Mapping and inventorying the stumps yields a picture of how the forest used to look before it was changed so drastically by large-scale logging. Resource managers and ecologists like Taylor use this picture to evaluate how humans have altered the landscape. Humans had a huge impact on forest structure when they introduced fire suppression as a forest management practice in the early 1900s. Yet, without frequent low-intensity burns, the accumulation of fuels could lead to more severe fires. Dead branches sway from treetops and act as ladder fuels, providing the fire easy access to the crown of the trees where leaves burn easily.
Crown fires spread quickly and are much more destructive than surface fires.
Fire had previously acted as a disturbance agent, stirring up the ecosystem and setting the stage for change. As the ecosystem shifts, conditions may favor new species. Perhaps a severe fire destroys a leafy canopy, reducing a lush forest to a brush field. And the returning trees may or may not be the same species that burned. Fire effects are very diverse, and this diversity promotes biological diversity.