Long after Wildfire Cause Investigation, Nature Cleans Up

Jul 14, 2019

Black Backed Woodpeckers feast after wildfiresAs learned in FireWise Learning Academy’s Wildfire investigation course, a wildfire cause investigator’s primary goal is to locate the area of origin and then observe and collect any evidence of the source of ignition, whether natural, man made or a combination of both.

Such an investigation may take days or even weeks to gather enough evidence to allow the beginning of proper consideration and testing of different cause hypotheses. However, long after the fire cause investigation is over and even longer after any criminal or civil trials have taken place (should arson or negligence be found to be part of the cause) it is interesting to note that nature will still be active, carrying out it’s own plan for recovering habitat lost due to the devastation that a wildfire brings to nature.

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