COMMENTARY BY DR. DAVE SAMUEL
If you total the acreage burned in all of this year’s mega-fires in the western United States it would be over one-third the size of West Virginia. Seventy-five large fires have ravaged 11 states. Several fires cover thousands of acres. For example, the Beachie Creek Fire near Salem, Ore., burned 200,000 acres. The August Complex north of Sacramento, Calif., burned 800,000 acres and the North Complex Fire burned 228,000 acres. All are still burning.
In recent years, such fires have become the norm. As of Sept. 22, just over 7 million acres have burned. But there have been previous years with more acreage burned as of Sept. 22. In 2018, 7.34 million acres had burned as of Sept. 22. In 2017 it was 8.53 million acres; in 2015, 8.9 million acres; and in 2012 there were 8.6 million acres burned as of Sept. 22.
The causes for huge fires in the west are several, and probably include lack of timbering, climate change, and accumulation of tinder from suppressed fires. All that can be debated, but the resulting lack of management on public lands has definitely played a role.
How does wildlife do when such huge fires burn? No question that some elk and other large mammals die, and there has been a lot of press and speculation on the loss of the endangered California condors from the fires. Most certainly some are gone.
One interesting, but sad story, has come from New Mexico where thousands of migrating songbirds were found either dead or on the ground and near death in late August and early September. Around Aug. 20, people started finding large numbers of dead birds in various regions of New Mexico. Others reported dead migrating songbirds in Colorado, west Texas and Mexico.
Birds still alive exhibited unusual behavior. They were lethargic, searching for food on the ground or just not moving. High numbers were being hit by cars. Most birds found were insectivores, and most were migrating species. By early September dead birds were in the thousands if not hundreds of thousands and the timing matched when many migrating birds would be moving from the Pacific Northwest and flying south through California, New Mexico and Mexico.
So, the speculation was that the normal pathway for these migrating insect-eating birds was burning, and preventing them from daily stops for food. Thus, by the time they reached the southern Southwest, they were emaciated, starving and dying or near death.
About that time, it was pointed out that there had been some unseasonal cold weather and some snow in the Southwest for several days. However, it was noted that dying birds were found before that cold snap and also after, so that was eliminated as the major cause. Even so, that cold snap probably had an impact on migrating birds, because it caused flying insects that the birds would normally feed on to become dormant. The cold snap probably affected non-migratory birds as well. However, there is one other factor that certainly impacted migratory birds.
Migrating birds in the west are facing various challenges caused by fire. Huge fires can trigger what are known as “fire tornadoes” and that would force birds to change their migratory routes. Remember, these routes have evolved for thousands of years, and any change that would cause them to go longer distances would cause mortalities.
Southern California’s wildfires used to come in the fall, but now they are common in the summer. Huge fires at that time would not only kill ground vegetation, the remaining ash beds and lack of trees would provide little aerial or ground insects for migrating birds.
The energy of intense fires can lead to thunderstorms and lots of lighting that causes what are known as pyroCb fires. The “pyroCb” is a thunderstorm that was either started by a big fire or one that was helped to form by a fire. At its worst, a pyroCb fire (the Cb portion of this name refers to a type of cloud that forms above heat) put lots of smoke and fire particles into the lower stratosphere via clouds. Once very rare, we are seeing more and more of these pyroCb fires today. There is also a lot of lightning from these clouds and thus, more fires. There were five such fires in British Columbia and Washington in 2017, all triggered within five hours. The huge fires that devastated Australia last year caused 18 pyroCb fires to spring up. All these fires would also affect migrating and non-migrating birds and the insects many birds use for food.
One really excellent paper on the huge surge in megafires we are seeing around the world was written by Ed Struzik. Google “The Age of Megafires: The World Hits a Climate Tipping Point,” It was published this month. A superb read on what is going on with fires. He points out that in this century we will see triple the number of fires seen this year and they will affect the lives and homes of millions of people. There will be more pyroCb fires and fire tornadoes. Many more megafires, too, and Struzik even notes that we’ll start seeing them in the eastern United States. He calls it “the new fire era” and predicts that we’ll have to find new ways to fight such fires.
One suggestion he makes is that we need to thin our forests and initiate cool fires, those that burn lightly at ground level and don’t kill trees. Actually there is some of that being done now, but not nearly enough because tree huggers prevent it. We call it habitat and/or wildlife management. In order to get that done on a big scale we need to somehow educate urbanites, who don’t leave the concrete and bright lights, to understand and support state and federal agencies when timbering and prescribed fire is suggested. Today, when you mention the idea of doing clear-cuts, even small ones in western Maryland, the citizens of Baltimore raise a ruckus and political decisions supersede proper management of our forests.
Meanwhile, in the West, we are finding lots of dead flycatchers, swallows, warblers, and a myriad of other insectivorous species. And the fires continue, and will again next year, and the year after.
Dr. Samuel is a retired wildlife professor from West Virginia University. His outdoor columns have appeared, and continue to appear, in Bowhunter magazine and the Whitetail Journal. If you have questions or comments on wildlife and conservation issues, email him at drdave4@comcast.net.
