West Coast Fire Thread

[ohio jones]

Cow Valley Fire in Malheur County

73,727 acres (According to the Oregon Fires and Hotspots Dashboard)
0% contained
2 structures burned

Another example of effective zoning, where fires are only allowed in relatively undeveloped areas.

[Soloist]

Cow Valley Fire in Malheur County

73,727 acres (According to the Oregon Fires and Hotspots Dashboard)
0% contained
2 structures burned

Another example of effective zoning, where fires are only allowed in relatively undeveloped areas.

But… think of the cows!

[Ken]

Cow Valley Fire in Malheur County

73,727 acres (According to the Oregon Fires and Hotspots Dashboard)
0% contained
2 structures burned

Another example of effective zoning, where fires are only allowed in relatively undeveloped areas.

You laugh but it is true. Most of the really devastating fires in the west in recent years were because residential development was allowed to sprawl in fire prone wildlands areas and then was built in the worst way possible to prevent fires (winding cul-de-sac roads, wood shake roofs, houses nestled into the trees with no defendable space, brush allowed to grow, etc.). And then there is the whole separate issue of public lands management that has allowed enormous reservoirs of fuel to accumulate in forests turning them into tinderboxes. That is about land use as well.

Although in the case of Malheur County, the reason why there are so few structures is because there not much water. Much of it is desert. So it is one of the emptiest counties in the entire lower 48 states.

[Ernie]

Could the zoning discussion perhaps go to the zoning thread?

[Ken]

Could the zoning discussion perhaps go to the zoning thread?

There are basically two reasons for why wildlands fires in the west are a bigger problem today than for previous generations:

1. Land use (residential encroachment into wild lands and forest management practices)
2. Climate change

Take those topics off the table and there isn't much left to talk about except to rubberneck at fires when they happen.

[RZehr]

Could the zoning discussion perhaps go to the zoning thread?

There are basically two reasons for why wildlands fires in the west are a bigger problem today than for previous generations:

1. Land use (residential encroachment into wild lands and forest management practices)
2. Climate change

Take those topics off the table and there isn't much left to talk about except to rubberneck at fires when they happen.

Balderdash.
3. Forest management philosophy

[barnhart]

What's the difference between forest management practices and Forest management philosophy?

[Ken]

What's the difference between forest management practices and Forest management philosophy?

Practices follow philosophy I suppose

[RZehr]

Previous philosophy was to spot fires as soon as possible and put them out as soon as possible. This saved vast forests and grasslands from becoming 100,000 acre infernos every time a fire got started. Sure, they didn’t always succeed in getting them out immediately, but that was their policy.
This also served to protect timber from being destroyed by fire, which could then grow and get logged.

Now, the philosophy is to allow remote fires to burn themselves out, and only protect the buildings, roads, people, etc.
And as long as the threat is relegated to remote areas, they are left alone.
Three reasons for this, and you can pick which you love best -
-It gives the climate change howlers something to point and howl about, and to blame all these fires on climate change; in other words, politics.
-The high cost of fighting fires. This cost has spiraled due to the privatization of wildland firefighting and the larger fire size. It cost a lot more to wait until a fire is huge instead of small, before putting it out. Every summer there are private companies recruiting young guys to work for them in the fire season. And the not too uncommon belief, is that the fires occasionally are ignored because until they are big, just to make more money fighting it.
-Occasional wild fires are actually important and good for the health of the forest ecosystem.

This change in philosophy from 30-40 years ago far outweighs land use and climate change implications combined.

[RZehr]

https://www.centraloregondaily.com/news ... 9575b.html