Posted: 5/12/04

After the Fire

The ironic threat of fire in a water-based wilderness is an ongoing fact of life. Signs along the highways warn visitors of the dangers of carelessness with fire, and advise that the current hazard is high, medium, or low, depending on recent weather. Visitors should know that, to a local person, carelessness with a cigarette or other source of fire is taken as a slap in the face, and for good reason. The threat to oneís home or cabin is severe, and recurring.

Where vacant land is burned, however, there may be some good in the offing. Visit such a place about two years after the fire. Wear old shoes and clothes, as you will return with smears of charcoal. You will find jack pine seedlings springing from the rocky soil. With a second glance, you may see faint streaks of blueñblueberries, in massive quantities! Relishing the unfiltered sunshine, and perhaps enjoying ash-replenished soils, the bushes are cranking out fruit aplenty, yours for the picking.

Native people developed a specialized agriculture, where each year they would carefully burn an island or two, assuring excellent harvest a few years hence. They learned to dry the berries in the sun, creating a fruit staple that would last months without spoiling. The vitamins in this food source helped sustain these people through long winters.

Today we probably burn the equivalent of many islands each year, through carelessness. We have no understanding of our relationship to this burned land, and no awareness of a future benefit. Interestingly, however, government management agencies are recognizing the benefits of periodic fire. With careful safeguards for homes and cabins, and with the ability to select appropriate weather conditions, we may rediscover management practices we could have learned from the people who were here first.

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