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> close to the roads, which also tend to be those that burn more often That's a good point. Maybe we need to do a better job clearing the brush near roads? S

> close to the roads, which also tend to be those that burn more often That's a good point. Maybe we need to do a better job clearing the brush near roads? Seems like that's a common place for fires to start. One careless cigarette, or a malfunctioning wheel bearing that sparks, or a blowout that puts the rim on the pavement. All sorts of things can go wrong mechanically that will start a fire when things are dry enough. That's always what sort of amazes me. I gather there must be sparks all the time, but normally things are humid enough that it just goes out. When we get a few days of abnormally dry, hot weather, fires seem to start practically out of thin air. Everyone starts getting jittery wondering why people are starting fires. That can't really be the reason, right? The triggers are always there but usually amount to nothing, that has to be it.

lazide 4y ago
Well, in many ways, it’s good for them to catch on fire. You can think of a forest like a giant spring or capacitor. The more it grows (and doesn’t burn or rot), the more energy is in the system, and the bigger ‘sproing’, ‘zap’, ‘omg wildfire’ you’ll get. The forests evolved to deal with fire because fire is inevitable. Eventually, something always triggers the spring release or touches the capacitor, either people (pre-historic or modern), lightning, rocks falling and sparking, whatever. more frequent fires means less explosive fires, and more moderate ones. Which are easier for everything to recover from and less damaging. The Sierras have had humans setting fires for 10k+ years for this reason. The fires in Yosemite back in the 90s sterilized the ground for 10+ ft under the surface because it had been 100+ years since anyone had been allowed to burn anything there because of the western ‘fire bad’ mindset. And to be honest, our building and development practices don’t integrate with wildfire. We build too much, too into forests, and are too established. Pre-historic populations were nomadic and set fires on their way out for the year. Many of those areas still haven’t recovered to even have trees - just dense manzanita. It will be 100’s of years before they look anything like they did before. [http://npshistory.com/series/symposia/1/chap6.htm http://npshistory.com/series/symposia/1/chap6.htm] So we’re in a bit of a catch 22 in a lot of places. We have a huge volume of overgrown, dangerous forest ripe to explode in extremely damaging super hot fires, and we also need to get in the habit of letting things burn (when it won’t be catastrophic!) to reduce the accumulation of even more dangerous fuel.

lazide 4y ago

Well, in many ways, it’s good for them to catch on fire. You can think of a forest like a giant spring or capacitor. The more it grows (and doesn’t burn or rot), the more energy is in the system, and the bigger ‘sproing’, ‘zap’, ‘omg wildfire’ you’ll get. The forests evolved to deal with fire because fire is inevitable. Eventually, something always triggers the spring release or touches the capacitor, either people (pre-historic or modern), lightning, rocks falling and sparking, whatever. more frequent fires means less explosive fires, and more moderate ones. Which are easier for everything to recover from and less damaging. The Sierras have had humans setting fires for 10k+ years for this reason. The fires in Yosemite back in the 90s sterilized the ground for 10+ ft under the surface because it had been 100+ years since anyone had been allowed to burn anything there because of the western ‘fire bad’ mindset. And to be honest, our building and development practices don’t integrate with wildfire. We build too much, too into forests, and are too established. Pre-historic populations were nomadic and set fires on their way out for the year. Many of those areas still haven’t recovered to even have trees - just dense manzanita. It will be 100’s of years before they look anything like they did before. [http://npshistory.com/series/symposia/1/chap6.htm http://npshistory.com/series/symposia/1/chap6.htm] So we’re in a bit of a catch 22 in a lot of places. We have a huge volume of overgrown, dangerous forest ripe to explode in extremely damaging super hot fires, and we also need to get in the habit of letting things burn (when it won’t be catastrophic!) to reduce the accumulation of even more dangerous fuel.