This article is part of the Herald’s 2015 Forestry Supplement, put out each year to coincide with National Forest Week.

 

Although much of this summer the BC Wildfire Service was kept busy putting out fires, there are actually some benefits that come with letting some of them burn, or starting fires of their own.

“When a wildfire comes through, depending on the intensity of that wildfire, it can definitely have benefits to the local ecosystem,” said BC Wildfire Service information officer Kayla Pepper. “We call it ecosystem restoration.”

Sometimes the centre will set off low intensity controlled burns — especially at the shoulder ends of the fire season — if an area could benefit from an ecosystem restoration.

The fire will move through an area and reinvigorate the local ecosystem by opening up pinecones so new trees can grow, clearing away some of the debris and falldown, and eliminating the mountain pine beetle.

The same goes for grasslands.

“Burning for example in an area with sagebrush, the sagebrush may be getting too thick,” explained Pepper. “When they do those burns we could see native plant species returning, and as those plant species return, in turn we see a return of local wildlife in the area, as they have more grazing areas.”

Morals and mushrooms also often sprout up after a fire, attracting mushroom pickers.

“We do see often the landscape does grow back a lot lusher, a lot more vibrant, as we’ve gotten rid of that dead matter,” she said.