Kobziar Fire Science Lab

School of forest resources and conservation

Research Justification

Phone: 352-846-0178

E-mail: lkobziar@ufl.edu

 

Importance of Fire in Florida’s Ecosystems and Economy

 

The Florida Natural Areas Inventory (FNAI, 2001) identifies 23 terrestrial and 19 wetland communities in Florida, of which 16 are considered dependent on fire.  Historical fire regimes, described by the type of fire (e.g. crown, surface), the average number of years between fires, the severity of fire’s effects, and fire behavior attributes, are unique to each community. Changing any aspect of a fire regime can result in differential impacts on vegetation structure and composition, as well as biogeochemical and hydrological processes which can have far-reaching implications.  Most of Florida’s fire-dependent, forested communities have relatively high fire frequencies, ranging from 1 to 8 years, although some burn less frequently.  For example, flatwoods systems, dominated by slash pine (Pinus elliotii) overstory and saw palmetto (Serenoa repens) understory, are known to have burned historically every 3-7 years, while Florida’s sand pine (Pinus clausa var. clausa) scrub ignites only every ~25-100 years.  In addition to maintaining forest structure and composition characteristics, a number of Florida’s threatened and endangered wildlife species depend on fire-adapted ecosystems. 

 

For example, the gopher tortoise (Gopherus polyphemus) and red cockaded woodpecker (Picoides borealis) are endemic to longleaf pine forests, while the Florida scrub jay (Aphelocoma coerulescens) thrives in recently and severely burned sand pine scrub.  Similar to forests in the western US, when fire is suppressed, flammable materials (fuel loads) accumulate and subsequent fires are larger, harder to control, more dangerous, and more costly.  Linked to nearly a century of successful fire suppression, in the last 45 years the average size of wildfires across the US has increased and current estimates warn of a feedback effect between increasing wildfire emissions of greenhouse gases and climate change –driven increased frequency of fire events.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Florida’s 1998 wildfire season alerted legislators and citizens alike to the importance of sound management of fire-adapted ecosystems.  Following a strong El Niño climatic event earlier in the spring, dry conditions associated with a summer La Niña event helped fuel the 4,916 wildfires which consumed nearly 500,000 acres of Florida forests and other vegetation types.  The estimated cost of the 1998 fire season totaled over $600 million in timber losses, property damage, smoke-related health impacts, suppression expenditures, and lost tourism revenue.  The largest single component of these costs (~$150-300 million) was ascribed to losses suffered by forest industries.  As the multiple functions of forest ecosystems represent one of the State’s leading industries, valued at nearly $17 billion annually, threats to Florida’s forests are economically significant.  Thus far in 2007, more acres of land have been burned by wildfire in Florida than in any other southern US state, totaling over half a million acres.  The expenditures for Florida’s 2007 wildfires are likely to approach those of the 1998 season, especially in light of the extent of private timber lands burned.  For example, in the Big Turnaround Complex wildfire in northern FL this past May, more than 70,000 acres of private timber was consumed with an estimated price tag of over $40 million, while suppression costs alone neared $30 million.  Similar to the 1998 fires, the majority of the costs of the 2007 wildfire season will likely be related to timber and non-timber forest product losses. 

 

Limiting wildfire costs and reducing potentially deleterious ecological impacts depend on the appropriate management of Florida’s fire-adapted ecosystems.  Fire is essential not only for sustaining forest and habitat characteristics and processes, but also for reducing fuel load build-up, which can result in wildfires with features outside of historical fire regimes.  Prescribed fire has been shown to be the most effective (and least expensive) method of reducing potential wildfire severity and behavior in Florida’s forests.  For example, in 1998, a private forest owner’s frequent prescribed burning was credited with reducing an on-coming wildfire’s intensity to such an extent that an entire North Florida town (Waldo) was spared damage.  However, the application of prescribed fire is complicated by the interactions between fire behavior, weather fluctuations, and fuel moisture and composition, which have been inadequately researched or modeled for the Southeastern US.  Meeting a burn’s objectives is closely tied to the physical characteristics of the burn itself, which are again dictated by fuels, topography, and the influence of weather.  In the case of wildfire events, a careful evaluation of how these and other factors influence the spatial patterns of burn severity, and some of the resulting ecological consequences, can help improve both wildfire management and prescribed fire use.  Such information can be incorporated into fire behavior and effects models to better predict prescribed or wildfire impacts, and thus to guide fire management strategies designed to promote and protect Florida’s fire-adapted forests and their water, wildlife, and soil resources.

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Photo: Chris Evans