Holiday Farm Fire: Terrain's Impact on its Spread

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The article from The Register-Guard provides aerial images of areas affected by the Holiday Farm Fire near Eugene, highlighting a patchy distribution of burned regions. This pattern is beneficial as unburned vegetation can help reseed the affected areas with locally adapted species. The fire's spread is influenced by terrain features, with uphill movement being easier through densely branched fir trees, while burning through ground organics occurs more slowly. The effectiveness of fire breaks varies based on environmental conditions such as weather and terrain, with rivers and roads serving as potential barriers. The discussion raises questions about whether the local Oregon ecosystem benefits from regular fires for understory management, similar to practices observed in Southern California, and critiques the long-standing fire-suppression policies that may have impacted ecological health.
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These pictures are from a flyover of different affected by the Holiday Farm Fire, near Eugene, where I live. They show the patchy effects of the fire, in some areas. They also show how different features in the land affect spread of the fire and the kinds of features that get used as fire breaks in what kind of terrain.
This article (open access I believe) from the local newspaper (The Register-Guard) has several aerial pictures of the landscape, in areas burned by the Holiday Farm Fire (~30 miles from Eugene, where I live).

It shows a patchy distribution of burned areas. This is probably good, in that unburned areas at the edges of the fire of vegetation will be able to seed neighboring areas (with locally adapted seeds too).
Screen Shot 2020-10-15 at 4.28.05 PM.png


The fire's spread is affected by several features of terrain. Going up hill is easy through stands of fir trees with interlocking branches. Burning through the organics in the ground spreads more slowly.
Screen Shot 2020-10-15 at 4.38.25 PM.png


Fire breaks should have different effectivenesses, depending on the conditions, like weather (rain/no rain, windy/not windy, temperature/dryness).
Rivers and roads and other features can act as fire breaks or be built upon to make more effective breaks.
Screen Shot 2020-10-15 at 4.28.44 PM.png
 
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In SoCal, where I grew up, regular fires were good "grooming" for the understory. Is the ecosystem in this part of Oregon the same in that way? And if so, does it suffer from the old 75-year policy of fire-suppression?
 

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