A century and a half ago, Central Texas was a mosaic of grasses, some patches of trees and some sizable forested acreage, maintained in approximate proportions by fires every five to seven years.If I recall correctly, Texas folklorist and writer J. Frank Dobie (1888-1964) told a similar story about an experience he had when riding as a young man (on his family ranch?) in southern Texas.
A visitor today sees a wooded terrain, with dense junipers covering many hillsides and homes tucked among the trees. Fire is seen now only as the enemy in those places -- understandably, since a bad fire could be a disaster for people.
He decided to take a break, so he tied his horse to a mesquite. Then he looked and saw an old iron picket pin in the ground nearby, left by some nineteenth-century cowboy or cavalry trooper.
And it occurred to him that only a short time earlier that spot must have been all grassland, for only then would a rider have needed to drive the pin in order to tether his horse. Ecological change in just two generations or so.
3 comments:
In Appalachia, meadows can turn to forests in 30 years. I've seen it happen on my family farm. The best view on the property is now obscured by a pine forest that wasn't there in 1975.
Other than losing a spectacular view, we have also lost bob whites and the other field-dwelling pheasants. In one generation.
True, I am sure, in fecund Appalachia. On the other hand, wildfire is not such a big threat there.
All the trees surprised me quite a bit when I first visited the central states. I was naively expecting the Great Plains, not the Great Scrub. I can sympathize with their nervousness about fire; seems like a good blaze could run almost infinitely in that country.
Post a Comment