[Magdalen] The wind has SHIFTED!.

[Jay Weigel]

One must always remember the Peshtigo Fire of 1871, unfamiliar to most
because it occurred at the same time as the more famous Chicago fire and in
a lesser-known area with poor communications, but known to every Wisconsin
school child because it's taught in Wisconsin History classes in fifth
grade...or was (God knows what Scott Walker has done to the curriculum). It
was possibly the largest fire in recorded history, covered an immense area
and forever changed the forest type there. I refer you to
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peshtigo_Fire

On Thu, Aug 11, 2016 at 10:24 PM, Cantor03--- via Magdalen <
magdalen at herberthouse.org> wrote:

>
>
> In a message dated 8/11/2016 4:20:47 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
> mjl at ix.netcom.com writes:
>
> Granted,  containment is currently only at 55%, but still.   Phew!
> Botanical blathering -
>
> My hometown in NW Wisconsin is exactly on the botanical
> "tension zone" where northern and southern floristic provinces
> meet.  To the north of my town, there is very light, sandy soil
> dumped by the Pleistocene Glacier, and south, heavier soil,
> well suited to agriculture.
>
> To the north, really to the edge of the Lake Superior Boreal Forest,
> (90 mi.) there is a monotony of pine, mostly Jack Pine (P. banksiana)  and
> Hill's Oak ( Quercus ellipsoidalis), and both species are very
> susceptible to fire.  It seemed every year back in the day, the
> schools would be dismissed to go help the fire fighters.  There  were
> always fires, but not on the scale of the Western USA fires.   Despite
> these species fire sensitivity, they need fire to regenerate.
>
> Since the advent the past forty years, of good fire control of this
> region, there is obviously a change in the direction of more climax
> species that now thrive because of fire reduction.  It was  therefore
> startled to travel through these Jack Pine barrens a year or so
> ago, and discover that there was an understory of Eastern White
> Pine (P. strobus) and Red Pine (P. resinosa).  There is  essentially
> zero reproduction of the original species (Jack Pine and Hill's Oak).
>
> Another twenty years or so, there will be another forest type  completely
> in that region.
>
>
>
> David S.
>
>
>