The Missoula Fire Sciences Laboratory fascinated her.
Dorothy read about their research on conifer seedlings and how they grow back after a forest fire.
The scientists found that seedlings of Lodgepole Pine, Ponderosa Pine and Douglas Fir have historically been able to grow back fairly well after a forest fire.
Nature made sure the seedlings weren’t just resilient but predisposed to regenerate.
Dorothy was perplexed to learn that the Lodgepole Pine evolved to the point it actually depended on fire. When flames crept toward the tree and temperatures spiked, a biological reaction triggered the pine tree to open up its cones.
When the cones opened, seeds were released. That was how it was supposed to work. But she learned things have changed.
Big fires, the likes of which we’ve never seen, change the longstanding natural behaviors of conifers. So does drought and unusually long stretches of brutal heat.
The trees can’t handle these changes. Their ability to withstand fire isn’t what it used to be.
Dorothy kept reading the research published in the Proceedings of the National Academies of Sciences. Their findings were based on data gathered from 334 wildfires and 10,000 separate locations over 40 years. Fifty different research teams took part.
It alarmed her to learn the death rate for the conifers was going up. There was no reason why anyone with the ability to reason would dismiss this research.
But more disturbing than a dismissive and disengaged public was the fact it has become tougher for conifer seedlings to take root after a fire.
As a scientist, Dorothy had always been skeptical about forecasts and projections. So much doom and gloom never came to pass. She believed the big problems had a knack for popping up where nobody was looking.
Still, the forests’ future rattled her. She read that as temperatures climb, the amount of land where conifers can grow shrinks and could be reduced by 26% by 2050.
She struggled to imagine a mountain with a quarter of its forest gone.
Dorothy was also glad the US Forest Service Rocky Mountain Research Station at the Missoula Fire Sciences Laboratory was keeping an eye on this.
