ENV 390C - Urban Fire Ecology

Institution:

Antioch University-System Administration

Subject:

Description:

Since the late nineteenth century, when Los Angeles County officials began recording wildfires, areas of the Santa Monica Mountains as large as 60,000 acres have burned in a single incident. Between the years 1950 and 2000 county officials recorded 181 incidents involving a total of 172,811 acres burned. There is no question that fire is a major potential hazard in this coastal mountain range which divides two major areas of the city, contains some of the most expensive real estate in the world, and stops just short of a densely populated downtown area. As unimaginable as it might be to some, fire is also a necessary periodic disturbance regime that releases bound up energy stored in "stable" ecosystemsand facilitates plant and animal species diversity. The class meets at the Ahmanson Ranch to discuss fire in both its hazardous and beneficial forms. The class examines an actual burn site and conducts a field analysis of a recent fire and the successional process that has followed in its wake. No grade equivalent allowed. SCIENCE DOMAIN

Credits:

1.00

Credit Hours:

Prerequisites:

Corequisites:

Exclusions:

Level:

Instructional Type:

Lecture

Notes:

Additional Information:

Historical Version(s):

Institution Website:

www.antioch.edu

Phone Number:

(937) 769-1372

Regional Accreditation:

North Central Association of Colleges and Schools

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