Rachel Smith, Copyright 2002. All rights reserved.

Seasons of Fire: Exploring Wildfire Suppression and Forest Conservation

Years of working as a wildland firefighter have given me a greater respect for the challenges related to creating and implementing fire management policies, especially given the limited budgets that fire management officers (FMOs) typically work under. Despite the problems posed by wildfire, many countries have drastically reduced funding, leaving officials with few resources with which to prepare for and respond to fire. Developing a fire management plan is difficult because while some fire ecologists believe that fire benefits ecosystems, others argue that fire results only in devastation. Over the course of a year, I will explore the effects of wildland fire in profoundly different ecosystems. In doing so, I hope to examine the assertion that fire is good for every ecosystem. I plan to follow the fire season through the year, trailing the hot, dry weather that precipitates the highest number of wildfire ignitions. While I will be involved in the global fire community, I won’t participate in direct fire suppression. It would be inappropriate because my training and experience differs from that of the firefighting crews I’ll work with. However, examining old burn sites will be vital to my search. As I journey through South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Ghana, France, England, and Costa Rica, I will search for a fire management plan that is integrated into the ecosystem it protects and has the potential for long-term viability.
I will visit communities impacted by wildfires throughout the globe, following the season of fire through the year. While the problems and programs of FMOs in Fiji, Germany, and Peru appear remarkable, I chose countries whose languages I speak and are all similar in one interesting aspect: Each is experiencing profound change in fire policy. Some have found the balance between protecting human constructions and protecting the environment from wildfire, while others are just beginning their search for this balance.
In August, when the Berg (Mountain) winds have ceased their sporadic gus

ts of humid air from the Cape to the east coast, I will travel to South Africa for two months. The rapid population explosion in recent years in South Africa has dramatically increased the occurrence of fires throughout the country. For subsistence farmers, the short term benefit of increased soil production outweighs the long-term negative points of burning the grasslands, or joang. Some of these fires turn into uncontrolled wildfires. I plan to focus on the country’s largest game reserve, Kruger National Park, which once banned all fires within the park. Later, Kruger adopted a regimen of controlled burns, and since the 1990’s has suppressed all human-created fires, allowing all natural ignitions to burn. Initially, I will make contact with the ecologist Robert Scholes of CSIR Environmentek, Prof. Michael Savage at the University of Natal, Center for Environment and Development, along with Wilderness Action Group, and several private firefighting companies. First initiated by the private sector, much of South Africa’s wildland firefighting organizations remain privately owned by timber companies. Most private contractors rely on early warning mechanisms and respond (mainly aerially) with overwhelming suppression. Before I enter the park, I plan to spend several days talking to people in the diverse communities that live around the Park. Private forest concerns, including SILVA, have asserted that fire management plans have failed in the past because the public has been critical of them. I would like to understand the societal view of fire in a way that hasn’t been covered by either the government or private groups. The government is openly dismissive of community feelings on fire. I believe that community feelings have a great effect on whether fire management policies succeed or fail. In the park, I plan to examine historical data of wildlife populations during the three major periods of fire management in Kruger, spending time with Park rangers and the warden. I would like to understand their ideas for the future and if they believe community aversion to fire management plans makes it difficult for them to enact wildfire suppression tactics that work in the long-run.
In Australia, where I plan to live two months, communities have suppressed wildfires together at least since the English settled on the island. The men and women of the fire brigades enjoy their work and are proud to serve their country. Until lately, the 200,000 volunteers that make up the rural fire brigades have acted semi-independently of the others. Some brigades have modern equipment and training, while others such as the Coal and Candle brigade work with gear that dates back to WWII. Similarly, while some brigades participate in prescribed burns, others respond only to ignitions. This spring the new bushfire Cooperation Research Center (CRC) will consolidate the brigades under the guidance of the Australasian Fire Authority Council, increasing the safety of all involved. I plan to visit the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, learn more about Project Vesta from Team Leader Jim Gould, the Bushfire Research Advisory Group, and Southern Cross University’s fire ecology program. I believe these contacts will help me understand Australia’s approach to fire management. Next, I plan to contact bush brigades, examining how safety has changed since the implementation of the CRC, as well as how the new regulations change the way they fight fire. The bond firefighters share extends beyond geography, and I believe that Australian firefighters will be open with me as they would not be with an outsider to the fire community. Brigades protect their communities like U.S. frontier fire departments, but is this a suppression plan that is viable in the long-term? Would the brigades be happier if there were more paid firefighters? Are wildfire suppression efforts hampered in by the volunteer brigades?
New Zealand generally averages 2,000 wildfire ignitions a year, but the 00/01 fire season had nearly double that number of ignitions. In rural areas, fires are suppressed by 3,000 volunteers who are coordinated by the National Rural Fire Authority (NZFA). In 1998, fire officials created a bold new plan that pledged by 2008 “95% of all wildfires would be contained within two hours”. During two months in New Zealand, I’ll examine the plan’s practicality, when last season 17,500 acres were destroyed by wildfire. I will explore the finance increase budgeted for rural fire management through a new levy as well as the manner that rural volunteer firefighters experience wildland fire and communicate with other volunteer groups. I first plan to make contact with Grant Pearce and Stuart Anderson of Forest Research. Forest Research has been developing software that will help them to predict fire behavior as well as likely ignition points. Another issue facing New Zealand firefighters, like their counterparts in Australia, is the speedy dissemination of fire information. Forest Research is working with the NZFA to set this in motion, through newsletters and a new web site slated to open soon. I hope to study the new program during the Christmas Fire Season, as well as spending time with rural volunteers to understand the way they relate to the land and to wildfire. Like Australia, New Zealand’s volunteers treat wildfire as a community problem. Could this work in the long term? Some volunteer firefighting groups have existed for more than one hundred years. Is a system that only involves paid personnel in suppression efforts desirable in New Zealand? I hope to discover through my time in Australia and New Zealand whether a system of rural volunteers is efficient and effective, with the potential for working in the long term.
When Harmattan winds sweep south from the Sahara carrying rust-colored sand and hot air throughout NW Africa, I plan to travel to Ghana. There is no evidence that any of the many wildland fires in Ghana are ignited by lightning. Domestic and international authorities blame the people of Ghana for bushfires that have ravaged the local rain forests. Fire has mythological status in Ghana, providing heat, producing palm wine, assisting in hunting, exterminating pests, protecting the home, enacting rituals, and celebrating life. The subsistence farmers regularly burn their fields right before the rainy season starts, during February. Of the hundred different tribes that make Ghana their home, each has a word to describe the month. The Twi call the month Ogyefuo, which translates to fire farm, and the Ewe, Dzove, or simply burn. Wildfire numbers peak in February because of the amount of field fires that roar out of control. In Ghana, the relationship between man and fire cannot be reduced to a detached commentary about building safety zones, fire line widths in varying terrain; it is intensely personal. Humanity has a history with fire, one that is not overlooked by the people of Ghana, and it involves deep emotion. Ghana, like South Africa, seems to exemplify a country feeling the strain between a government that is attempting to modernize fire suppression and a society that is unwilling to change. Modernization has caused tribal kings who once enforced fire guidelines to lose much of their authority. The education efforts that the government once hoped would assist in their fire management program actually had negative repercussions. I hope to investigate the impact of modernization, Western ideas, and economics on the fire management policies, as well as interact with people to learn about their special relationship to fire. While in Ghana, I plan to focus on the Volta region. The Environmental Protection Council reports that the most fires occur in this region, which is composed of semi-deciduous forest. I plan to contact the Ministry of Lands and Forestry of Ghana and the Forest Research Institute, as well as the Tropical Timber Organization, which has funded recent fire management efforts. I hope to spend time with the Community Fire Volunteer Squads as well as the people of Ghana. By living in a small village for part of my two month stay, I hope to gain an understanding of the mythology that surrounds the element of fire, as well as Ghana’s people’s resistance to slowing the desertification of their land by reducing the number of fires that rage during every dry season.
Wildfire management in France is an example of efficient, streamlined fire management. Officials realize exactly how precious their forests are, and are vigilant in their supervision through a state-of-the-art meteorological prediction system. In 1994, with assistance from the Conservatoire de la Forêt Méditerranéenne, French fire management officials kept 95% of all fires from exceeding 12.5 acres. All told, it would seem that the French forests would not be a suitable candidate for my study. However, France is experiencing change as the European Union (EU) works to standardize wildfire management. I plan to spend one month in France, examining the manner in which the proposed alterations in policy will be enacted. I will initially contact the Bureau de l’Protection de l’Foret (B.P.F.). My French skills make it more appropriate that I explore the E.U.’s wildfire standardization in France rather than Germany or Spain, two other nations that have modern wildfire responses. I will initially contact Monsieur Van Effenterre’s office. Monsieur Van Effenterre is the Chef du B.P.F., and because of the laws surrounding wildfire suppression in France, I think that it is entirely appropriate that I first ask if I can contact some of the rural fire brigades and the sapeur-forestiers.
I am especially interested in spending a month in the United Kingdom. There is very little data available about vegetation fires in the U.K., other than the Baltrex Country Report’s 2000 quote that “wildfires including grass, heath, scrub and peat fires are quite common”. Several rural fire departments said that wildfire fire suppression wasn’t one of their main duties. Historically, when a wildfire was started, it was suppressed by rural landowners wielding anything from brooms to sackcloth to “beat” the fire out. Helicopters using daisy buckets were also used to suppress fires, but budget cuts have made utilizing the equipment impossible. Now people are banding together to create rural fire groups or forest fire protection groups that respond to more than 40,000 fires annually. While in the U.K., I plan to contact Michael Bruce at the University of Edinburgh, Colin Legg, founder of the Firebeaters at the Institute of Ecology and Resource Management at the University of Edinburgh to get a basic understanding of the wildfire management system in the U.K. I’ll meet with the contractors at Kensington Helicopters, one of the organizations that supplies helicopters to aid in wildland fire suppression, and spend time with the rural fire groups and forest protection groups, trying to get a better idea of how fire management is conducted in the U.K. and whether using citizens in volunteer fire suppression efforts is effective. As this program is newer than those in Australia and New Zealand, I hope to compare their efficacy and come to a conclusion as to whether this is a strategy that will work in the long term.
I will travel last to Costa Rica, which has the most unique fire management situation of all my proposed destinations. Many fire ecologists believe that fire is good for ecosystems. Scientists in Costa Rica insist that fire is simply not helpful at all in Costa Rica, for the dry tropical forest evolved completely without natural fires because there were no lightning strikes in the area. Yet, because of field-burning and carelessness, wildfire ravages Costa Rica. In 1998, foreign governments donated fire suppression supplies, but equipment is insufficient to respond to the crisis. There, I hope to meet with Gordon Frankie, initiator of Amigos de Lomas Barbudal and ardent activist for relief from the wildfires in Costa Rica. I believe that my very elementary Spanish will not be an obstacle because I plan to enroll in further language classes before my departure on the trip so that I am able to speak comfortably to more people in their own languages. It is in Costa Rica that I hope to bring my experience of global wildfires to a conclusion.
Through my trip, I hope to have gained a truly global understanding of wildland fire, of fire’s benefits or detriments to differing ecosystems, as well as the impact fire can have on a society, such as the powerful nationalism exhibited by Australian volunteer rural firefighters or the mythology that has evolved in Ghana. Similarly, I hope to resolve questions about the durability of management plans throughout the world. Though I expect to face challenges like nothing I have ever experienced, I feel like the intensity of this experience will act as a refining device, sharpening my perspective on global concepts of wildland fire. I believe that this trip will give me an understanding of how and why fire management plans evolve. If this trip does not fulfill my desire to find a response to wildfire that is balanced and shows promise of continuing and evolving naturally with the ecosystem around it, it will surely help me gain an understanding of the possibilities inherent in wildland ecosystem management, a understanding that unconsciously or not I’ve longed for all my life. I am convinced that there is no better way to gain these insights than to delve into wildland fire response all over the world.

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