PePaw
Guest
Strange how some of those pictures are very beautiful.
Seems wrong.
Seems wrong.
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photohikedive
Guest
I'm just that good...
it's not so strange, if you think about it like this.
Before man interrupted the natural cycle of things, by preventing fires from occurring, there would be wildfires that would burn clear across nearly the entire state every few years. Most often from that thing that hardly ever happens here in Florida... lightning. The plants have adapted to those conditions. The pines you'll notice have few lower branches. The bark is course and flakey. This prevents the long leaf pines from over heating. That park acts like radiator fins, and the branches are high up, away from the licking flames. The palmetto plants burn very quickly, passing the fire along, and burning out before the heat does any permanent damage to the roots. They'll be back green in a month.
Even the animals are used to these fires. The gopher tortoise, digs a burrow that can be 15 feet deep, and up to 40 feet long. During fires, all sorts of animals climb down into these burrows, snakes, rats, mice, insects, etc. For some reason, they stop preying on each other for these short intervals, like a truce.
Now, when this happened naturally, the understory of the forrest stayed fairly cleared of brush. You had the low lying plants, and open center area, and then the canopy of the long leaf pines. Man's interruption of this cycle allowed all sorts of other plants to thrive, climbing vines, and overgrown bushes create an abundance of fuel load. When there is a fire, either by lightning, accidental ignition, or vandalism, this fire burns out of control. So hot, with flames so high, they reach the canopy, and kill the trees. The fire doesn't move quickly along, and so the roots are baked, and the low lying plants die as well. This allows for exotic plants, non native, stuff brought in to look pretty in your yard, to get a foot hold out in the wild, and they will often take over where native plants had thrived. Sometimes these plants are not edible to the native animal life, making ripples all through the food chain.
So, by artificially introducing fire on a cycle that mimics what once occurred naturally, we're doing something that results in guilt free pictures that you can shamelessly call beautiful.
it's not so strange, if you think about it like this.
Before man interrupted the natural cycle of things, by preventing fires from occurring, there would be wildfires that would burn clear across nearly the entire state every few years. Most often from that thing that hardly ever happens here in Florida... lightning. The plants have adapted to those conditions. The pines you'll notice have few lower branches. The bark is course and flakey. This prevents the long leaf pines from over heating. That park acts like radiator fins, and the branches are high up, away from the licking flames. The palmetto plants burn very quickly, passing the fire along, and burning out before the heat does any permanent damage to the roots. They'll be back green in a month.
Even the animals are used to these fires. The gopher tortoise, digs a burrow that can be 15 feet deep, and up to 40 feet long. During fires, all sorts of animals climb down into these burrows, snakes, rats, mice, insects, etc. For some reason, they stop preying on each other for these short intervals, like a truce.
Now, when this happened naturally, the understory of the forrest stayed fairly cleared of brush. You had the low lying plants, and open center area, and then the canopy of the long leaf pines. Man's interruption of this cycle allowed all sorts of other plants to thrive, climbing vines, and overgrown bushes create an abundance of fuel load. When there is a fire, either by lightning, accidental ignition, or vandalism, this fire burns out of control. So hot, with flames so high, they reach the canopy, and kill the trees. The fire doesn't move quickly along, and so the roots are baked, and the low lying plants die as well. This allows for exotic plants, non native, stuff brought in to look pretty in your yard, to get a foot hold out in the wild, and they will often take over where native plants had thrived. Sometimes these plants are not edible to the native animal life, making ripples all through the food chain.
So, by artificially introducing fire on a cycle that mimics what once occurred naturally, we're doing something that results in guilt free pictures that you can shamelessly call beautiful.
mike_s
Contributor
they had this problem in Yellowstone years ago. The put out natural fires every time they happened, so the natural process of burning didn't occur.
that mean more undergrowth and more downed limbs, that basically added "fuel" to fire the next time they had a big fire, making it uncontrollable.
they now do controlled burns in many of these parks now to mimic what occurs naturally, like PHD says....
of course, you know he's not going to miss getting to burn something though!
that mean more undergrowth and more downed limbs, that basically added "fuel" to fire the next time they had a big fire, making it uncontrollable.
they now do controlled burns in many of these parks now to mimic what occurs naturally, like PHD says....
of course, you know he's not going to miss getting to burn something though!
photohikedive
Guest
it's a good part of why California is having so much trouble.
In fact, they've been sending their folks here for training. As I understand it, FL has had one of the longest running, most successful prescribed fire programs in the country.
Of course, people do tend to focus on the bad... There was an incident last summer, where the conditions went bad, and smoke covered the road. Several accidents, people killed, all around a bad situation.
I wonder though. If you're driving along, and up ahead you see that smoke is covering the road, what would YOU do?
For there to have been that many bad accidents, it would seem that some people thought that driving faster to get through it might have been the right answer...
In fact, they've been sending their folks here for training. As I understand it, FL has had one of the longest running, most successful prescribed fire programs in the country.
Of course, people do tend to focus on the bad... There was an incident last summer, where the conditions went bad, and smoke covered the road. Several accidents, people killed, all around a bad situation.
I wonder though. If you're driving along, and up ahead you see that smoke is covering the road, what would YOU do?
For there to have been that many bad accidents, it would seem that some people thought that driving faster to get through it might have been the right answer...
mike_s
Contributor
speaking of dedicating diving souls.....
I just got a PM from Kenny asking if anyone wanted to meet him at ABWA adventures in the morning.... he says a group is planning on diving there tomorrow even with predict air temps of 11f.
Hey Rocketman, you wanna go?
I just got a PM from Kenny asking if anyone wanted to meet him at ABWA adventures in the morning.... he says a group is planning on diving there tomorrow even with predict air temps of 11f.
Hey Rocketman, you wanna go?
OP
OP
A Monkey was free to swing from the trees uninterrupted by buildings and pavements...
OP
My next dive will be #150!!!
I will be hitting my 100th in 2 weeks down in Jupiter!
Carolyn:shark2:
Carolyn:shark2:
snepdiver
Contributor
Congrats ladies.
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