Era of Fire Suppression

Era of Fire Suppression

Federal land acquisition in the early 1900s initiated a change in burning practices throughout the southern Appalachians, and began an era of fire suppression. Eliminating all fire from public forests was the official stance of federal agencies in the early 1900s when the Forest Service was established (Dyne 1982). Foresters of that time did not realize the important ecological role of fire in the development and maintenance of the ecosystems they were trying to protect (Van Lear and Waldrop 1989). As both the USDA Forest Service and state agencies improved their capabilities for fire detection and suppression, fire was essentially removed as a vector for shaping landscapes in the southern Appalachians (Buckner and Turrill 1999). For example, the creation of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park (GSMNP) in the 1930s altered fire frequencies from once every 10-40 years (from the period of 1856-1940) to once every 2000+ years ( Harmon 1982, Buckner and Turrill 1999).

In the 1940s, a federal fire prevention campaign was initiated, partly in response to several catastrophic forest fires in the Great Lakes Region caused by poor logging practices. Smokey Bear became the highly effective symbol of this campaign, teaching two to three generations of Americans that all fires are harmful to forests (Buckner and Turrill 1999).

See: The Effects of Fire Suppression