3 ms·

other states have had far larger programs for much longer. The main issue is that California for many years chose to blame climate change alone for all their fi

other states have had far larger programs for much longer. The main issue is that California for many years chose to blame climate change alone for all their fires and now they have years of fuel built up that they have to get rid of. The article you posted even says California has already reduced the goal to only 400K and the deadline is 2025 and so far they are at less than a quarter of their goal

nouveaux 3y ago
Did you not notice that all of the pacific north west and the Rockies have been burning? All these other states that had prescribed burning also had massive wild fires.
- jwestbury 3y ago
  The PNW hasn't done much cultural and prescribed burning, either. Most of the west coast -- and most of the USFS-managed land in the country -- was operated under the 10am policy for most of the 20th century, leading to massive fuel buildups. I want to be clear, I'm not a climate change denialist -- climate change is real, and it's an imminent threat -- but forest fires are not exploding simply due to climate change. The reality is, once you've built up enough fuel, the only way out is by burning it. We no longer suppress wildfires to the same extent, and so they grow much larger. Also, for what it's worth, the PNW had wildfire season prior to the implementation of the 10am policy. In 1895, in Tacoma, WA, Mark Twain joked about the wildfire smoke: "Really, your scenery is wonderful. It is quite out of sight."[0] The reality is, our forests grew up alongside not only natural wildfires, but human-instigated wildfires for the purposes of ecosystem management by native tribes. We spent a couple hundred years trying to implement a "better" system, by ignoring the natural processes of the past 10,000 years. It shouldn't be a surprise that we're in a bad place now. 0. https://crosscut.com/2019/09/wildfires-are-burned-washingtons-history-and-our-headlines https://crosscut.com/2019/09/wildfires-are-burned-washington...

nouveaux 3y ago

Did you not notice that all of the pacific north west and the Rockies have been burning? All these other states that had prescribed burning also had massive wild fires.

jwestbury 3y ago
The PNW hasn't done much cultural and prescribed burning, either. Most of the west coast -- and most of the USFS-managed land in the country -- was operated under the 10am policy for most of the 20th century, leading to massive fuel buildups. I want to be clear, I'm not a climate change denialist -- climate change is real, and it's an imminent threat -- but forest fires are not exploding simply due to climate change. The reality is, once you've built up enough fuel, the only way out is by burning it. We no longer suppress wildfires to the same extent, and so they grow much larger. Also, for what it's worth, the PNW had wildfire season prior to the implementation of the 10am policy. In 1895, in Tacoma, WA, Mark Twain joked about the wildfire smoke: "Really, your scenery is wonderful. It is quite out of sight."[0] The reality is, our forests grew up alongside not only natural wildfires, but human-instigated wildfires for the purposes of ecosystem management by native tribes. We spent a couple hundred years trying to implement a "better" system, by ignoring the natural processes of the past 10,000 years. It shouldn't be a surprise that we're in a bad place now. 0. https://crosscut.com/2019/09/wildfires-are-burned-washingtons-history-and-our-headlines https://crosscut.com/2019/09/wildfires-are-burned-washington...