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Reminder: Southern California's wildfire regime is not Northern California's. In NorCal, fire suppression makes fuel build up and forest fires burn too hot. In
by labster 6y ago
Reminder: Southern California's wildfire regime is not Northern California's. In NorCal, fire suppression makes fuel build up and forest fires burn too hot. In SoCal, chaparral wildland burns two to three times more often than it did pre-contact.
The main reason for the increase was that the old primary ignition source was lightning, while now there are lots of sources: catalytic converters getting too hot, discarded cigarettes, farming machine activity, and arsonists are a few. And of course, lightning implies higher humidity, unlike the offshore wind-driven fires we get now, so the intensity is worse now. Our recent lightning-sparked fires now seem like something of a departure from normal.
Controlled burns could help in SoCal, but I'm guessing only to reduce fuel load and create a temporary firebreak.
- donw 6y agoReally good points, and really calls into focus the need to empower individual counties to define their own fire policies (I think that's the right scale).
- labster 6y agoCounties would be good. Or something similar to our air quality districts, which are almost county-shaped with a few added merges and splits: https://ww3.arb.ca.gov/capcoa/dismap.htm https://ww3.arb.ca.gov/capcoa/dismap.htm
- core-questions 6y agoIn BC there are Fire Centres which have their own level of management: https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/safety/wildfire-status/about-bcws/wildfire-response/fire-centres https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/safety/wildfire-status/ab... The province is broken down by geography, terrain, and biome, so that specific resources and skillsets can be developed for each potential fire condition.