March 28, 2024
California's new wildfire reality fuels calls for changes
SACRAMENTO - As California grasps for ways to prevent the increasingly intense blazes seen in recent years, the idea of letting fire burn in the state’s wildlands, instead of trying to prevent it, is gaining currency, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

Experts say allowing natural fire to run its course or setting controlled burns, when people and property aren’t threatened, will reduce hazardous vegetation and make future wildfires far less catastrophic. One of the main reasons the situation has gotten so bad, experts say, is that decades of fire suppression has broken the cycle of fire that’s inherent to forests, creating an unnatural buildup of tinder.

As much as 50 percent of the land consumed by the Ferguson Fire hasn’t burned since record-keeping began in the 1930s, according to the U.S. Forest Service. Historically, conifer forests in the Sierra burned as much as every 10 years.

While federal and state land managers have long dabbled in planned fire, they have yet to fully embrace it, even as last year’s devastation in Wine Country and this summer’s deadly inferno in Redding are hastening the call for change.

“There can’t be a more compelling and urgent case to do this,” Martin said. “The only way we can get out of this problem we’re in is to have a different relationship with fire.”

When the Ferguson Fire ignited just west of Yosemite in the Sierra National Forest on July 13, Forest Service officials made the call to aggressively attack it. The towns of El Portal and Mariposa were nearby as was the national park with its glacial canyons and towering waterfalls, and 4 million annual tourists.

“There were no questions asked,” said District Ranger Denise Tolmie. “It’s a full suppression fire.”

But 40 miles to the east, where another blaze is burning, the same Forest Service officials made a different decision, one that suggests at least an emerging interest in new tactics.

When Tolmie got the report of the lightning-ignited fire near the headwaters of the San Joaquin River on June 11, she decided not to send a strike team to stop it. The Lions Fire was burning a comfortable distance from roads and communities, so she’d let it go.

“We felt the fire effects would be positive,” Tolmie said.

The 9,000-acre fire has since cleared vast stands of dead and dying red fir, which left around would have increased fuel loads in the forest and added risk for homes in nearby Mammoth Lakes, according to the Forest Service. The fire also has helped boost forest health, officials say, by restoring nutrients in the soil and creating space for new plant life.

Tolmie said she’d like to see more of the ecosystem and fuel-reduction benefits of such strategies, but hurdles stand in the way.

First and foremost is ensuring that fire, when allowed to burn or intentionally set, is safe. The Forest Service has tight restrictions on when blazes like the Lions Fire can run their course. The fire has to be an adequate distance from cities and towns, for example, and enough firefighters must be on hand to monitor the situation.

The fire also has to overcome community resistance. The Smoky-the-Bear mentality pushed during nearly a century of fire suppression has left much of the public hostile to burns. This mind-set has hardened as more people have staked out homes in California’s wilderness areas.

Then there’s the smoke. Many parts of the state are suffering poor air quality, including basins around Yosemite. Residents and local air regulators don’t want more smoke in the sky than necessary.

On the Lions Fire, the Forest Service is trying to limit the number of smoky days by helping the blaze run its course more quickly. Firefighters have been sent in to light fire to tracts of land at the head of the burn.

“We’re trying to build ourselves up to do more fire across the landscape,” Tolmie said. “There’s just a lot we have to take into account before burning.”

This year, the Forest Service has set fire to about 60,000 acres in California, officials say. The state Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or Cal Fire, which also manages a portion of California wildlands, burned another 19,000 acres over the past year.
Story Date: August 17, 2018
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