3 ms·

This article makes it seem like this is a novel concept? California/CalFire has been doing this forever.

rch 3y ago
They've intended to do this consistently, but confounding factors like air quality guidelines have prevented them from keeping up with the required rate of controlled burns. I can't recall exactly how far behind they are, but if they're permitted to put aside those constraints (unlikely) it'll still take decades at this point.
- Plasmoid 3y ago
  There's also fire safety too. If you do a controlled burn when it's too dry then you've just started a massive wildfire.
  - bluGill 3y ago
    Only if you haven't been keeping up with your controlled burns. If you are keeping up even a dry year shouldn't get out of control.
- vwcx 3y ago
  Air quality issues are two-fold: the (legal) mandated limits and the popular concerns. The latter are often the blocker on small/regional burn seasons. It's late winter/early spring, land manager is ready to go, and the nearby town doesn't love the smoke.
  - bcrosby95 3y ago
    I wish people could convince these towns that the smoke will come one way or another.
kurthr 3y ago
Yep, I find most of the discussion around it profoundly uninformed. California averages (corrected 127 thousand) --1.8Million-- acres of prescribed burns a year. They were happening in the 1980s and 90s (when there were mistakes that cost lives), and have been since the 1870s. Unfortunately, the list of prescribed burns is now only available from ARCGIS and the simple list appears gone: https://data.ca.gov/dataset/prescribed-burns https://data.ca.gov/dataset/prescribed-burns Here's a paper published in 2020. https://www.mdpi.com/2571-6255/3/3/44 https://www.mdpi.com/2571-6255/3/3/44 Prescribed Burns in California: A Historical Case Study of the Integration of Scientific Research and Policy It's a complex issue so there's lots of reasons why prescribed burns aren't done more, but they have been done for years, and there are new laws to make it easier. The challenges include: Air Quality Laws, Insurance Liability, Federal control of National Forest, and the high population in the Wildland Urban Interface and large number of houses near areas that need fire control. People do build houses in areas called Devil's Canyon and Black Hill, but at the same time large areas of grass and scrub have burned annually each year in Lake County so burns there obviously don't help. https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-10-07/newsom-signs-fire-law-paving-way-for-more-prescribed-burns https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-10-07/newsom-s... Every article seems like a chance to spread misinformation with lazy analysis and conspiracy theories about Jewish Space Lasers, Climate Change Denial, or that controlled burns haven't been part of California fire control for all of living memory. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2022/10/28/fact-check-california-uses-controlled-burns-reduce-fire-intensity-climate-change/10588334002/ https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2022/10/28/fac...
- hyperpape 3y ago
  > Califonia averages 1.8Million acres of prescribed burns a year. That is the total acreage that burned. Mostly wildfires. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_California_wildfires https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_California_wildfires Apparently, prescribed burns are about 125,000 acres/year: https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/our-work/programs/prescribed-burning/about https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/our-work/programs/prescribed-burning/....
nitwit005 3y ago
Yep, it's a terrible article.
- jeffbee 3y ago
  Gosh, and such a promising start naming their site "freethink" I assumed it was going to be wall-to-wall pulitzer stuff.

rch 3y ago

They've intended to do this consistently, but confounding factors like air quality guidelines have prevented them from keeping up with the required rate of controlled burns. I can't recall exactly how far behind they are, but if they're permitted to put aside those constraints (unlikely) it'll still take decades at this point.

Plasmoid 3y ago
There's also fire safety too. If you do a controlled burn when it's too dry then you've just started a massive wildfire.
- bluGill 3y ago
  Only if you haven't been keeping up with your controlled burns. If you are keeping up even a dry year shouldn't get out of control.
vwcx 3y ago
Air quality issues are two-fold: the (legal) mandated limits and the popular concerns. The latter are often the blocker on small/regional burn seasons. It's late winter/early spring, land manager is ready to go, and the nearby town doesn't love the smoke.
- bcrosby95 3y ago
  I wish people could convince these towns that the smoke will come one way or another.

kurthr 3y ago

Yep, I find most of the discussion around it profoundly uninformed. California averages (corrected 127 thousand) --1.8Million-- acres of prescribed burns a year. They were happening in the 1980s and 90s (when there were mistakes that cost lives), and have been since the 1870s. Unfortunately, the list of prescribed burns is now only available from ARCGIS and the simple list appears gone: https://data.ca.gov/dataset/prescribed-burns https://data.ca.gov/dataset/prescribed-burns Here's a paper published in 2020. https://www.mdpi.com/2571-6255/3/3/44 https://www.mdpi.com/2571-6255/3/3/44 Prescribed Burns in California: A Historical Case Study of the Integration of Scientific Research and Policy It's a complex issue so there's lots of reasons why prescribed burns aren't done more, but they have been done for years, and there are new laws to make it easier. The challenges include: Air Quality Laws, Insurance Liability, Federal control of National Forest, and the high population in the Wildland Urban Interface and large number of houses near areas that need fire control. People do build houses in areas called Devil's Canyon and Black Hill, but at the same time large areas of grass and scrub have burned annually each year in Lake County so burns there obviously don't help. https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-10-07/newsom-signs-fire-law-paving-way-for-more-prescribed-burns https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-10-07/newsom-s... Every article seems like a chance to spread misinformation with lazy analysis and conspiracy theories about Jewish Space Lasers, Climate Change Denial, or that controlled burns haven't been part of California fire control for all of living memory. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2022/10/28/fact-check-california-uses-controlled-burns-reduce-fire-intensity-climate-change/10588334002/ https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2022/10/28/fac...

hyperpape 3y ago
> Califonia averages 1.8Million acres of prescribed burns a year. That is the total acreage that burned. Mostly wildfires. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_California_wildfires https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_California_wildfires Apparently, prescribed burns are about 125,000 acres/year: https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/our-work/programs/prescribed-burning/about https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/our-work/programs/prescribed-burning/....

nitwit005 3y ago

Yep, it's a terrible article.

jeffbee 3y ago
Gosh, and such a promising start naming their site "freethink" I assumed it was going to be wall-to-wall pulitzer stuff.