We should not care how little or much the orator knows....
Oh but we should - sadly for all the benefits that the interweb has given us, social media provides the ideal environment for idiotic ideas of all kinds to spread like wildfire!
FWIW the OP (post #21) had referred to what he felt was a Green idiot talking nonsense about wildfires, in the interests of balance, I thought an example of an Orange one would be helpful.
Hopefully you will find the more subtle satire direct from Finland less upsetting!
I’m off to search online for a Sami inspired Gransfors Bruks Small Forest rake!
You cannot deny the existence of seral stages of succession.
No, your landscape will not jump up to your favorite forest, overnight.
The fact is, you will see a predictable series of plant communities, each replaceing the previous.
You can even guess how old the fire was from the species composition of the current plant community.
Yes, you can expect the animal community to change with the changing plant community. Fact, as you expect.
How long, then, does it take for the climax community to appear after a fire in the UK?
One thing to bear in mind is that unlike the large pine and birch forests in Scandinavia and Canada, the forests in the UK (certainly England and Wales) are typically made up of broadleaved trees with life cycles of centuries rather than decades and those cycles have been interrupted by the hand of man over millennia - otherwise IIRC the whole country would revert to woodland.
The active management (at least up until the middle of 20th Century) through coppicing, pollarding grazing and historically boar and deer hunting by nobles. Deer and domesticated animals, particularly pigs (and their wild cousins) rooting around in a forest and heathland will have a big impact on the vegetation and probably ensured that the build up of flammable material was minimised.
I don’t know Ashdown Forest itself but the landscape (which seems to be made up of distinct heathland and woodland sections) looks very similar to parts of the West Country where I grew up and (bizarrely) the African plateau where my inner pyromaniac was unleashed. Below is a link to more information about Ashdown Forest’s ecology and history.
https://www.ashdownforest.org/wild/environment.php
I think the video is to illustrate how little real knowledge the orator realy has on the subject. Anyone who has worked in woodland and forestry put your hands up if you have ever seen a bunch of people with rakes in their hands raking hundreds of acres of forest floor..... brash and windrows in managed areas are made to help the diversity of insect life that is vital for for the forest to flourish successfully . Managed burning of small areas does little damage and yes will clear areas of undergrowth that could present a fire hazard and regenerate the area for diversity. These large unmanaged fires can cause untold damage perhaps for instance burning alive hibernating dormice. Yes it will regenerate eventualy but it takes many years for trees to regrow. Not a couple of seasons as in heathland. There is as far as I'm aware no controlled burning of mature trees. Burning gorse and bracken in a managed way or swaling as we call it here is a different thing entirely from a forest fire.
From the pictures and videos, it does appear that the fires in Ashdown Forest were in the heathland part of the “Forest” rather than the woodland.
Round here in mid-Wales (and in the Mendips where I grew up), gorse and bracken are a problem - apparently less sheep, ponies etc. are turned out onto common land for grazing during the summer with more intense of lowland pastures being used instead. Round here, bracken has traditionally been harvested as an alternative to straw for bedding but without grazing and trampling early in the growing season it is becoming a nuisance.
Gorse/furze with near year round bloom is a great benefit to wildlife but is invasive if left unchallenged and as the citizens of Edinburgh have been witnessing - highly combustible.
I’ve been fighting a border war against incursion of both bracken and gorse from the common land above mine - it will be a long battle but cutting or preferably, bruising the bracken in three successive months over the summer does seem to be weakening it. I’m happy to keep some gorse but want to control it - unfortunately those seed pods do not respect bounderies!
Having read the comments in this thread, I find myself favouring more controlled burns rather than waiting for more inevitable uncontrolled devastation of Ashdown Forest. To me it seems reasonable, especially as there are signs in every car park stating who owns it, what the rules of implied access are and what they’ll do to anyone who messes with their land. The thing is, I seem to recall a very recent news item in which a Ranger was saying that due to County Council budget cuts, there was now funding available for just two part-time Rangers positions in the whole of East Sussex. There are volunteer programmes for various projects but I can't see how two part time Rangers would manage them, as well as their own workloads.
Whatever the politics of this situation, from the few days i’ve recently spent extreme picnicking in Ashdown forest (no I didn’t want, light or need a fire or stove), I found myself wondering about prevailing winds, likely directions of travel of wild fires, how i’ve seen fires behave ie jump, develop etc, how dry much of the ground cover is and the proximity of woodland to gorse and bracken. Unless there’s a 24/7 reactionary volunteer firewatch team and fire brigade (which there may well be for all I know), I can’t see how anything larger than the recent fires could be contained, should they occur later this year.
Perhaps, as the Fire Brigade are inevitably going to be involved in such incidents, they should be funded and trained to assist in controlled burns or interested people like me could be trained and paid to assist when necessary? There I go, thinking again.....
You may find yourself talking to little old ladies about fire alarms rather than being given a firebeater on day 1 but if you want to get involved, there are openings for community volunteers in most Fire Brigades.
https://www.esfrs.org/your-safety/community-volunteers/
I’ve no idea what happens with Ashdown Forest but in most areas, the local Wildlife Trust, National Trust, Woodland Trust etc. will have volunteer groups involved in habitat management which may involve work on fire breaks and other stuff directly or indirectly related to fire control. You might be surprised to find that many of the people actively involved with conservation and the environment spend as much time wielding chainsaws as they do hugging trees.
Have fun and let us know how you get on!
