame closed I-75 and M-72, causing evacuations and power outages. The railroad paid over $290,000 to the state in restitution and $3.3 million to the Grayling Game Club, which lost several structures and over 500 acres of their property in the fire. Lower left image caption: If we don't burn it when we can control it, it will burn when we can't. , Rick Anderson National Park Service