Record NB wildfires change the forest ecosystem, make winners and losers among birds

This year as wildfire tearing through the forests of New Breanswick at record rates, researchers say that resulting damage is re -shaping bird houses – to displace some species by creating new opportunities for others.

A forestry and environmental management professor at New Breanswick University, who says Nokera, says, “With every disturbance in a forest, you have the winners and loser.”

In this case, the winners will be woodpeckers.

Birds, an associate director of Canada, Amy-Li Kovenberg said, “This bird is a bunch of standing deadwood, because it decides, all these wood-boring are colonized by insects, and they feast on them.”

Wildfire, while disastrous, is a natural part of the forest ecosystem, Kovenberg explained. They clean the underbrush and build the houses that support a wide range of species, increasing biodiversity in a long time.

The woodpeckers thrive in burnt areas, and resulted in the tree cavities behind, which are used as nests of hunting sites, which rely on other birds – such as chikde, bluebirds and neutchatch.

In particular, a “poster child” has become a “poster child” for a species-black-supported woodpeckers who thrive in the burnt forests, Covenberg said. Although this species was historically low population due to its priority for burnt forests, it is not considered at risk.

Nokera said that wildfires are usually good for birds that eat wood-boring insects or more open areas are required. But while open space and burnt trees benefit some species, other fire -related residence.

Species such as Canadian warbler, wood thrush and bicanel thrush – which all depend on dense, mature or busted forests – are particularly weak.

“Some birds may die, especially if the fire occurs when the birds are on the nest and the eggs or chickens cannot survive,” said Karen hugs, a conservation ecologist and a biology professor at the University of British Columbia.

“Birds may have trouble for forging. They also hate breathing smoke, so it can be really harmful for them in terms of flight. It can affect the migration,” he said.

“The estimate is that there are several thousand species that are threatened to extinct due to these changes in the fire and the increase in these massive fire,” he said.

Fire set as a mitigation measurement

To reduce the risk of wildfires, the hugs say the prescribed irritation – the practice of installing small, controlled fire – can help return the activity of the wildfire to a more natural level.

Hodes said, “What have we done in the last century and a lot of fire is not allowed to burn.” “So we have made it easier that if the fire starts … it can burn a large area because it is hot, it is dry and there is abundant fuel for burning.”

Hodes said that small, controlled fire reduces the available dead, dry vegetation, which becomes fuel that allows wildfire to spread so quickly.

According to a firefighting corporation, Canadian Intergency Fire Center (CIFFC), a fire management corporation, a 23 set fire has been recorded in Canada this year, which includes two active fire by Park Canada, as a sept 4. This year, the prescribed fire has burnt about 1,800 hectares.

Record-breaking season

Historically, the Acadian Forest, which spreads to the meritime, has experienced small, low -intensity fire, which helped make it “fire resistant”, Nokera said. In the past, these fire burned the surface vegetation and helped to reproduce the forests.

But recently, Nokera said that wildfires are becoming more disastrous because many people are also burning the fandar.

Wildfires that burn both the ground level and the canopy are called Nokera, making the forests difficult to reproduce.

Hodes said that these days the fire is heated, more destructive and spreads rapidly than in the past.

According to CIFFC, New Brearswick has already recorded more than 300 wildfires this year, which exceeds 2,500 hectares.

The total hectares have increased by 1,239 percent compared to last year.