User:Ellenmbruce/History of wildfire suppression in the United States

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Affects of fire suppression on United States national parks

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Since 1872 when Yellowstone became the first national park, the United States has collected many beautiful landscapes across a variety of different climates to be set aside for the goal of preserving the land for both current and future generations to enjoy. The creation of these national parks are said to benefit the United States by protecting natural habitats to preserve biodiversity and ecosystem services, as well as boost the economy through tourism and increased interest in earth sciences. The people entrusted with protecting the national parks from human exploitation to failed to realize naturally occurring processes that appeared to be destructive did not require human interference for the sake of preservation, and so fire suppression began.

The practice of fire suppression by national parks became common practice when in the National Parks Act of 1916, fires of any kind were banned under the impression they caused harm, not yet understanding the key role wildfire plays in many ecosystems. Throughout the next few decades more studies shed light on the importance of wildfires to regulate old plant growth and promote new. These studies ultimately have led to natural lightening-cause fires as well as some prescribed fires being used in some being a well monitored strategy to maintain as well as work to restore balance in our parks ecosystems.

By attempting to protect the land and habitats inside national parks from wildfires, decades worth of damage was caused to the ecosystems by eliminating its natural means of regulation. The wildfires help to prevent woody overgrowth, as well as remove dead organic matter which creates room for new growth and fertilizes the soil. The damage caused by suppressing wildfires has led to forests in parks being much denser and contain more dead and diseased vegetation that competes for resources with healthy and new vegetation. This has also made it more difficult to regulate the fires that do occur today, as they are now more intense and quicker to spread due in part both to the abundance of dead, dry organic matter and to the increasingly warmer and drier climate seen throughout most of the United States.