Preparing for the Next One
Key to helping wildlife bounce back from disaster
is long-range planning. Conducting research and
plotting out specific disaster response procedures
can arm wildlife managers with the information
they need to best serve wildlife. For six years, Robert Fisher and colleagues with the U.S. Geological
Survey in San Diego, for example, have been
studying how populations of salamanders and
frogs cope with wildfires. Humans have altered the
fire regime in southern California by erecting utility lines in the dry chaparral desert. “We’ve gone
from having small fires in the summer associated
with moisture and monsoons to now having dry,
hot fires in the fall,” says Fisher. These fires, he
says, change the hydrology and the geology of local
areas, triggering mudslides that may contaminate
small streambeds with toxic ash and alter the
structure of the landscape.
Such changes are a big problem for populations of
fish, salamanders, and other water-dependent species that only exist in small numbers. If a mudslide
destroys a streambed, a significant portion of the
species could be knocked out in one event. With his
colleagues, Fisher has documented 26 populations
of rare or threatened species that have been wiped
out or dramatically diminished because of wildfires,
including the California red-legged frog (Rana
aurora), the unarmored threespine stickleback
(Gasterosteus aculeatus), and the Santa Ana speckled dace (Rhinichthys osculus ssp.) (USGS 2008).
Fisher says the best way of maintaining these rare
species might be to reintroduce populations over a
larger range to give them a better shot of surviving
fires in localized areas.
Fire fighting in California is associated with specific
agency protocols and policies that must be followed.
In California alone, over $1 billion in state funding
and $700 million in U.S. Forest Service money is
spent each year attacking fires. In the 1990s, fire
ecology was a newborn science and researchers debated how best to integrate wildlife protection into
fire prevention and fire fighting. Kevin Shaffer, a
program manager for species management with the
California Department of Fish and Game, encouraged fire managers to examine how their policies
were affecting wildlife. “They were doing things as
basic as doing prescribed burns in areas with fawning does or nesting turkeys,” he says. “We had to do
a lot of training on fire science and fire ecology and
wildlife and fire interactions,” he adds—training
that was accomplished through a fire education pro-
Credit: John McColgan/BLM
Two elk stand silhouetted in the glow of a wildfire (above) that torched part of Montana’s
Bitterroot National Forest in 2000. While some species perish or lose habitat in fires, others
thrive. Two weeks after the so-called Harris fire swept through parts of southern California in
2007 (below), U.S. Geological Survey scientist Robert Fisher, left, examined the speedy growth
of an invasive plant taking root in the charred soils.
Credit: USGS
gram launched through the University of California
system. Today, Shaffer says the field of fire ecology
is small but growing.
If there is a silver lining to the tragedy that often
accompanies natural disasters, it is that their drama
can focus attention on a problem that may have
otherwise gone unsolved. The devastation of Rita
and Katrina has helped win Gulf Coast communities over to the idea of rebuilding coastal wetlands.
“These wetlands play a role in preserving adjacent
communities,” says Don Voros, by slowing down
storms and reducing flooding when the storm
