User:Ellenmbruce/Wildfire suppression

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.