[Magdalen] The wind has SHIFTED!.

[Cantor03 at aol.com]

In a message dated 8/12/2016 11:26:18 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time,  
jay.weigel at gmail.com writes:

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>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
 
 
As a good, native Wisconsinite, I was thinking of the Peshtigo Fire  when
I mentioned the forest fires in the NW section of Wisconsin.  The  Peshtigo
Fire burned areas that are well north of the Botanical Tension Zone,  and
the original forest type (pre-European settlement) is listed in the "Bible  
of
Wisconsin Botany" Curtis' "Vegetation of Wisconsin" as a  combination
of "Conifer - Hardwood Forest and "Pine Savannah," the latter being
open pine stands with little underbrush.  The pine species in this  region
would be Eastern White Pine (P. strobus) and the hardwoods dominated
by true Northern Red Oak (Quercus rubra) and other hardwoods.
 
I've never been in that far eastern stretch of Wisconsin, so I can  not
attest to the present post-Fire forest make up.
 
Fortunately, none of the fires over in the NW section of the State  ever
reached such awful proportions.  
 
 
David Strang.