What we can do

 by Rain Trueax

If the United States, we didn't have enough pain thrust onto us, fires have become a new attack on the West Coast. We got some of that early this summer when Tucson had the Catalina Mountains hit with lightning and then a long lasting fire that raced across the mountain and led to some evacuations-- as well as smoke that made being outside impossible.

Then came the California fires, also started by lightning to begin. That was followed to what is happening to Oregon with fires destroying small towns, homes and priceless  buildings that even if they can be rebuilt, it'll never be the same. And as I write this, the conflagration is not over. More after the break---

As often happens, I went to Facebook and someone had shared the following article. I think it's worth reading and thinking about. Environmentalists (or those who think they are) will not like what he's saying. How do they like the wilderness areas being just dead trees?

Whatever choices we make, (and just think what it means to wildlife), in the midst of this tragedy, we can't fix it right now, and his ideas don't answer to all the fires like the one that it is believed started in a homeless camp (we can do something about those as they have proliferated with little control). We also will have a hard time stopping arson as it's one of those actions that impact the human community and not just forests. There are things we can do if we have the will. Like putting local power lines underground. It's expensive. So is what we are seeing happen right now. I just hope we have some of the guts of the generations that came before us. I hope. 

Welcome to the (Unnecessary) Mega Fire Generation!

By Del Albright, Fire Chief (retired)

25-30 years ago, a 10,000 – 15,000-acre fire was a huge conflagration. Now we are experiencing 100,000 - 400,000-acre fires regularly.

I would like to offer an explanation based on over 30 years of government service including 26 years with the fire service, as well as beginning my fire career with a Master’s Degree in Prescribed Burning.

NO! It is not just global warming (climate change).

NO! It is not understaffed or ill-trained firefighters.

NO! It is not Mamma Nature getting even with our urban sprawl.

NO! It is not careless campers or hunters.

NO! It is not kids with matches.

YES! It is a combination of many things but more importantly, it is the LACK of forest/brushland/grassland management caused by wacko, radical enviro groups imposing excessive regulations, and restrictions on our ability to keep the west safe from wildfire.

Here are the key takeaways from this article:

· The lack of controlled burning/prescribed fire is directly responsible for the huge build-ups of flammable fuels.

· The end of maintaining fire breaks (roads) in forested areas leaves firefighters with inadequate access.

· The end of logging and good timber management as we used to know it is directly responsible for forests that are now tinderboxes.

Let us take a deeper look at these reasons.

CONTROLLED BURNS:

Going back to Native Americans in America, controlled burning (later called Prescribed Fire) have saved the west from huge conflagrations. By burning large brush fields and using fire to thin understory brush in the forest, we kept the big boomers at bay. We had programs designed to reduce “chaparral” in the west, thus limiting the ability for fires to get ragingly out of control.

In the early days of settling the west, ranchers regularly burned brush fields to make way for grazing and wildlife habitat.

This entire program of controlled or prescribed fire is a near thing of the past.

ROADS/FIRE BREAKS:

When I started with the fire service in the 1970’s we had regularly scheduled building, repairing, cleaning, and maintaining fire breaks around rural housing areas and developments. We kept fire roads cleared and usable for large fire equipment. We had access to remote areas which allowed us to attack fires when they were small. Roads provided a place to start a safe backfire. Oh, backfires! Another art nearly lost today due to liability and excessive oversight by the media and radical enviro groups who have political power.

LOGGING/TIMBER MANAGEMENT:

If you live in the Pacific Northwest, you probably remember sawmills. They are all gone for the most part because the radical environmental rules have made logging a financial nightmare. You wonder why wood is so expensive these days? We cannot log; that’s why. Yes, there are still a few holdouts logging here and there. But the feds are hampered by so many regulations and restrictions that our timber stands either get bug infested or succumb to wildfires.

We used to thin forest stands regularly – fire crews, inmate crews, machines that munch up underbrush, and yes, even pesticides to keep the forests healthy. Now, you can pick about any state in the west with timber and you see more bug-killed trees than live ones!

In our western grasslands, the lack of proactive landscape management in desert states has resulted in vast acreages dominated by a cheatgrass-fire cycle that is ruining wildlife habitat and causing bigger and more damaging conflagrations. This invasive species needs to be managed or these western deserts will never be the same – nor will our wildlife species.

In timber areas, for the most part, we no longer control pests and bugs; we no longer do any substantial thinning of the underbrush; logging is kaput, and forest management is a façade. It is not the fault of our public land managers; it is the imposition of radical regulation. It is politics.

SUMMARY:

Public land management is no longer based on science but rather politics. The same goes for wildlife management. Radical enviro groups lobby politicians (and raise untold dollars in support) to STOP all the things that will make our forests, brushlands, and deserts safe and healthy. It is ironic (and pathetic) because for all their efforts to “save the world” they are destroying our world, piece by piece.

To see fires in California reach half a million acres is beyond belief!

What can we do? We must STOP the silliness and over-regulation and allow sound public land management, never forgetting that public lands are FOR the public. Help good politicians get elected and stay in office. Recall bad politicians. Do everything in your power to negate, refute, or STOP the radical movement that has stagnated management of our resources.

Things will get better. Life on this planet has always been fraught with perils and the risks of nature. I grew up with a fire threatening my family's small ranch. I remember walking down the gravel road to catch the school bus, looking back at the red glow and wondering if my home would be there when I got back off the bus. My father, with some of the neighbors started a backfire (which displeased the local firefighters who weren't nearly as numerous back then and were only protecting homes). It turned the fire back into the wilderness behind our property (although some trees were destroyed on my parents' land anyway).  

I will not share photos of the fires. There are plenty of those out there. I am sticking to some barrel cactus photos from this week. Something positive, as nature can be very cruel, but it also is beautiful. Do we want to tame it or let it have its way no matter what that means? In the past, man has gone for taming as much as has been possible. Certainly droughts, abrupt weather changes, earthquakes, volcanoes, etc. have been beyond human control to alter. We have had to live with them or sometimes move on. When we can do something though, do we have the will?

Update: A reader gave me this link in comments. She said it's long but worth reading. I agree and decided to add it here.

They know how to prevent megafires-why-wont-anybody-listen