Fire Follows the Axe: Logging, Wildfires and Climate Change

Climate change is not new. The Great Lakes experienced a change to the climate after the 19th century lumber industry resulting in wildfires and other significant events. This episode covers how this happened and how it was able to be reversed over time.

The 19th century lumber industry in the Great Lakes region was an economic boom that created wealth and encouraged settlement and the development of communities, but left the former timberlands a wasteland. Without the moderating forest canopy, the cutover lands were susceptible to extreme weather conditions; warm and dry soils and air, strong storms, greater runoff, and wind, that eroded the landscape and affected the surrounding freshwater basins. The enormous amount of slash became a prime cache of fuel for wildfires. The conflagrations in Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin during the 1870s to 1920s contributed to this changing environment. 

In 2023 I presented a paper, "Fire Follows the Axe: Climate Change and the Lumber Industry in the Upper Great Lakes in the 19th and early 20th centuries"  at the annual Association of Living History, Farm, and Agricultural Museums (ALHFAM) conference held at Sauder Village, Archbold, Ohio. Today's episode uses excerpts of that paper to show how the lumber industry and the resulting wildfires led to localized climate change. Through conservation and reforestation efforts, much of that climate change has been reversed, however, much of the environmental damage and effects of the climate change still remain. 

Climate Change is the elephant in the room and I will be featuring this topic in the future. This episode follows episodes in season 01 on the lumber industry, reforestation, and the Kingston Plains that are all part of this discussion, and will be followed in Season 03 with episodes on wildfires and attempts to farm the cutover. 

Episode Correction: At 29min 32sec, I mention the 1918 Cloquet Fire in Wisconsin. The fire originated in Cloquet, Minnesota, however it did spread into nearby Wisconsin as well.

Episode Sources

Bennett, Lauren. Deforestation and Climate Change. Washington, D.C. The Climate Institute, April, 2017.

Bonan, Gordon B, David Pollard and Starley L. Thompson. Effects of  boreal forest vegetation on global climate. Nature. Vol. 359, 22 October, 1992.

Bonan, Gordon B, F. Stuart Chapin III, and Starley L. Thompson. Boreal Forest and Tundra Ecosystems as Components of the Climate System. Climactic Change, Volume 29, 1995 Kluwer Publications, the Netherlands.

Bonan, Gordon B. et al. Forests and Climate CHange: Forcings, Feedbacks, and the Climate Benefits of Forests. Science, Vol. 320, 1444. 2008. Washington, D.C. American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Comer, P.J., D.A. Albert, H.A. Wells, B.L. Hart, J.B. Raab, D.L. Price, D.M. Kashnian, R.A. Corner & D.W. Schuen (map interpretation); T.R. Leibfried, M.B. Austin, C.J. DeLain, L. Prange-Gregory, L.J. Scrimger, K.M. Korroch & J.G. Spitzley (digital map production). Vegetation of Michigan circa 1800: An Introduction of the General Land Office Surveys 1816-1856. Michigan Natural Features Inventory, Lansing, MI, 1995.

Davidson, Debra J., Tim Williamson, and John R. Parkins. Understanding climate change risk and vulnerability in northern forest-based communities. Canadian Journal of Forest Research. Ottawa, ON. 2003.

 Gleason, Henry Allan, editor. Botanical Observations in Northern Michigan. Journal of The New York Botanical Garden. Vol. XXIV, No. 288, December, 192

To leave a comment, send me a text here.

Support the show