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So I guess The West Wing was right about this back in 2001 > Josh: Putting out fires isn't necessarily our policy? > Sam: Fire's good for the environment unde

So I guess The West Wing was right about this back in 2001 > Josh: Putting out fires isn't necessarily our policy? > Sam: Fire's good for the environment under certain circumstances. Forests have a natural cycle that requires purging burns to reinvigorate growth. > Josh: Someone just said that to you, right?[1] [1] http://westwingwiki.com/2014/04/season-3-episode-3-ways-means/ http://westwingwiki.com/2014/04/season-3-episode-3-ways-mean...

Izkata 6y ago
Article: > The Forest Service now admits that suppression backfired; excluding fire created an unnatural build-up of dry brush and overcrowding of trees that’s partly fueling today’s mega-fires. In a fantasy book from 1998, the third book in the Circle of Magic quartet [0], a green mage gets extremely pissed off at a fire mage who between him and his father had been preventing forest fires for decades. By the end of the book, just such a "mega-fire" formed in the built-up dry material on the forest floor. It kinda seems to me like this is a decently well-known effect that the government has been just been slow to acknowledge... [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circle_of_Magic https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circle_of_Magic
- brazzy 6y ago
  > It kinda seems to me like this is a decently well-known effect that the government has been just been slow to acknowledge... I think the problem is that with controlled fires, there is always a risk they could get out of control and burn down some properties, which will probably end the career of any politician who supported the decision/policy to not suppress that fire. Suppressing fires is safer in the short run, while creating problems in the long run.
  - jennasys 6y ago
    Maintenance burns getting out of control has happened several times in the past. That's the reason they changed what they called them from "controlled burns" to "prescribed burns". They got tired of the "That fire wasn't very controlled hahaha" jokes.

Izkata 6y ago

Article: > The Forest Service now admits that suppression backfired; excluding fire created an unnatural build-up of dry brush and overcrowding of trees that’s partly fueling today’s mega-fires. In a fantasy book from 1998, the third book in the Circle of Magic quartet [0], a green mage gets extremely pissed off at a fire mage who between him and his father had been preventing forest fires for decades. By the end of the book, just such a "mega-fire" formed in the built-up dry material on the forest floor. It kinda seems to me like this is a decently well-known effect that the government has been just been slow to acknowledge... [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circle_of_Magic https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circle_of_Magic

brazzy 6y ago
> It kinda seems to me like this is a decently well-known effect that the government has been just been slow to acknowledge... I think the problem is that with controlled fires, there is always a risk they could get out of control and burn down some properties, which will probably end the career of any politician who supported the decision/policy to not suppress that fire. Suppressing fires is safer in the short run, while creating problems in the long run.
- jennasys 6y ago
  Maintenance burns getting out of control has happened several times in the past. That's the reason they changed what they called them from "controlled burns" to "prescribed burns". They got tired of the "That fire wasn't very controlled hahaha" jokes.