Dixie Fire
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The Forest Service spends billions of dollars fighting fires and implementing fuel treatments like logging and prescribed burns to reduce large wildfires. A further problem with the emphasis on logging the forest is that a significant acreage charred each year is in non-forested landscapes like sagebrush, grasslands, and chaparral where “fuel reductions” by logging have…
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During the 1992 Presidential Election cycle, political advisor James Carvel devised a brief and successful mantra that helped Bill Clinton win the election: “It’s the economy, stupid.” A similar mantra could characterize all large wildfires in the United States: “It’s the wind, stupid.” Although numerous elements contribute to fire spread, including slope, topography, fuel type,…
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A recent paper from the Forest Service predicts higher costs for fire fighting. The title: Economic Risks: Forest Service Estimates Costs of Fighting Wildfires in a Hotter Future. The Climate Financial Risk report published by the White House Office of Management and Budget provides some estimates. A middle-of-the-road estimate is a 42% increase in suppression…
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One continuously hears that “common sense” dictates that logging the forest to decrease “fuels” will eliminate or reduce large wildfires. Common sense also suggests the sun circles the earth, as anyone can quickly determine by watching it rise in the east and set in the west. However, as most of us know, the earth circles…
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A previously thinned portion of the area charred by the Dixie Fire, which despite active forest management across much of the burn area, became one of California’s largest blazes. Photo George Wuerthner The Wilderness Society (TWS), founded to promote wildland preservation, has shifted its mission and focus to promoting logging and other activities that destroy…
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The burnt-out Safeway Store in Paradise, California. Even a big parking lot with no fuel could not prevent the loss of this structure due to wind-blown embers. Photo George Wuerthner A new report from Headwaters Economics titled: “Missing the Mark: Effectiveness and Funding in Community Wildfire Risk Reduction” misses the mark in many ways regarding…
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High-severity blazes are critical to healthy forest ecosystems. Photo George Wuerthner I read yet another study circulated by UC Davis and doggedly promoted by the national media, encouraging more prescribed burning, thinning, and forest manipulation to reduce large high-severity blazes characterized as “bad.” The headline from UC Davis proclaims that scientists have documented, “Unprecedented…
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The Dixie Fire charred 900,000 acre plus acres in 2021. The fire burned through numerous portions of the forest that had been thinned or even clearcut as seen in this photo. Photo George Wuerthner A December 20th article in the New York Times declared California had a quiet fire season. The report explained why…
