Fire effects

Paul Cherubini monarch at saber.net
Sat Nov 22 13:38:49 EST 2003


Patrick Foley wrote:
> 
> There are a couple of papers cited about the fire effects and ecology of
> Eucalyptus.
> 
> <http://svinet2.fs.fed.us/database/feis/plants/tree/eucglo/fire_effects.html>

Pat, there are approximately 200 eucalyptus groves along the California
coast that monarchs use for clustering. Have fires ever destroyed any 
of them during the past 20 years?  Possibly, but none that I can think of 
off hand.  A couple groves in Santa Barbara and Ventura counties were 
damaged by fires in the 80's and 90's, (e.g. the Malibu coast fires of Oct. 1993) 
but the trees recovered in about 5 years.  New growth sprouted from 
many of the charred tree trunks.

Have fires ever destroyed any of the native Monterey Pine forests on 
the Monterey Peninsula or at Cambria during the past 20 years?  Yes, 
portions of the Monterey forests have suffered serious crown fires.

Have fires ever destroyed any of the native Coast Redwood and
Douglas Fir forests during the past 20 years?  Yes, the Point
Reyes National Park crown fire about 10 years ago comes to mind.

So both the native Monterey Pines, Redwoods and Firs as well as the
Australian eucalyptus may burn when wild fires occur during droughts
and low humidity conditions.  However, oil refineries, hospitals, schools,
power plants, defense department missil launch sites, etc. all use both 
eucalyptus and Monterey Pines as landscape ornamental trees.  Therefore, the
fire hazard must be relatively minimal or else these businesses and
institutions would not be able to obtain affordable fire insurance.

Paul Cherubini

 
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