Ecologists are concerned -with the relationships existing between organisms- and
their environment. Studies analyze undisturbed plant and animal communities better
to understand balanced relationships established through evolution and time. These
studies may serve as the control portions of later research when the information is
used to assess disturbed or unbalanced communities.

Fire, from various causes, has been established as a natural part of many pris-
tine environments, or has become a part through the introduction and continued use of
fire from the landscapes of the world; an approach most ecologists believe is contrary
to established ecological principles. The removal of fire from plant and animal
communities previously in equilibrium as a result of recurring fires is tantamount
to breaking a strand in an often already sagging web of life in those communities.
Eliminating fire creates chain reactions that may be irreversible or costly to rec-
tify. Fire and its use have become controversial as a result of a one-sided compaign
that has affected the thinking of at least two generations of both scientists and
the general public. A propaganda program initiated to curb the unnecessary, un-
warranted, reckless, and often devastating fires of the late l800*s and early 1900’s
has backlashed so that it is now almost impossible to use or even discuss the use of

1/ Based on a lecture presented at the Hawaiian Botanical Society meeting of
January 8, 1968.

2/ Visiting Associate Professor of Botany, University of Hawaii.

Hawaiian Botanical Society Newsletter - page 18

June 1968

any type of fire anywhere. Ecologists generally agree that fire needs to be re-
introduced into the management of many biotic ommmunities as a controlled tool to
replace this intricate part of once balanced ecosystems. It is time that fire be
converted from its presently predominate role as a bad master to that of a good
servant, Nays in which fire can be used in land management are the following :

In forestry, fire in certain types can be used in seedbed preparation, in re-
ducing understory competition, in thinning and pruning, and in insect and disease
control. In addition, fire can be employed in the disposal of logging slash* in the
completion of some tree species’ life cycles, and in fire hazard reduction. Interest-
ingly, major North American lumber species had lives associated with fire before
European discovery. These trees survived repeated burning for years and even cen-
turies without the aid of fire protection to give us the famous virgin stands of
timber which are only currently being exhausted.

Fire hazard reduction is becoming a mounting problem wherever fire protection
has been effective and wherever there are accumulations of inflammable fuels as a
result of rapid growth, long growing seasons, and slow decomposition rates. Fire
hazard buildups are becoming national problems that are a threat to natural resources,
defense, military installations and operations, and evacuation plans during disasters.
An advantageous way to reduce this threat is with the controlled use of fire$ essen-
tially to use fire to fight fire or to have fires on man’s terms and not on nature’s
terns.

Fire has been used in range management to increase productivity of certain
grassland types by increasing vigor, seedstalk production, and palatability. This
is accomplished by the removal of choking accumulations of litter and the fertilizing
effects of the ash. Fire can be utilized to improve spring flow and retard brush
invasion. Thousands of acres have been put out of livestock production by the inva-
sion of these so called "land grabbers". Fire is a feasible way to manage large
ranges, and does not leave residues that might be accumulative or recycled in the
soils, herbivores, or man as might occur with chemical treatment.

Fire has been used as a wildlife management tool, a field which is rapidly
merging into the broader field of recreational management. Most North America wild-
life species, as well as wildlife in general, are associated with fire-type vege-
tations or with forest openings which were or can be created or maintained by fire.
Today's public is becoming interested in hunting wildlife year around with cameras,
in seeing wildlife from the family car, or in a school-sponsored tourj and is
beginning to demand natural vistas, landscapes, and productive habitat. Fire not
only controls plant succession but increases productivity by increasing available
food, both in quantity and in quality,

A field that is beginning to overshadox.r most others is watershed management as
a result of increased populations and xvater use. Certain vegetation covers are more
effective in conserving water and preventing erosion than others, and complete con-
version of entire mountain drainages is being contemplated. Fire may be one effec-
tive way to convert some vegetation types and to maintain others without affecting
water quality.

In agriculture, burning can be used in weed control, disposal of plant debris
resistant to decay, in vermin and disease control, and in land clearing. Burning is
suggested because the results of this form of rapid decomposition are usually not

Hawaiian Botanical Society Newsletter - pape 19 June 1968

harmful to soils or subsequent crops and may be beneficial and inexpensive.

Burning and bush cuttinj have been largely replaced in right-of-way management
by chemical control. Ecologists still favor the former because of possible residual
effects of herbicides, the indiscriminate use of these chemicals, the persistent smell £
and the unsightly "broim-outs" •

Conservationists must begin to think beyond protection and preservation to
management. They should become aware of fire as a possible means to retard plant
succession. Fire is only recommended as a controlled tool for some communities and
not as a blanket rule. The use of fire will only cone with public understanding and
acceptance and improved burning techniques, then we have learned to use fire to
man’s advantage we will have learned to control fire and then will have regained the
lost art of the aborigine.

FIRE AND OTHER TOOLS IN
WILDLAND MANAGEMENT —

R. E. Nelson —

Fire in the forest means a lot to all of us. Fire has been praised as a univer-
sal tool to solve a great array of management problems in forests and other wildlands.
But there is little evidence to support wide use of fire in our forest. Proposals
to reduce fire prevention and suppression activities should be carefully analyzed.

There has been some dramatizin' and emotionalizing in support of widespread
burning. Exaggerations are the tools used. Objectives are difficult to isolate.

For example, in a recent newspaper article it was claimed that "two- thirds of
the U, S. Forest Service budget is used to fight fires," The facts are quite differ-
ent.

The U. S. Forest Service manages some 187 million acres of public lands under
the principle of multiple-use, and also provides many services to state and private
organizations and conducts a broad program of forestry research.

In 1968, U. S. Forest Service appropriations amounted to 359 million dollars.

In the last five years, the average annual cost for fighting fires x/as 21 million
dollars or 6 percent of the budget, not two -thirds. The total prevention and suppres-
sion bill amounts to about Y]% of appropriated funds.

1/ Based on a lecture presented at the Hawaiian Botanical Society meeting of
May 6, 1968 ,

2/ Chief, Forestry Research Center, Hawaii, Pacific Southwest Forest and Range
Experiment Station.

Hawaiian Botanical Society Newsletter - pare 20

June 1968

We still have too many fires. They destroy too much of our valuable forest
resources and developed property too.

It is staggering to realize that suppression costs on a single fire can amount
to S2?§ million, such as on a fire above Santa Barbara, California in I96I4. . Follow-
up emergency soil stabilization and flood control work cost another §2 million-plus.

Another claim is that "fire knows which are the weak trees and the bad genetic
trees." It is obvious that fire has no knowledge. Fire is simply a chemical and
physical process of rapid oxidation of a substance — plant materials for instance.
Susceptible plants will be damaged or killed by fire. Resistance to fire is not
necessarily a measure of the desirability of a plant. Highly desirable plants can be
killed even in prescribed bums.

Many studies of the use of fire in forestry have been made and are still under-
way. Many problems remain unsolved.

However, there are reports of the successful use of fire for purposes such as
tree disease control, control of undesired hardwoods, planting site preparation,
wildlife habitat improvement and fuel reduction.

It is often claimed that unprotected forests are subject to frequent natural
fires which clean up the forest. It is also claimed that fire protection efforts
have prevented these "beneficial" fires and thus caused such a fuel build-up that we
now have holocausts,

A compilation of historical forest fires in the United States shows that our
worst recorded holocausts occurred in the 1800’ s, long before fire protection efforts
could have caused an "unnatural" fuel build-up in the forests.

Land clearing fires and logging added to the development of these large fires.
Lightning was also an important factor. The important point is that in the millions
of acres of virgin forest, the fuel conditions were obviously ripe for conflagrations.
Man has come in great numbers to set the spark to this fuel, accidentally or other-
wise. That is why we have a problem.

In 1966 we had 109,000 fires in the U. S. which burned over 2,230,000 acres.

200 million Americans provide a lot of sparks as over 90 percent of the fires are
man caused.

Obviously fire does play a role in affecting the extent and composition of
forest and other vegetation in the wildlands. But now let’s take a look at the
wildlands from another angle.

Biotic factors, climate, and soil, as well as fire, all play a strong role in
affecting the composition and extent of vegetation types. However, climate and
soils play the strongest role over extensive areas of wildlands. Climate and soil
are the basic resources of an area; the medium in which plants grow, with or with-
out the impact of fire; grazing animals, or the plow. There are many examples of the
strong influence of soils on vegetation types.

Grassy openings in forests or brush fields are often due to contrasting soils
rather than some outside influence. To the contrary, the soil may be the same under
grass and brush or forest cover.

Hawaiian Botanical Society Newsletter - page 21

June 1968

In some areas the main differences we find in site conditions are soil depth,
surface soil characteristics, and topographic position. Here, fire and erosion may
play a strong role in rapid changes of vegetation.

In late spring in California, soil patterns show up where vegetation dries up
first on the shallox^ soils. Herbaceous vegetation may be keyed to soil types.

Soil is one of the most important factors with which we must work in our attempts
to make our forests and other wildlands more productive — and less hazardous where fire
is concerned.

We must begin this job of forest land management at some logical point. First,
we must establish the objective of management. Shall our objective be to find some
way to use fire to manage the land? Obviously, this is not a real objective. Usually
when fire is mentioned as a tool in wildland management, the management objective is
related to vegetation type conversion or manipulation — the land manager wants to alter
the vegetation or destroy vegetative matter for one or more purposes .

It is possible that fire can and should be used to obtain the objectives desired.
Its effectiveness and its cost must be carefully evaluated, along with any other
possible tools or practices. Because fire is an extremely dangerous and difficult
tool to handle, its effectiveness and cost is hard to determine. The risk of cost of
escaped fires if added to the direct cost of so-called controlled bximing would pro-
hibit many prescribed bums. And there are other undesirable effects. For example:
Air pollution, soil erosion and siltation, loss of nitrogen and soil organic matter,
ugly scars in the landscape, and xclldlife killed.

Try to imagine the results if 11 frequent” burning of all forest lands was the
normal practice, as is strongly proposed by a few people. There are 61*8 million
acres of forests in the U. S, If every acre was burned once in a hundred years, this
would mean burning of more than 6 million acres each year. This is nearly 3 times
the 1966 acreage burned. But every hundred years is not u frequent,11 Perhaps 10 years
is. This xjould mean burning 6U, 800,000 acres each year. Imagine the air pollution
and other effects of such a program.

Must we conclude that if ve can't use fire x^re can’t accomplish the management
objective? Remember, fire is just combustion — it rapidly oxidizes and destro^/s
organic matter and killing plants and other organisms.

One management objective that is commonly proposed is to improve habitat for
a specific kind of game by type conversion or nanipxolation, It must be assumed that
the land manager knox^s which are the best food and cover plants and their optimum
distribution! that the present vegetation does not meet the requirements! and that the
soils and climate will support the desired vegetation. Ilxat means does the manager
have to make the conversion? Mechanical tools, seed, fertilizer, and herbicides are
the tools a farmer uses xrhen he wants to cultixrate a crop. These tools, or others,
as well as fire, or a combination, should be considered.

When there are suitable soils in the chaparral areas of California, conversion
is possible and often practical. Usually this xdLll require a series of tools and
operations.

The purpose of the conversion might be to break up the brush field for more
effective fire control! to improve game habitat! to improve aesthetics! to develop

Hawaiian Botanical Society Newsletter - page 22

June 1968

a productive timber stand; or some other purpose.

Chaparral can be burned, but without follow-up work will recover the site
rapidly.

For permanent conversion the first operation is usually to crush the brush,
then burn it. Then the site must be planted to the desired cover. Herbicides
must then be used to kill brush sprouts in the spring. It may be necessary to use
herbicides more than once to kill the brush competition. This series of treatments,
which includes burning as one step to get rid of bulky organic matter, can accomplish
the objectives on carefully selected sites.

In Hawaii we have less serious fire problems than on the mainland, but occasion-
ally a fire makes the headlines. The fire above Hanalei on the Island of Kauai in
June 1967 is an example. The Division of Forestry has been criticised for not
controlling this fire before it burned so much acreage. On the other hand, this
fire has been pointed to as a beneficial happening.

The cause of these diverse reactions is lack of knowledge, a substitution of
emotion for facts, and an attempt to emphasize narrow values in situations where a
broad and complex range of values are involved.

There are complex problems in midland management, especially where fire is con-
cerned. Fire nay play an important role as a management tool in specific limited
circumstances. But it is a dangerous tool and can be expensive. It makes little
difference whether it is a "natural” fire or an escaped "controlled -burn” which
destroys natural resources, capital investments, homes, and other property.

Remember, you and I and 200 million other Americans are creating the spark for
over 90 percent of the forest fires in the United States; probably 99 percent of
the fires in Hawaii, I think we can and we must be more careful with fire.

BOTANICAL SOCIETY NEWSHOTES

Hawaiian Botanical Society Award: This award, presented to the University senior

with the most outstanding record in the plant sciences, was give to STEPHEN A,
FERREIRA, Mr. Ferreira, from Hanamaulu, Kauai, completed his B.A. degree in
Botany in June. Next year he will undertake graduate work in Plant Pathology
at the University of California at Davis.

Sigma XJ Award to Dr, Notoatmodjo: The Society of the Sigma XI has announced through

the chairman of its Grants-in-Aid of Research Committee, Dr. Harlow Shapley,
an award to Dr. Setijati Notoatmodjo of the National Biological Institute of
Indonesia,

This award has been made to Dr. Notoatmodjo to assist her in her study of
the Indonesian Species of Curcuma (Zingiberaceae) .

Dr. Shapley, in making this announcement, stated "Sigma XI each year makes
a number of grants to the most promising scientists at critical points in their
research careers. We recognize that many needs are relatively too small for the
large foundations to consider and it is to meet these needs that our research
fund is maintained."

Hawaiian Botanical Society Newsletter - pare 23 June 1968

Founded in 1886, the Society of the Sigma XI now has 167 charters and more
than 170 clubs in the major colleges and universities in the United States and
Canada. Sigma XI, with an active membership of 100,000 scientists, sponsors
eighteen national lectureships, publishes The American Scientist, and in 1967
made awards in support of research totaling $78,000.

RECENT PACIFIC PUBLICATIONS

KENNER, DIANA D., HANS R. H0HL, & GLADYS E. BAKER. 1968. Preliminary observations
on the fine structure of species of Micromonospora (Actinomycetales) . Pacific
Science 22: 52-55.

LAM0UREUX, CHARLES H. 1968. Review of: Tropical Plant Types by B. G. M. Jamieson

& J. F. Reynolds. Quart. Rev. Biol. It3 : 202.

LAMOUREUX, C. H . 1968. Should the axis deer be introduced to the island of Hawaii?
Elepaio 29: 10-15.

MORRISON, G. C. 1968. A preliminary phytochemical survey in the British Solomon
Islands. Pacific Science 22: 18U-193.

SIEGEL, SANFORD M. 1967. Effects of metabolic poisons on rice: The comparative sensi
tivity of aerobic and anaerobic modes of germination. Plant Physiology 1*2:
1U09-1U92.

SIEGEL, SANFORD M. 1967# Living relative of the microfossil Kakabekia.

Science 156: 1231-1231*.

SIEGEL, S. M. 1967. The performance and capabilities of terrestrial organisms in
extreme and unusual gaseous and liquid environments. Univ. of Hawaii, Hawaii
Botanical Science Paper No. b : 1-58.

SIEGEL, S. M. 1968, Biochemical processes in macromolecular environments: Plant

cell-wall matrix in lignin polymer formation. Amer, Assoc. Adv. Sci., Biology
of the Mouth, pp. 111-125.

SIEGEL, S. M. 1968. The performance and capabilities of terrestrial organisms in
extreme and unusual gaseous and liquid environments. Univ. of Hawaii, Hawaii
Botanical Science Paper No. 5: 1-75.

SIEGEL, S. II. Cz B. Z. SEIGEL. 1968. A living organism morphologically comparable
to the Precambrian genus Kakabekia. Amer. Jour. Bot. 55 : 68U— 68 7 •

SK0LMEN, ROGER G. 1967. Heating logs to relieve growth stress. Forest Prod. Jour.
17:1*1-142.

SMITH, A. C. 1967. The presence of primitive angiosperms in the Amazon Basin and
its significance in indicating migrational routes, Atas do Simposio sobre a
Biota Amazonica, Vol. b (Botanica): 37-59.

SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION LIBRARIES

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IL'L - ill JL2 1 illllhk £ 2 £ £ £ 1 1

c/o Department of Botany, University of Hawaii
21*50 Campus Road, Honolulu, Hawaii 96822

OFFICERS

PRESIDENT.....,, Dr, Daniel D. Palmer

(Physician, Rm. 222, ll*8l S. King St.)

VICE-PRESIDENT Dr. Douglas friend

(Dept. Botany, Univ. Hax/aii)

SECRETARY Mr. William Sakai

(Dept. Botany, Univ. Hawaii)

TREASURER. Dr. Paul Ekern

(Water Resources Research Center,

Univ. Hawaii)

DIRECTORS Dr. A. C. Smith

(Wilder Prof, of Botany, Univ. Hawaii)

........... .Dr, Richard W, Hartmann

(Dept, Horticulture, Univ. Hawaii)

THE HAWAIIAN BOTANICAL SOCIETY was founded
in 192k to "advance the science of Botany
in all its applications, encourage research
in Botany in all its phases," and "promote
the xrelfare of its members and to develop
the spirit of good fellowship and coopera-
tion among them." "Any person interested
in the plant life of the Hawaiian Islands
is eligible for membership in this Society,"

EDITOR. ..... .Charles H, Lamoureux

(U.H, Botany)

THE HAWAIIAN BOTANICAL SOCIETY NEWSLETTER
is published in February, April, June,
October, and December. It is distributed
to all Society members with the purpose
of informing them about botanical nex-:s
and progress in Kax^aii and the Pacific.
News contributions and articles are
XTOlcomed*

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c/o Department of Botany
University of Hawaii
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Honolulu, Hawaii 968 22

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