St. Regis kids learn how fire works

Nick Ianniello

Mineral Independent

A group of St. Regis third graders got an opportunity to learn a little bit about how fires work within a forest’s ecosystem Thursday afternoon when they got a visit from Superior Ranger District Fire Coordinator Debbie Lepo.

Fire spokes-bear Smokey the Bear was too busy hibernating to talk with the group of eager youngsters, but Lepo said that she would step up and do her best without him.

The lesson started off with Lepo asking the students to tell her a little bit of what they know about forest fires from experience or other classes they may have taken.

“You guys are pretty smart,” Lepo said after listening to several stories about forest fires and what they mean for area forests.

Lepo explained that most forest fires happen during forest fire season, which occurs during the late summer in Montana.

She went on to say that in different climates have different fire seasons. As a n example Lepo mentioned that the fire season in Florida, which is much warmer than Montana, starts much earlier in the year than Montana’s fire season.

According to Lepo most of the fires in Montana happen in August because that is when it is hottest and driest.

“If it’s hot outside, the sun is high and it’s in the summertime, it’s probably a good time for a fire,” Lepo said.

Lepo then helped the group of children list the many different ways fires can start such as cigarette butts, matches, unattended campfires and lightning.

Lepo said that most fires in Mineral County start because of lightning strikes, although some manmade fires have been started.

Lepo then showed the students a cross-section of a ponderosa pine tree that had been caught in a fire and had what is called a “cat-face” burn.

“These trees can actually withstand some fire with the bark protecting it,” Lepo explained.

She told the students how the bark on ponderosa pines can withstand many smaller fires, and most full-grown ponderosa pine trees come out of fires with cat-face burns on their trunks.

She also showed the group how to check how old a tree is by counting the rings on the cross-section of the tree.

“It’s kind of like a birthday,” Lepo said about the rings.

She then showed them where burns left marks within the turnks and how they could track the history of a tree through its cross-section.

“We can actually read this tree cross-section to figure out how old it is and when it went through any fires,” Lepo said.

Lepo then used a felt board with movable models of trees, plants and animals to show the group how a fire works within a ponderosa pine forest.

She explained to the class that most ponderosa pine forests consist of large ponderosa pine trees, and other much smaller plants that animals eat from. These forests go through a small “creepy-crawly” fire every five to seven years, according to Lepo.

“All different trees like fires, but each one likes different intensities,” Lepo said.

She then used the felt board to show the students how smaller creepy-crawly fires burn through the smaller underbrush of the ponderosa pine forests, but leave behind the large ponderosa pine trees. Animals are also able to use streams as refuge from these small fires.

After these fires the underbrush starts to grow back, providing animals with food.

Lepo then explained how if ponderosa pine forests do not get a fire for an extended period of time, some trees can grow up to be too large, and they will block out the sun for the smaller plants that animals feed on.

She said if a ponderosa pine forest goes around 50 years without a fire, when a fire strikes again it can use the larger trees as “ladder fuels” and climb up into the high boughs of the ponderosa pine trees and get out of control, doing a lot of damage to the forest.

“Amazing as it sounds, ponderosa pine forests need creepy, crawly fires to survive,” Lepo said.

Lepo also passed around ponderosa pine cones and branches so students could learn to identify the trees. All ponderosa pine trees have bunches of three to five needles that are five to eight inches in length.

After the program Lepo gave the students a goodie bag filled with information from the Forest Service, along with some Smokey the Bear comic books, slap bracelets and other goodies.

“Hopefully I’ll see you guys out camping next summer,” Lepo said.