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Lesson
Plans | |
| Map
the Route! Worksheet Included! Subject:
Social Science Grade Level: Late Elementary |
|  | Tent
Talk
Listen
to today's Audio Update!
|
Daily
Dilemma |
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| One of Dave's ski
poles fell off the sled sometime today. We went back and looked for it for a little
while, but didn't find it. Should we reverse direction and go look for it again?
Should Dave make a new pole out of wood? Maybe Dave only needs one pole. What
do you think?
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Click To Learn More About Saylix!
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| On our way to Bear Lake today,
Dave and I passed through a large section of woods which had recently burned. We've
traveled through a number of similar spots on our journey so far, and there are
a few patterns that seem to emerge again and again.
Left: The gang
makes their way through a healthy birch
forest. |
The
first thing Dave and I noticed was the frequency of the fires. They seem to be
common here; we notice some evidence of fire almost every day. All parts
of the forest seem to be in some stage of regrowth/regeneration. The area we passed
through today probably burned within the past years--it was charred with few signs
of new life. Other areas we've seen look like tree farms, with whole hillsides
covered in saplings of the same exact size, maybe 10 feet. Islands on large lakes
have some of the largest trees we've encountered, safer in their location from
the risk of wildfire. | 
Click
Image To EnlargeThis area was recently burned. It's errie traveling
through the forest when it looks like this. But fire is a natural and viatl part
to the overall health of the forest. |
Click
Image To EnlargeThe wood underneath the charred outside bark shows
little sign of a fire, which indicates the fire that burned thourhg here was quick
and cool. | Fires here also tend to be small in
scale, from just a few acres to a few thousand acres (still small). This goes
hand in hand with seeing more fires. A forest which burns frequently will have
less available fuel and thus less chance of sustaining huge forest fires. The
burned areas we have observed also seem to support the idea that fires here are
low in intensity/heat. See the charred trees in the pictures? Although they are
now dead, there is still unburned wood just beneath the surface. A hotter fire
would burned them completely. Relatively "cooler" fires are also caused
by a lack excess dead wood--so do you see how the frequency, size and intensity
of fires in a forest are all related? |
| A
forest which burns in this pattern will regenerate quickly, since only very hot
fires kill the nutrients in the soil. We even observed some jack pine pinecones
(right), which only open when exposed to extreme heat. In a few years the
very same area will look like a jack pine nursery--and another section of woods
will be burning to the ground. Such is life in the Boreal Forest | |
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