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Deserts are generally uninhabitable by their very nature, but these persistent fires are primarily due to lack of proper underbrush care and other preventative

Deserts are generally uninhabitable by their very nature, but these persistent fires are primarily due to lack of proper underbrush care and other preventative measures. California fires are a classic case of "We tried nothing and we're out of ideas!", speaking as a former Californian I honestly think the faster solution at this point is for enough of the state to burn down that pretending the problem doesn't exist is no longer good enough.

JumpCrisscross 2y ago
> Deserts are generally uninhabitable by their very nature Deserts don’t have wildfires. (EDIT: They do!)
- annoyingnoob 2y ago
  https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-07-31/york-fire-in-mojave-desert-grows-to-77000-acres https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-07-31/york-fir...
  - JumpCrisscross 2y ago
    I stand corrected! I guess the rains caused the desert to burn?
    - rurp 2y ago
      Lightning strikes and humans are probably the most common causes for fires in the desert. Most desert areas in the US are a lot more lush than the blank sand dunes many people think of as desert. Usually there are a lot of bushes and grasses, and higher elevations can pine, juniper, oak, and other trees.
      - onecommentman 2y ago
        But PJ high desert areas don’t have the same level of destructive wildfires as, say, the Ponderosa pines found at higher elevations or cottonwood bosques. My impression is the fire load per acre in PJ is much lower and the fires are just not destructive. Adobe/masonry construction probably helps too, as does lower density urbanization. Probably easier to fight such fires too. (Limited experience)
    - deleted 2y ago
      [deleted]
- rurp 2y ago
  Deserts absolutely have wildfires, and are even pretty common in California deserts. The second largest fire in the state for 2023 was the York Fire in the Mojave Desert[0]. There have been many other sizable desert fires in recent years as well. As with many other landscapes, climate change, drought, and aquifer depletion have made deserts increasingly vulnerable to large wildfires. [0]https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-07-31/york-fire-in-mojave-desert-grows-to-77000-acres https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-07-31/york-fir...
- jandrewrogers 2y ago
  A lot of the risk in the high desert of the western US is the ubiquitous sagebrush. Old growth sagebrush is basically a short tree and it burns pretty easily and very hot (excellent wood for grilling though). Fortunately, the large plants of the high desert (sagebrush, juniper, etc) grow very slowly. When lightning or people start a fire in the desert, both relatively rare, they tend to be limited by two things. First, if areas that have been burned out sometime in the last century or two, the plants haven’t grown back enough to really support a proper wildfire, so it is easier to contain. Prior burns are a natural firebreak and they last a really long time. Second, the high desert of the US is an active volcanic province. There are fresh basalt flows everywhere, some less than a thousand years old, in the terrain. It takes tens of thousands of years for these to support enough plant life to carry a burn. These natural barriers place limits on where they can go and how far they can get. The desert does have fires but they tend to be muted and often self-limiting because large contiguous regions of dense fuel aren’t as common.
linotype 2y ago
As a current Californian we really don’t need that right now.
- Dalewyn 2y ago
  I'm speaking of the reality of man. The path of least resistance will be the path that is taken, and so far it (apparently) makes more sense to cry "Climate Change!" than actually do something about preventing these fires. If it takes enough of the state burning down for another path to gain lesser resistance, then so be it. That is certainly going to happen if California keeps going down the same path. I'm certainly not pleased that a piece of my childhood is burning down in unprecedented terms.
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
mulmen 2y ago
This is wrong. California may not do enough to mitigate fire damage but they are certainly doing more than nothing.

JumpCrisscross 2y ago

> Deserts are generally uninhabitable by their very nature Deserts don’t have wildfires. (EDIT: They do!)

annoyingnoob 2y ago
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-07-31/york-fire-in-mojave-desert-grows-to-77000-acres https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-07-31/york-fir...
- JumpCrisscross 2y ago
  I stand corrected! I guess the rains caused the desert to burn?
  - rurp 2y ago
    Lightning strikes and humans are probably the most common causes for fires in the desert. Most desert areas in the US are a lot more lush than the blank sand dunes many people think of as desert. Usually there are a lot of bushes and grasses, and higher elevations can pine, juniper, oak, and other trees.
    - onecommentman 2y ago
      But PJ high desert areas don’t have the same level of destructive wildfires as, say, the Ponderosa pines found at higher elevations or cottonwood bosques. My impression is the fire load per acre in PJ is much lower and the fires are just not destructive. Adobe/masonry construction probably helps too, as does lower density urbanization. Probably easier to fight such fires too. (Limited experience)
  - deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
rurp 2y ago
Deserts absolutely have wildfires, and are even pretty common in California deserts. The second largest fire in the state for 2023 was the York Fire in the Mojave Desert[0]. There have been many other sizable desert fires in recent years as well. As with many other landscapes, climate change, drought, and aquifer depletion have made deserts increasingly vulnerable to large wildfires. [0]https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-07-31/york-fire-in-mojave-desert-grows-to-77000-acres https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-07-31/york-fir...
jandrewrogers 2y ago
A lot of the risk in the high desert of the western US is the ubiquitous sagebrush. Old growth sagebrush is basically a short tree and it burns pretty easily and very hot (excellent wood for grilling though). Fortunately, the large plants of the high desert (sagebrush, juniper, etc) grow very slowly. When lightning or people start a fire in the desert, both relatively rare, they tend to be limited by two things. First, if areas that have been burned out sometime in the last century or two, the plants haven’t grown back enough to really support a proper wildfire, so it is easier to contain. Prior burns are a natural firebreak and they last a really long time. Second, the high desert of the US is an active volcanic province. There are fresh basalt flows everywhere, some less than a thousand years old, in the terrain. It takes tens of thousands of years for these to support enough plant life to carry a burn. These natural barriers place limits on where they can go and how far they can get. The desert does have fires but they tend to be muted and often self-limiting because large contiguous regions of dense fuel aren’t as common.

linotype 2y ago

As a current Californian we really don’t need that right now.

Dalewyn 2y ago
I'm speaking of the reality of man. The path of least resistance will be the path that is taken, and so far it (apparently) makes more sense to cry "Climate Change!" than actually do something about preventing these fires. If it takes enough of the state burning down for another path to gain lesser resistance, then so be it. That is certainly going to happen if California keeps going down the same path. I'm certainly not pleased that a piece of my childhood is burning down in unprecedented terms.

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

mulmen 2y ago

This is wrong. California may not do enough to mitigate fire damage but they are certainly doing more than nothing.