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The control of fire by early humans was a critical technology enabling the evolution of humans. Fire provided a source of warmth and lighting, protection from predators (especially at night), a way to create more advanced hunting tools, and a method for cooking food. These cultural advances allowed human geographic dispersal, cultural ...
The abundance and diversity of such plants is closely related to fire frequency. Rare animals such as gopher tortoises and indigo snakes also depend upon these open grasslands and flatwoods. [55] Hence, the restoration of fire is a priority to maintain species composition and biological diversity. [56]
Fire regimes of United States plants. Savannas have regimes of a few years: blue, pink, and light green areas. When first encountered by Europeans, many ecosystems were the result of repeated fires every one to three years, resulting in the replacement of forests with grassland or savanna, or opening up the forest by removing undergrowth. [23]
Nearly 85% of U.S. wildfires are caused by humans, according to the U.S. Forest Service. Natural causes include lightning and volcanic activity. The Hawaiian Islands have six active volcanoes ...
By the mid-1800s the problem had become national, and states like California started offering incentives for planting trees to combat the depletion of forests. It became a patriotic duty to ...
Cal Fire has listed the causes of the three primary fires − Palisades, Eaton and Hurst − as "under investigation." But even before the fire started, the National Weather Service had issued its ...
For example, trees evolved with fire-embracing traits can "sacrifice" themselves during fires. But they also cause fires to spread and kill their less flammable neighbors. With the help of other fire adaptive traits such as serotiny, flammable trees will occupy the gap created by fires and colonize the habitat. [20] [21]
According to sociologist Kari Norgaard: "Indigenous peoples have long set low-intensity fires to manage eco-cultural resources and reduce the buildup of fuels – flammable trees, grasses and brush – that cause larger, hotter and more dangerous fires, like the ones that have burned across the West in recent years. Before fire suppression ...