From Fall 2000
Red Butte Canyon Fire Ecology

Soon after our recent fire in Red Butte Canyon, I received an amusing
and telling call from a local reporter wanting to hear about the impact
of the fire. I shared with him my knowledge of the area that burned,
the kinds of plants claimed by the fire, and the approximate time frame
expected for plant regeneration. I also described the way the landscape
changed, the unique history of Red Butte Canyon and its current management
as a Research Natural Area. But this didn’t seem to be what he
was looking for.

The reporter asked me how I felt when I looked at the burn – was
I angry? Sad? "Perhaps stunned, given the amount that burned, but
angry or sad doesn’t quite capture it for me," I said. Truth
be told, I looked over this familiar landscape with a sense of wonder.
What will this area look like in a year? In 5 years? This incident is
an opportunity to look at the workings of nature. As a researcher and
educator, I look forward to studying what this event can tell us about
fire ecology in our region.

Over two hundred and fifty acres burned that day, a predominantly north
facing slope extending from just within the Red Butte Garden Natural
Area fence to just above the dam in Red Butte Canyon Research Natural
Area. The vegetation that burned was mostly Gambel Oak, but also included
some large patches of Bigtooth Maple. The understory included many wildflowers
such as: Arrowleaf Balsamroot, Mules Ear, Waterleaf, Creeping Oregon
Grape, and many others.

Gambel Oak trees in this region are very fire resistant. They sprout
from underground roots known as rhizomes. Because these rhizomes are
generally four to twenty-inches down in the soil, they are protected
from all but the most severe fires. These are known to sprout vigorously
after moderately intense fires. The density of oak stems will usually
increase while the height of the new trees decreases. New growth also
occurs rapidly from the stem bases. In one case, oaks flowered in August
after a burn earlier that summer. In northern Utah, a 50 percent recovery
was reported two years after a fire.

But what about the understory? This, to me, was the most visually remarkable
aspect of the event. The wildflowers will most likely come back next
year in similar numbers. However, there is some concern about invasive
species, like Cheatgrass, which is taking over disturbed areas throughout
the Great Basin. Thankfully, its dominance is not yet a given. Research
conducted in Heber Valley, an area with a similar assemblage of plants
as Red Butte Canyon, showed no increase in Cheatgrass the first year
after the fire. However, the decrease in other types of vegetation raised
Cheatgrass’ relative importance in the community. Unfortunately,
the Heber study had no data after the first year. As we study the new
growth in Red Butte Canyon, we are not only concerned with the short-term
ramifications, but also with long-term and cumulative effects.

The reporter then asked me if I would call this a tragedy to nature,
or to science? "Neither" I replied. In seeking to understand
our surroundings it is tempting to over-simplify. Grasping the complexity
of natural systems is not simple. Ecosystems are very complex. The Yellowstone
fires of 1988 taught scientists and naturalists a lot about fire ecology.
Before that time, fire was widely considered a tragedy and fire suppression
was used as the predominant land management plan. We have now learned
that suppression can build fuels to unnaturally high levels. When a fire
does occur, however sparked, it may have catastrophic effects outside
the range of natural variation. Since then, biologists and the general
public have come to understand fire as a natural part of any ecosystem.
And while this fire may not have been a tragedy for the Canyon or Natural
Area, the flames came very close to Red Butte Garden’s plant collections.
Mindy Mortensen, RBG plant curator, said, "To lose the Garden collections
would be a tremendous setback in terms of time and money. Many of our
plants have been collected from around the world over several years.
The plant records and research collected have a lot to teach gardeners,
researchers and educators across the state. It would have been a tragedy
to lose these things. "

Lastly, the reporter asked me, "What about the animals?" It’s
true that there were some causalities of this fire. The leaf litter,
which the spotted towhees counted on to find their food, is gone. We
can also count a Cooper’s hawk nest and perhaps a family of foxes
that had a den near the burned area as causalities of the fire, whether
in terms of their lives or just the loss of their homes. Countless insects
are gone as well. But nature does abhor a vacuum: many types of animals,
such as woodpeckers, benefit from the more open habitats fire creates.

Natural disturbances, such as fires, floods and tornadoes, can provide
a critical service to any ecosystem. Seen at a large scale, fires usually
burn in mosaic patterns, thereby maintaining different types of habitats
and different ages of forest at the same time. Fires can actually increase
biological diversity. The key here is natural disturbances within the
normal range for the region. For us this means having fires that are
not too large, too intense, or too frequent.

There are many unanswered questions that are much more interesting to
me, though much less black-and-white, than those the reporter had. This
was not a natural fire. People have started three Red Butte Canyon fires
in the last ten years, which is more than the area’s natural cycle.
If this pattern persists we may exceed the Canyon’s ability to
recover and then we would be dealing with a real tragedy. But uncontrolled
fireworks, as well as fire suppression, development, irrigation and climate
change will all play a role in redefining the Canyon’s natural
cycle.

Due to the complexity of the canyon’s ecology, it is difficult
to determine the long-term consequences of the fire. Aldo Leopold described
it perfectly when he said, "A thing is right when it tends to preserve
the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong
when it does otherwise." As far as the future of the Canyon is concerned,
we’ll just have to wait and see.