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The fires are the worst in wet years, generally. It rains all winter, at least in the north part of the state, so lots of underbrush grows. It doesn't rain at a
by prewett 6y ago
The fires are the worst in wet years, generally. It rains all winter, at least in the north part of the state, so lots of underbrush grows. It doesn't rain at all in the summer, so all the brush dries out, providing fuel for the fires. But a bigger problem is that all the forests are wild, so over time all that underbrush grows up and then a fire starts and burns everything down. If there were regular fires than the underbrush would burn quickly leaving the trees unharmed.
- conductr 6y agoProbably looking at it similarly but slightly different lens. My take is that wet years trees don’t die off in large numbers. Drought years kill enough trees that the forest can ignite. The death of the trees a few years ago allowed the fast growing underbrush to become big enough to create the problem there. The dead trees remain to move the problem up. The living trees are engulfed by hot and long burning fires that surround.