Fire in Sierra Nevada Forests examines the woodlands through repeat photography: rephotographing sites depicted in historical photographs to compare past vegetation to present.
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"The face of the Sierra has filled in-and that, Gruell says, is not a good thing; not for wildlife, not for the forest and not for the future of the range's ecosystems." --Bettina Boxall, Los Angeles Times
About the Author
George E. Gruell, a wildlife biologist for five decades, has worked in the forests and rangelands of Nevada, Wyoming, Montana, Utah, and California. In his pioneering work in repeat photography, Gruell has retaken over four hundred early landscape photographs in the northern Rockies, the Great Basin, and the Sierra Nevada. He has authored and coauthored more than two dozen professional papers and publications on vegetation succession, wildlife habitat condition and trend, fire history, and fire ecology.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Will add fuel to debates over prescribed fires,
By Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Fire in Sierra Nevada Forests: A Photographic Interpretation of Ecological Change Since 1849 (Paperback)
This unusual photographic interpretation of ecological changes brought about by forest fires in the Sierra Nevada since 1849 will provide a guide which should intrigue both California residents and any interested in forestry issues, park management or ecosystems. Chapters use historical photographs to document changes which have taken place over the past 150 years, from early settlements to modern times. Fire In Sierra Nevada Forests will add fuel to debates over prescribed fires and logging issues.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Facts over rhetoric,
By
This review is from: Fire in Sierra Nevada Forests: A Photographic Interpretation of Ecological Change Since 1849 (Paperback)
With Bush touring the West talking about logging as the solution to preventing ever larger forest fires, this book provides ample documentation that FIRE SUPRESSION and MONOCULTURE REPLANTING are the real causes of the current explosive environment.I first saw this book at the top of Mt. Harkness. The fire watchman there pointed it out to me, as we both struggled to peer at Mt. Shasta through the smoky haze created by the Biscuit and Fremont fires. The differences in the trees and ground cover between now and the last century is striking. Most of the photos taken in the late 1800's show trees devoid of branches below 20 feet, and very little ground cover. Photos of the same area taken recently show thickly limbed trees down to ground level, with dense underbrush. Without hundreds of little fires to regularly clear out the low limbs and undergrowth, the forests become dense tinderboxes. When a fire finally breaks through fire suppression, it kills the trees instead of burning their limbs.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A One-of-a-Kind Book About Forest Ecology,
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This review is from: Fire in Sierra Nevada Forests: A Photographic Interpretation of Ecological Change Since 1849 (Paperback)
Forest ecology is in its infancy. Since humans have been messing with forests by chopping trees since their evolutionary arrival on the planet, it is rare to have any forest available to serve as a "before and after" example of human impact. With the Sierra Nevada, we do have photographic data available on the impact of European man on them thanks to those early pioneers of photography who hiked the mountains and photographed them.
George Gruell has done a lot of leg work here to bring many examples of Sierra Nevada forests in photographs from the past 150 years or so of human impact, and compared them to recent shots he took from as close to the origial location of the shot taken by the original photographer. These are presented side by side to give the reader a nice comparision. In this way, one is able to visually compare the forest from say 100 years ago to today. The images are startling. For example; his photos prove that there really are a lot more trees living today than there were when Europeans first entered the Sierra Nevada. Probably, this is because of fire suppression as well as early loggers having removed a lot of the big old growth stands. Even the famed floor of Yosemite is now mostly forested with conifers. I myself love conifers but George makes an interesting point that these forests are "man made" and in many ways are unhealthy from the standpoint that they lead to canopy firestorms that normally don't exsist when fires are allowed to naturally burn themselves out. Fire ecology is important and our fear of forest fires has led to an ever worsening situation in the Sierra Nevada. I recommend a quick read through this book for anyone interested in Sierra Nevada forest ecology.
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