As an active firefighter, three weeks on the Santa Cruz Mountains fire, CZU Complex, and home from the Bear Fire, renamed the North Complex Fire in Butte County, I saw many homes burn, along with thousands of acres of forestland, for no other reason than pure neglect — a negligence to clear, clean, thin and trim the dense underbrush that accumulates in forest habitats. Recognizing deteriorating forest health, some environmentalists support selective logging. California, which is having its worst wildfire season on record, accounts for nearly 4,000 square miles of that tally, and  two more months of the windiest, driest months of the season are yet to come. The two run a landscaping company and spent most of the summer thinning a 400-acre swath of forest near two rural neighborhoods, a move local officials believed would help protect homes when a wildfire inevitably erupted. "This should not be a surprise. Others blame California's forest-management policies. Naturally caused forest fires are usually started by dry lightning where little to no rain accompanies a stormy weather disturbance. It clears away the unhealthy trees to allow others to grow in its place. Firefighters on the front lines cannot respond quickly enough as superfires burning through millions of trees killed by drought and insect infestations leapfrog miles in a single evening, fanned by hot, dry winds forecast to last several more months. Selective logging does not release massive amounts of air pollution and it generates revenue to help defray the costs of forest management. We've been seeing this ramping up over the 21st century. The fire also destroyed at least 278 mixed commercial-residential buildings, according to firefighters. 4 of 4 Orange light falls on thick underbrush on the forest floor as the Woodward Fire burns along Bear Valley Trail in Point Reyes Station, serving somewhat like a controlled burn as a … Also, “controlled fires” sometimes get out of control, particularly when there is so much fuel in the forest. — oregonlive, "Gates couple took refuge in river as a wildfire consumed their home," 11 Sep. 2020 The 274-square-mile fire had already burned down at least 60 of his neighbor's homes, and Slocum … Surface fires actually serve to protect the forest from more harmful fires by removing underbrush and dead materials that would burn quickly and at high temperatures. Many of the conifers, or cone-bearing trees, that thrive in this region require fire to release their seeds. But after decades of federal “management,” we now often have 300 to 900 trees in that same amount of space! In the past two years, ... dead trees, and thick underbrush. Without regular fires to clear out underbrush, forests quickly became overgrown, creating the conditions for more extreme fires. Natives used fires extensively and changed the face of North America by modifying the landscape to favor certain plants and animals. The California National Guard has also deployed 1,300 troops to assist with firefighting. Thick smoke from multiple forest fires shrouds iconic … "The idea that some selective thinning is going to stop a really hot, hot fire – well that doesn't seem like that's the case. We have not just surpassed 2018 but we have blown past it, and we have four more months to go.". Others suggest that forest managers massively increase the number of “prescribed burns,” where fires are intentionally lit in hopes of reducing underbrush and thinning the forest. MacDonald said. MacDonald said of particular concern is how the Creek Fire burned: Despite a concerted effort over the past few years to thin the forest and cut down trees and brush near homes, the flames raced through those areas without slowing significantly, even in areas that burned as recently as 2016. Now Clinton and Congress have three options. These frequent fires burned at low intensities that cleared out the brush without harming large trees. 1. But prescribed burns alone are unlikely to fix the problem. California's weather is hotter and drier. The Clinton administration is pushing to create new National Monuments and a roadless plan for federal forests, both of which will make fire management more difficult because they create de facto wilderness areas where needed thinning may not be allowed. They are expensive, release massive amounts of air pollution and can be performed only on a small scale under the right conditions. SHAVER LAKE, Calif. – Standing atop a ridge line, Ray Slocum watched the flames from the Creek Fire creep closer to his family's longtime home snuggled into a small valley along the Dry Creek. A citation to a study noting that the plan was inconsistent with managing fire-frequent forests was also added to this post. Swain said part of the problem is the way fire was demonized during the 20th century, including low-intensity wildfires that naturally clear out the underbrush of ecosystems. Fires consume larger swaths of forests worldwide, even in equatorial Africa, which does not have North America’s history of systematic fire suppression (and subsequent accumulation of underbrush). Ponderosa pine is a large coniferous (cone bearing and evergreen) tree. Indigenous people routinely burned land to drive, prey, clear underbrush and provide pastures. Viewing the devastation:California ablaze: Striking satellite imagery shows how the fires are unfolding, "Fire after fire keeps hitting the record books," said Dan Berlant, a spokesman for Cal Fire, which has more than 6,100 full-time and about 2,600 seasonal workers battling the blazes. A war against fire. When first encountered by Europeans, many ecosystems were the result of repeated fires every one to three years, resulting in the replacement of forests with grassland or savanna, or opening up the forest by removing undergrowth. The death toll from the Northern California fire known as Camp Fire sets a gruesome state record, because many more people have settled on the forest's edge. Forest fires are the way nature replenishes, and expands its growth, by turning overgrowth into useful chemicals to feed regrowth. There are times when it may even return nutrients to the soil. It's like that old movie Groundhog Day.". Instead, the politicians…, In 2007, Mike and Chantell Sackett broke ground on a lot near scenic Priest Lake, Idaho, where they planned to build their dream home. For most people, forest fire is synonymous with disaster. "This has gone way past the point of asking 'Are we seeing it?'" NPS. "There may be some relief, but it's months away.". The accumulated wood fuels hotter fires and serves as a ladder, allowing flames to climb into the tree canopy and destroy larger trees. It works to clean the forest floor of debris that can develop over time through the natural growing processes of the trees. By clearing scrub and underbrush, fires can make way for new grasses, herbs, and shrubs that provide food and habitat for animals and birds. For example, before federal involvement 20 to 55 ponderosa pines grew per acre of forest. Fire was a frequent visitor to ponderosa pine forests, clearing out underbrush and keeping forests less dense. Experts say a confluence of factors are driving the massive fires this year: a hot, dry summer, heavily forested mountains full of dead trees and an increasing number of homes in those forests. "We're only in September and we're already over 2.5 million acres. California ablaze: Striking satellite imagery shows how the fires are unfolding, California sets record as wildfires torch more than 2M acres this year, Thousands fled Paradise ahead of Camp Fire, Your California Privacy Rights/Privacy Policy. It…, ©2021 Competitive Enterprise Institute | Privacy Policy, Trump Administration Denies Alaska Pebble Mine Permit, Denying Economic Opportunity to the State and the Nation, Man-made Policies, Not Man-Made Climate Change, Fueling Wildfires, Says Myron Ebell, Thirteen Years and Counting: Idaho Case Illustrates How Regulatory Enforcement Can Go Awry. Why Finland is so good at handling forest fires. Then entered federal management. For example, ponderosa pine forests burned every five to 15 years in blazes ignited by lightning strikes or by Native Americans. The scope is unprecedented: Six of the top 20 wildfires in California's history have happened this year, according to Cal Fire, the state fire agency. Unfortunately, money won't bring back what was lost to the flames, nor will it prevent history from repeating itself. You may think that dry weather is the cause, but think again. Wildfires cause tens of billions of dollars in damage to homes and other property every year, threaten drinking water supplies by clogging lakes and rivers with ash, and fill the sky with particles that have made California's air some of the dirtiest in the world. Instead, the fire blasted through the area and now firefighters are struggling to contain the flames they say may burn for another month. Forest fires how to remove the low growing underbrush that exists underneath the canopy. "I think we are going to find out, unfortunately, whether any of these fire mitigation efforts within the forests can actually help reduce these fires," he said. They could continue with the existing policy – but that only promises future devastation followed by emergency aid. It went so fast, the amount of ground it covered, I've never seen anything like that.". At a low intensity, flames can clean up debris and underbrush on the forest floor, add nutrients to the soil, and … While in Idaho, the president joked that when he first arrived in Washington, “There was a lot of underbrush that needed cutting there.” If the president will not heed the advice of experts and environmentalists for the forests, perhaps he will heed his own. Slocum and colleague Matt Marvin, 27, witnessed that firsthand on the Creek Fire. The Trump administration, via the Army Corps of Engineers, today denied a permit to the Pebble Mine in Alaska, to the great detriment of economic…, The catastrophic wildfires raging up and down the West Coast should force a radical reversal of 30 years of disastrous government policies. Fires in 1934, 1942, 1943, 1944, 1950 and 1963 also vastly exceeded Camp Fire’s size. That has left Cal Fire stretching its own resources thin, and the agency is now paying local fire departments to staff state fire stations. But it's not clear if federal forest managers have heard the message. Natural fire is an important part of the ecology of Western forests. A controlled burn is a wildfire that people set intentionally for a specific purpose. Wildfires thin forest canopies and undergrowth, allowing sunlight to reach the forest floor and a new generation of seedlings to grow. President Clinton announced that he would help make amends by doling out $ 150 million in emergency assistance. The Creek Fire is one of more than 100 major fires that have burned almost 7,000 square miles across 13 Western states, from Oregon to Colorado, Utah and Arizona. If they investigated, they would learn that historically, forests were more open and healthier. In response, state officials are increasing spending to battle the blazes and are now routinely calling in the help of the world's largest aerial firefighting tanker, a converted 747 known as the Global Supertanker. This post has also been updated to clarify that wildfire fuels such as underbrush increased after Clinton’s Northwest Forest Plan, though logging can, in some instances, increase the risk of forest fires. "But this was a worst-case scenario. Not only did federal agencies not start fires as Native Americans did, they worked hard to quickly stamp out all of Mother Nature's fires. And more land is burning each year now than it did in decades past. It's not surprising that more than 60 percent of federal forests are now either unhealthy or deteriorating, according to a U.S. Forest Service report. One reason pre-federalized forests were healthier was frequent fire. Or if a fire does break out on privately managed forest land, it is often extinguished more quickly and easily because the trees aren’t so close together, and the underbrush has been cleared away. Forest fires help to clean the forest floor. • intentional small, contained surfaces fires created to remove flammable small trees and underbrush in the highest-risk forest areas wilderness fire management the fire management technique of thinning out forests, creating natural fire borders such as water ways or rock walls, and creating large spaces to hold water such as meadows and ponds. For example, the feds burned 400 homes near Los Alamos, N.M., this spring in a “controlled burn” that escaped. Cal Fire normally depends heavily on thousands of inmates from state prisons to help fight fires, but coronavirus concerns have limited their deployments this year. WASHINGTON — The nation has watched while lives have been lost, homes destroyed and millions of acres of our national forests charred this summer. Hint: It’s not because of raking. Such rules make it more difficult to deploy prescribed burns, which are controlled burns designed to cull all of the underbrush in forests to lessen the chance of massive fires, Zybach noted. Since then, the Forest Service has increased the total acreage where it has allowed natural fires to burn from an annual average of about 10,000 acres to 247,000 in 2016 and 130,000 this year. Uncontrolled fires often started accidentally by people, rampage and decimate forests. But … But there are some kinds of forest fires that actually benefit the environment. In 1936, fires statewide burned nearly 800,000 acres, five times the size of Camp Fire. The people who live in and around the forests are paying the highest price for this mismanagement. fires that typically burn only the forest's underbrush and do little damage to mature trees. A hundred years later we have forests full of dead and dying trees, creating unhealthy tinderbox conditions. 'Extreme behavior': California sets record as wildfires torch more than 2M acres this year. You can thank the federal government for decades of fire suppression and anti-logging polices that promoted raging fires in forests of crowded, dry and dead trees. — Stuart Palley, National Geographic, "Witness California's record blazes through the eyes of frontline firefighters," 16 Sep. 2020 Tripoli said they were surrounded by burning underbrush, vegetation and trees. However, California … ", 'Like the gates of hell opened up':Thousands fled Paradise ahead of Camp Fire. The worst wildfire season on record before this year was 2018, when about 3,000 square miles burned and 100 people died. Published in the News and Observer (Raleigh, NC) , Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service. Not exactly a good option.