nuissance

Hurricanes and wildfires

April 3, 2025 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Early March saw more than 200 wildfires break out in the southeastern U.S. – a busy start to the region’s annual fire season. One fire in the Carolina Forest near Myrtle Beach scorched over 2,000 acres over a two-week period and firefighters were busy containing it and many other blazes.

Strong winds and an unusually long dry period have made fires more likely to ignite and be spread. Lightning strikes, power line sparking, backyard fire pits and leaf burning all can lead to wildfires under these conditions.

A weather disaster last year may be helping to make this fire season worse than usual. Hurricane Helene ravaged the Southeast last September, dumping more than a foot of rain in some locations and knocking over hundreds of thousands of acres of trees across the region.

Lots of dead trees lying on the ground allow sunlight to reach the ground and dry out all the biomass, including the trees. All of this desiccated plant material acts as kindling, providing fuel for wildfires. Fallen trees can be a fire nuisance for years after a hurricane, especially in the Southeast, where dried out pine needles are highly combustible. All it takes is an ignition.

In addition, all the fallen trees represent an access issue for firefighters as the logs block roads needed to reach the fires.

Research has shown that climate change is fueling more intense fires in the West. Whether the changing climate is having a major effect in the Southeast isn’t clear. But droughts are expected to become more intense and more frequent in the Southeast because of climate change and that isn’t good news for the likelihood of wildfires.

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How Hurricanes Can Fuel Wildfires in the Southeast

Photo, posted March 5, 2025, courtesy of the U.S. Army National Guard / Roberto Di Giovine via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Armadillos Heading North | Earth Wise

December 27, 2021 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Armadillos are small mammals known for their unique armor-like shell and their digging habits. There are 21 species, primarily native to South America. Some species have expanded northward due to their rapid breeding cycle, adaptability, and reduced number of predators. Only one species – the nine-banded armadillo – is found in the United States. In fact, it is the official small mammal of the state of Texas.

Over time, armadillos have expanded their range to states in the Deep South. More recently, the animals have been pushing further north. Milder winters in the changing climate have allowed them to inhabit new areas, including parts of the Blue Ridge Mountains. They were first sighted in North Carolina in 2007 and their numbers have recently been growing in the western half of the state.

There are now armadillos as far north as Missouri, Nebraska, and Iowa, and there is little to halt their further advance. They are able to hold their breath for six minutes at a time, so they can cross rivers by walking along the bottom or by inflating their intestines and floating across the top. Their hard shell provides protection from predators. They reproduce prolifically. Females give birth to quadruplets multiple times over the course of their 12-15-year lifespan.

Armadillos are fun to look at, but they are a nuisance where people live. They are prone to digging holes in lawns. In parts of North Carolina, some people have placed bounties on the animals. They are difficult to trap and there aren’t common repellents for them. As the climate continues to warm, it is only a matter of time before the range of armadillos expands into other states.

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Armadillos Advance Northward As Temperatures Rise

Photo, posted May 2, 2017, courtesy of Gail Hampshire via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Saving Beaches With Seagrass

February 22, 2019 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Almost a quarter of the Gross Domestic Product of places around the Caribbean Sea is earned from tourism. Preserving the beaches in the region is an economic imperative. With increasing coastal development, the natural flow of water and sand is disrupted, natural ecosystems are damaged, and many tropical beaches simply disappear into the sea.

With such high stakes, expensive coastal engineering efforts such as repeated replenishing of sand and the construction of concrete protective walls are common strategies. Rising sea levels and increasingly powerful storms only increase the threat to tropical beaches.

Researchers from The Netherlands and Mexico recently published a study in the journal BioScience on the effectiveness of seagrass in holding onto sand and sediment along shorelines.

Seagrasses are so-named because most species have long green, grass-like leaves. They are often confused with seaweeds but are actually more closely related to flowering plants seen on land. Seagrasses have roots, stems and leaves, and produce flowers and seeds. Seagrasses can form dense underwater meadows and are one of the most productive ecosystems in the world. Seagrasses provide shelter and food to an incredibly diverse community of animals, from tiny invertebrates to large fish, crabs, turtles, marine mammals and birds.

The researchers performed measurements of the ability of seagrass along Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula coastline to keep sand in place and prevent erosion. They found that the amount of erosion was strongly linked to the amount of vegetation. Quite often, seagrass beds have been regarded as a nuisance, rather than a valuable asset for preserving valuable coastlines. The study opens opportunities for developing new tropical beach protection schemes in which ecology is integrated into engineering solutions.

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Web Links

Seagrass Saves Beaches and Money

Photo, posted October 13, 2010, courtesy of NOAA via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.