[Terrapreta] charcoal search

[Richard Haard]

This past week I took a planned trip into the Okanogan National  
Forest, west about 20 miles from Tonasket, Washington. The entire  
area had been subjected to extensive forest fires over the past 2  
years with the worst in summer of 2006. Here many thousands of acres  
of Spruce, Lodgepole pine and Douglas Fir were destroyed in a forest  
fire that lasted all summer.

My main reason for heading up there was to locate some populations of  
native shrubs that I have been propagating from seed but was blocked  
by fire crews for the last 2 years. I was also interested to learn  
for myself whether charcoal accumulates in fires of this kind. I had  
an idea I would collect some samples  of charcoal for my studies.  
What I found was little if any charcoal, with the forest litter  
layer, dead wood and shrub vegetation converted to ash. The trees or  
what remained      of them were coated with a thin layer of char with  
solid wood inside.

  http://www.flickr.com/photos/rchaard/811783245


The good news is that I found my plant, shrubby Potentilla, growing  
in wet meadows that were passed over by the fire storm.

Rich H