Today in Pictures

[Guest]

Well over an inch , still raining, ditches running

[blackpowder]

Definitely jealous.

[blueversi]

May be last time till April to see grass

Ground has been white since October 23rd here.

[foragefarmer]

Cool December rain but warm and dry with the smell of dirt under the canopy of the old 7

Just wondering, isn't it tough going brush cutting with the warm weather? We've always done it in the dead of winter when the ground is frozen solid as the poplars and willows shear off at ground level so easily.

It's also easier piling windrows with the ground frozen as the blade travels on top and you don't get roots pulling out full of dirt.

I'm just curious is all.

[AlbertaFarmer5]

I've never understood the idea behind brush cutting. Although as I understand it, that was the accepted method.
What do you do with the stumps after that? I've always considered it much easier to use the leverage of the tree to pull the stump and Roots out as one piece, instead of trying to hack the stumps out in bits and pieces. If the ground isn't frozen, and isn't too wet, it can be done with very little dirt ending up in the pile. And far less clean up.
In the era of breaking plows, do I understand correctly that they would just try to slice through the stumps? I remember hearing about towing the breaking plow with a long chain and when it would hit a stump they would back up the length of the chain and keep pulling the chain tight until it sliced through. The thought of doing that on an open tractor with a hand Forged chain haunts me.

[blackpowder]

Too dry is perfect. No frost.
Rake blade takes roots and all. Not too much dirt. Even the duff burns.
One re-pile shortly after burning. Bury the rest. Disc and seed.
Reminds me of drought years. Scary.

[blackpowder]

I've wondered about the origin of shearing it off myself.
Lack of heavy equipment?
10 kids to pick roots?
Everyone did it that way here at one time.

[Guest]

When we did it our old cat skinner would tramp trees before it froze , roots would come up with trees , then pile after it froze good, not many roots left

[foragefarmer]

Willows are very hard to shear off if it's not cold enough, they are so rubbery that the blade of the cat will just skim over them if it's a bit to warm.

When piling, you never have to worry about the blade cutting into the ground when it's frozen solid. Also the ground seems to remain fairly level when brushing with frozen ground.

I've been picking sticks and stones since 10 years old and I've just about had enough of it.

[AlbertaFarmer5]

Willows are very hard to shear off if it's not cold enough, they are so rubbery that the blade of the cat will just skim over them if it's a bit to warm.

When piling, you never have to worry about the blade cutting into the ground when it's frozen solid. Also the ground seems to remain fairly level when brushing with frozen ground.

I've been picking sticks and stones since 10 years old and I've just about had enough of it.

Thanks for the explanation. Willows makes more sense. They will take a chunk of ground out bigger than the tree itself, dirt and all. And the rubbery roots seem to go on forever if you start pulling on them.

So do you just work through the stumps/roots that were left behind? Rototiller, breaking plow, or breaking disc?

[chuckChuck]

Trees and wetlands are a huge sink for carbon and provide other ecological goods and services. If you want to be paid for sequestering carbon with zero tillage then you should also deduct the sequestered carbon that is released when you drain wetlands and clear the bush.

[shtferbrains]

No credit for sinking carbon .
Aren't our forests considered carbon producers by Mr Geebo?

[chuckChuck]

Our forests are currently generating significant amounts of carbon emissions because of an increase in forest fires because of climate change.

[shtferbrains]

Polly want a cracker?

[chuckChuck]

Canada’s record-breaking wildfires in 2023: A fiery wake-up call

In 2023, Canada is facing a formidable challenge: record-breaking wildfires. These fires are fuelled by record high temperatures and widespread drought conditions across the country. To what extent can climate change be linked to these events? Scientists from around the world did a rapid turn-around study to find answers.

Canada’s 2023 wildfire season is the most destructive ever recorded, and it’s not over yet. By September 5, more than 6,132 fires had torched a staggering 16.5 million hectares of land. To put that in perspective, that’s an area larger than Greece and more than double the 1989 record. Normally, an average of 2.5 million hectares of land are consumed in Canada every year. And unlike previous years, the fires this year were widespread, from the West Coast to the Atlantic provinces, and the North. By mid-July, there were 29 mega-fires, each exceeding 100,000 hectares.

“The word ‘unprecedented’ doesn’t do justice to the severity of the wildfires in Canada this year,” says Yan Boulanger, research scientist in forest ecology at Natural Resources Canada. “From a scientific perspective, the doubling of the previous burned area record is shocking.”

Learning from this year’s fires

Yan and two other Canadian Forest Services scientists — Jonathan Boucher and Sandy Erni — were part of an international team of 16 scientists involved in a rapid research study focused on Quebec’s wildfire season. The team found that climate change more than doubled the likelihood of extreme fire weather conditions in Quebec.

The study was conducted by World Weather Attribution ([url]https://www.worldweatherattribution.org/[/url]) (WWA), a group that looks at how climate change affects the intensity and likelihood of an extreme weather event. These studies are done very quickly, and while it’s important to note that this report hasn’t been peer reviewed yet, the study used peer-reviewed methods.
June 3, 2023 — The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer ([url]https://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov/about/[/url]) (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua ([url]https://aqua.nasa.gov/[/url]) satellite captured this view of smoke billowing from Quebec fires on June 3. On June 1 more than 120 fires were ignited in a single day, and as of June 5, more than 150 wildfires ([url]https://sopfeu.qc.ca/en/[/url]) were active in Quebec. (NASA Earth Observatory image of the Quebec wildfires by Lauren Dauphin, using MODIS data from NASA EOSDIS LANCE and GIBS/Worldview)




Why study Quebec? Well, Canada is so big that it’s difficult to gather data from across all time zones to capture data across the country from coast to coast in a timely manner. Also, Quebec had an early start to the devastating 2023 wildfire season. Warm and dry conditions appeared in early May, setting the stage for June and July. On June 1, more than 120 fires were ignited by lightning in just one day. “Climate change is greatly increasing the flammability of the fuel available for wildfires because the trees, fallen trees, and underbrush are all so dry,” explains Yan. “This means that a single spark, regardless of its source, can rapidly turn into a blazing inferno.”

From June 1 to 25, more land burned in southern Quebec than in the previous 20 years combined. These conditions led to the largest single fire ever recorded in southern Quebec, which consumed 460,000 hectares. With all this, it’s no wonder scientists are trying to find out what’s going on.

Researchers used Natural Resources Canada’s Fire Weather Index ([url]https://041gc-my.sharepoint.com/personal/barbara_ustina_nrcan-rncan_gc_ca/Documents/stories/Fire%20season%202023%20wrap%20w%20Yan/cwfis.cfs.nrcan.gc.ca[/url]) (FWI), a metric that combines temperature, windspeed, relative humidity and precipitation to estimate the level of fire danger. To assess the effect of hot and dry weather conditions from January to July, the scientists also calculated the Cumulative Daily Severity Rating from the FWI.
Aftermath of a wildfire near Kelowna, B.C. This year’s fire activity could also impact forest carbon balance, biodiversity, and disrupt local businesses, forest sector economies and Indigenous communities. (photo: Getty Images)

The role of climate change

“There’s no question, extreme weather, record high temperatures and dry conditions caused by climate change intensified this year's wildfire crisis,” says Jonathan.

Canada experienced its warmest May to July period in over 80 years, breaking previous national temperature records for the two-month period by 0.8°C. To quantify the effect of climate change on weather, scientists used weather data and computer model simulations to compare the pre-industrial climate to today’s conditions, after about 1.2°C of global warming since the late 1800s. The study found that climate change made the extreme intensity of this fire season at least two times more likely than under preindustrial climate while the persistence of these conditions were at least seven times more likely. Furthermore, they found that wildfire-prone weather conditions in Quebec were 50 percent more intense because of climate change caused by human activity, while the peak intensity recorded was 20 percent higher.

Assessing events such as wildfires and weather presents a unique challenge. Jonathan emphasizes the need to constantly update climate models to account for ever-evolving weather patterns. “For instance, this summer’s record temperatures and low humidity in Quebec was extreme by today’s standards,” he says. “But they could be the norm by the end of the century.”