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For
millennia, lightening fires have scoured the Siberian
landscape when Russians settled Siberia, human-caused
fire followed in their footsteps. Fire opened islands
in the ocean of trees as settlers cleared farms and
built buffers to protect themselves from sporadic natural
fires.
In
the 1920s, however, fire use was forbidden in Siberia,
a policy akin to the
simultaneous campaign in the United States to stamp
out all fire in the woods.
Then,
in 1996, crews burned two 123-acre (50-ha) logged sites
on the Boyshaya Murta Forest on the east bank of the
Yenesei River, an activity not seen in Siberia for more
than 70 years. The burns were part of the Central Siberian
Sustainable Forestry Project, a joint venture of the
Russian Federal Forest Service, the V.N. Sukachev Institute
of Forests, and the USDA Forest Service. Since 1997,
project crews have burned more than 2,000 acres (800
ha) on 25 different sites to reduce logging slash and
promote forest regeneration. Scotch pine has also been
thinned and underburned to help protect the village
of Yartsevo from wildfire.
An
important objective is to trail foresters in safe fire
use. In the Krasnoyarsk region, a total of five mobile
fire crews received training, including eight foresters
who visited the United States. The fire crews then conducted
prescribed burns and fire suppression operations.
The
project also published two books on prescribed burning,
along with a poster and a video on applying prescribed
fire to logged sites. Other project components include
developing forest plans, creating geographic information
systems, and preparing economic analyses to support
sustainable forestry.
For
millennia, fire-both natural and human-caused-has shaped
and reshaped Siberia's forests. Now, the foundations
have finally been laid for a return of fire use to the
land.
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Fire
Effects in Siberia's Boreal Forests
Russia's vast boreal forests contain about a quarter
of the terrestrial biomass on Earth, making them
a vital carbon sink. Dr. Susan Conard, a fire
researcher for the USDA
Forest Service, is leading a collaborative
project to study the effects of fire on these
forests. Partners include scientists at the USDA
Forest Service's Fire Sciences Laboratory, Rocky
Mountain Research Station; the Canadian
Forest Service; and the V.N. Sukachev Institute
of Forests in Russia. The team uses prescribed
burns to simulate wild-land fires, then collects
data on the ground and through remote sensing.
Insights gained help researchers better understand
fire's influence on the carbon cycle. Future payoffs
might include improved fire management strategies
for Siberia.
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