Working Paper 43 by Dan Binkley, Adjunct Faculty, School of Forestry, Northern Arizona University
Forests and soils interact so strongly that any major change in one of them leads to a reshaping of the other. Fires consume fuels in a few hours that it took vegetation years or decades to produce. Forest soils are both sensitive and robust in relation to forest restoration treatments and fires. Fires change soils in major ways, including direct consumption of some of the organic matter that forms soils, and heating and altering the physical, chemical and biological features within the soil. The impacts of fires tend to increase with the quantity of fuels consumed, with high spatial variation across a site… Click here to READ MORE!
