With many areas of North America suffering or having suffered various levels of wildfires this summer, and with discussions above and below the 49th Parallel centering around whether or not governments are doing enough to mitigate forest fire potential and better fight forest fires, fire mitigation and forest fuel management are popping up more and more frequently. Home and business owners are encouraged to be “fire smart”, and given guidelines for how to secure property against a future wildfire. Many of these guidelines include the removal of any interface greenery, referring to trees, tall grass, etc that may lead a fire to a building. Unfortunately, this kind of guidance leads to barren properties that are devoid of any greenery. Some tips and suggestions out there include installing outdoor sprinkler systems on rooftops and property lines. The idea there, is that when the building and property are wet, the vegetation will be harder to burn. This advice has saved many properties in the area where I live, but usually done by people who chose to ignore evacuation orders and stay to ensure water systems do their job to protect the property. A recent story of two brothers who spared the family farm doing this, resulted in those brothers becoming the defacto rescue property for a number of horses and livestock when a raging wildfire swept through their community this summer.
One method of protecting property doesn’t come up often, if ever, and that is the use of vegetation that doesn’t easily catch fire or stay aflame. A year ago when Marilynn was making culinary ash from lamb’s quarters, she’d ensured the leaves were bone dry, dry enough to crackle and shatter if she tried to pick them up. We bought a weed torch to make quick work of the crushed leaves, thinking that they’d go up with little effort and the large tub of leaf would be burned to a grey-white in no time. . . famous last words. . . It turns out, that even when dry, lamb’s quarter leaves give off a gas that floats over the burning leaves and puts out the fire. If the flame from the torch was turned off, you could see charred embers with the occasionall red glow here and there, and lots of grey gas rolling around on top! Marilynn would stir the ash only to find that a mere 1 inch depth had burned. the rest of the bin was very much unburnt! We had to use smaller amounts of leaf with frequent stirring of burnt ash, to eventually get half a large cookie tin’s worth of culinary ash after several afternoon’s efforts! We now muse that if we get our own property, we will make sure that lamb’s quarters is growing around the perimeter and buildings that we care about! Not only is it a very nutritionally-dense pot herb, salad herb, and source of minerals when turned to culinary ash, but it’s tendency to smother flames is very useful in our fire ecology of the Okanagan Valley.
Another plant that doesn’t burn well, is Mullein. If you’ve ever attempted to burn it to breathe in the smoke to help your asthma, you’ll know how frustrating it can be to keep it lit. The flame will start, then peter out very quickly. It takes multiple matches to eventually get a consistent whisp of smoke going that you can use for lung medication! We consider Mullein to be another desired plant to have growing around the property.
A recent article in our local news source, shared that the thick bark of Ponderosa Pine protects it from average wildfires, and the growth pattern of both smooth and staghorn sumac also protects it from flame damage. The same article mentioned how not only do the condes of the Ponderosa pine release their seeds in extreme heat, but the seeds of buckbrush or wild snowball, respond the same way.
Reading about the Ponderosa Pine brought to mind our discovery last October, of how the outer bark that this pine tends to shed, tastes so much like cinnamon! Looking at the base of various older Ponderosa pine trees, often reveals a berm of bark bits that the tree sheds. Forest rangers and fire fighters talk about the need to remove forest fuels, which include peeled bark, conifer needles, dead foliage, etc.
As foragers, we can do our bit for forest management, by harvesting the peeling/shedding bark of the Ponderosa Pine tree, taking it home, grinding it up, and using it in place of cinnamon in our cooking, baking, drinks, etc. When we see downed branches with green pine, spruce or fir needles, we can snap off needle bunches and take them home as well. The needles take time to dry, a few weeks to a few months depending on how wet the season is at the time, but once dry, they store for awhile, allowing you to make teas, oils, salves, tinctures, syrups, powders, and more for use in food and medicine. We can gather unopened green or brown cones of pine, spruce and fir, and make mugolio from them. Sap and resin that has hardened on the outside of conifer trunks can be broken off and taken home for use in salves and oils. Its easiest to harvest in winter when you can chip it off without your hands getting sticky, but it can be harvested year-round otherwise. New sap burns very easily, while older, hardened lumps of resin don’t burn as well. So if you are approaching fire season, stock up on fresh resin ahead of the wildfires that might come through. Douglas fir resin has many of the same uses as Frankincense. Reports have it that first nations peoples used to chew it like gum. It is a strong flavour, but not entirely unpleasant.
Brown pine needles can be gathered and used to weave baskets and mats. Opened cones laying on the ground can be gathered for use in fall and winter crafts such as table center-pieces, votive candle accents, wreaths, garlands, in decorative jars, etc. Yes you can buy cones at your local craft store, but why pay for what you can get for free? The best part of gathering what has fallen, is that you are not snapping it off the tree yourself. Gathering windfall or deadfall is an ethical way of stocking up your pantry and craft cupboard while doing your part in forest fuel management.
Do your part in making your neighbourhood safer, by going out there and gathering food, medicine, and craft materials! You can engage in this type of foraging literally year-round. Of course don’t take so much that small critters lose their homes and shelters. The forager’s goal is not to strip the forest floor bare, but to help prevent over-abundance of built-up unused fuel.
