Doctoral Student Studying History of Nebraska Fires

Jim Benes, a doctoral student in geography, studies fire history of the northern Great Plains, including multiple sites in the Nebraska Sand Hills.

Most afternoons, in a lab in Bessey Hall, Benes is busy processing charcoal samples. He analyzes fire history by taking cores from lakes or wetlands and then processing and sieving the charcoal particles within the core, centimeter by centimeter.

Benes specifically studies fire history of the northern Great Plains, including multiple sites in the Nebraska Sand Hills. Recent events like the fires in Lancaster County and Halsey National Forest demonstrate an urgent need to know more. Large portions of southern Lancaster County and huge swaths of Nebraska's National Forest burned in the most recent fires. These fires claimed the state's only fire lookout tower, a historic 4-H lodge, and homes and agricultural land.

"Other researchers at UNL have shown that wildfires increased in recent years, and their projections for future years show more increases," Benes said, referring to research conducted by Victoria Donovan, former postdoc in the department of Agronomy and Horticulture in the Extreme Fire Research Lab, led by Dirac Twidwell, associate professor.

With projected increases in burning, it is imperative to further understand how landscapes responded to fires in the past. Questions remain about the relationship to fuels, or flammable vegetation, during wetter versus drier periods in the region.

"During drier times, there is less vegetation, so does that mean more burning or less burning?" Benes asked as he continued to process the samples for microscopic bits of charcoal in the lab.

Scientific studies on that topic have shown mixed results in the northern Great Plains, again highlighting the need for more data. Eventually, the tiny specs of charcoal will be counted under a microscope and then analyzed with regional data. Benes hopes to bring a clearer understanding about the interaction of fire on the landscape through time.

"Humans have a vested interest in fire," he said. "It's a natural element that is intrinsic to the ecological systems of which we are so beautifully integrated, and it's essential we know as much as we can about its nature."