nynaeve-almeara:xenoplasm:revretch:This is partially Smokey’s fault, though. The brushfires wo
nynaeve-almeara: xenoplasm: revretch: This is partially Smokey’s fault, though. The brushfires wouldn’t be half as bad if we’d kept up with the controlled burns. The “Smokey Bear” effect: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/brief-history-smokey-bear-180972549/ Native American controlled burn methods (which shaped the landscape to begin with): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Native_American_use_of_fire_in_ecosystems Thaaat’s right! The Willamette Valley used to be composed primarily of wetlands and oak savanna. The oak savanna was maintained partially by the Kalapuya, who harvested the bulbs of camas (a plant in family Asparagaceae with edible bulbs), bracken fern rhizomes and grasshoppers. They also hunted the ungulate mammals that came to the savannas for grazing opportunities. The onset of fire suppression by european settlers allowed douglas-fir and western hemlock dominated forests to take over, because the plants that comprise those communities generally lack fire tolerance, while the native oaks (Quercus garryana) and associated species are highly fire-tolerant. Decades of this and later development have reduced oak savanna to about 1% of its historic extent. There is a litany of species that have suffered from this; for instance, egg-laying reptiles cannot find nesting sites with enough sun once the doug fir takes over. The same issues exist in the SE, where fire suppression has lead to the loss of habitat for carnivorous plants, because the carnivorous plants need bright sunlight and the trees shade them to death. [id: Smokey the bear surrounded in flames with the words “fuck you”] -- source link