Can THIS Technique Control Wildfires?
Living with catastrophic wildfires has become an unfortunate reality for many residents of the United States, particularly in the West. And climate change has made the fire season even longer and more intense than previous years. Deliberately setting “good fires,” or prescribed burns, could help prevent future fires by clearing away unwanted brush and debris. But organizing controlled burns is a lot of work, and it has its risks, too.
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**Do other areas of the country use prescribed burns?
There’s a variety of techniques to prevent forest fires, including prescribed burns, where fires are deliberately set to help remove unwanted brush and debris. The safest way is to do it by hand with tools and crews, but that’s also very labor intensive and expensive. You can also use animals to nibble away at vegetation, too. But it’s not realistic to deal with millions of acres of potential fuel this way, so prescribed fire is the least expensive, best tool that managers can use to reduce vegetation.
In the Southeast, prescribed burns are used much more often -- even though they’re prone to less fires. People are just more used to the practice, more tolerant of smoke and it helps support the local timber industry. And the laws are different. If you do a burn in Florida, for example, and you’ve done it correctly, the state will step in and cover the liability if the burn gets out of control and does some damage. This doesn’t happen a lot, but it can happen. That's not the case in California, and it can make people scared to do prescribed burns -- even if they’re our best way to prevent future catastrophic fires.
**How much excess vegetation that’s potentially flammable does California have? **
As much as 20 million acres of federal, state or private land across the state has potential fuel that needs to be treated to reduce the risk of wildfires. That’s nearly two-thirds of the state’s 33 million acres of forests and trees.
*How much more harmful is wildfire smoke vs. prescribed fire smoke? And I don’t live in a region with wildfires. Why does this matter to me?*
A recent study concluded wildfire smoke contains three times as much pollution as smoke from prescribed fires. When Australia had a massive gigafire in 2020 -- it was its largest bushfire to date that incinerated over 1.5 million acres -- NASA said the smoke produced by that inferno traveled at least one full circuit around the globe. This creates serious health risks both locally and all around the world.
SOURCES
KQED Science Wildfire Coverage
www.kqed.org/science/category...
Danielle Venton
www.kqed.org/author/dventon
KQED News Wildfire Coverage
www.kqed.org/wildfires
USGS Wildland Fire Science
www.usgs.gov/special-topic/fire
U.S. Forest Service Wildland Fire
www.fs.usda.gov/managing-land...
Study: Airborne measurements of western U.S. wildfire emissions: Comparison with prescribed burning and air quality implications
agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.c...
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#controlledburns #wildfires
Пікірлер: 36
Even if you don't live in Australia or California - wildfires are having a huge impact on the global environment. More and more fire-prone regions are turning to the ancient indigenous practice of "prescribed burns" as a way to help prevent wildfires. But is this the most effective method? Would you be willing to live somewhere that sets fires on purpose?
Every year, the wildfires just seem to get worse and worse so if "good fires" can help, I say let's do it.
Yes, we should be doing prescribed fires. I grew up in the 80s/90s learning from forestry that controlled burns were the most effective tool we have for controlling wildfires. Why would we subjugate that to an "authority" whose stated purpose has nothing to do with land management and discourages using the most effective tool available?
@AboveTheNoise
3 жыл бұрын
Excellent question. As usual, money talks in our system of government.
It's almost like colonialism shut out the voices of people who knew what they were doing.....
@AboveTheNoise
3 жыл бұрын
Right? Geez, that never happens...
@Hansca
3 жыл бұрын
Here in Australia it was the Greenies who have shut out the voices of the people who knew what they were doing. Then they blame climate change for the bigger fires.
Hey All, I'm the producer of this episode and hope you found it informative about wildfire management! It's a complex topic and we couldn't squeeze everything we wanted to into the video, so let me know if you have any other questions. I'll do my best to answer them or refer you to other sources. Thanks! --Jenny
I live all the way on the east coast and a day or two after they were really bad in CA, OR, and WA, we had tons of fog from all the smoke. Crazy how it went all the way across the country! Can't imagine the air quality there...
@AboveTheNoise
3 жыл бұрын
Yeah, it was off the charts bad for several weeks. Like worse than the most polluted cities in the world. Everyone had to stay inside, buy HEPA air filters, and hope for the best for all those people with asthma and other respiratory or immune system issues. It was nuts.
@emilyfogerty6438
3 жыл бұрын
@@AboveTheNoise Omg! That's terrible! Especially with Covid going around it would lower your immune system even more!
@emilyfogerty6438
3 жыл бұрын
@@AboveTheNoise Actually, while it was at its peak, some people in my fb groups shared pics of the sky and I was like woah! If I didn't know what it was, it might be kinda pretty, but thinking about how much fire there needs to be to produce such a color... scary.
I think we should use good fires depending on the situation. Like a monthly or yearly thing. Scientists could study for which areas need good fires but aren't the best for them and which areas are great for them one month or year. Then next month or year when there done with the studies. The the areas which are bad for good for good firss will be taken care of by trucks and hand usage. Because every areas different and we can't choose one solution for every different place. Or we could go depending on each state instead of each area in a state.
@AboveTheNoise
3 жыл бұрын
Thanks for watching and sharing your perspective!
@cosmicwonderhoof133
3 жыл бұрын
@@AboveTheNoise Oh my gosh you replied! Noooooo, I wasn't mentally prepared for this. Your welcome, thank you for making the video. Hello
I live in Queensland, Australia. We get fires the earliest of all the states in fire season, but they didn't seem to last as long, or affect other states, as much. The fires later in the season in New South Wales and Victoria, which got closer to their capital cities than ours (though ours were in the backyards of many people living in smaller cities), were worsened by hot, dry winds, that blew up to Brisbane. In Brisbane, children, the elderly, pregnant people, and people with asthma were recommended to stay inside for days - not because there was smoke from fire in Queensland, but because there was smoke from fire near Sydney. Just look at a map of Australia and you know that's kind of a big deal.
We should do more to prevent fires - but we need to stand up and demand it. Two things that can drive how we address fires is funding and politics. Prevention (prescribed burns and trimming) are paid from budged money which requires taxes which are difficult to get support for. Then there is the issue that the smoke caused by intentional fires and the cleanup disturbs people and can cause health concerns - all things that can make them unpopular and give ammunition to political rivals. Forest fires however can draw from emergency funds, no one ever argues about fighting them or complains about the smoke when people are losing their homes - and, the "causes" are normally not blamed on politicians (though maybe they should) - they are blamed on the bad electrical companies for not maintaining their lines or on lightning or on people.
I was an inmate fire fighter for CAL-Fire in 2007-2010. It's our own (CAL-Fire) fault for the fires getting bigger and bigger. Since we've suppressed fires for 120 years, the under growth is wild and out of control. It burns hotter and faster than the forest would if it were burned on a regular basis. It destroys more than ever, but hey CAL Fire has job security. And salves, the state of CA has actual slavery. $1 per hour while working the fires is slavery. There used to be 40k inmate fire fighters across the state, and all we worked for was $1 an hour, plus better food. Yep, actual modern day slavery.
I really love how this channel stays as neutral as possible while giving as many angles to an argument as it can. Giving the facts and letting the viewers sit with them and make their own decisions is very rare and much appreciated
Last month, Gov. Gavin Newsom, signed an agreement with the U.S. Forest Service to treat 1 million acres a year across both jurisdictions (57% of California's forest land is under federal control), including controlled burns and timber harvests. :D
I'm in north Washington and last summer in August I couldn't see down the alleyway, that's across the street from my window, everything was just gone.
Seems like a no-brainer--good info!
We have controlled burns in New Jersey and we have few wildfires and when we do they are easily controlled and stopes
they set 'good fires'...........................to prevent 'bad fires'.
why shoulder the local expense and NIMBY of prescribed burns? let it burn, solicit relief funding and engage in casual misappropriation - have a fun and happy holiday. stay safe!
@AboveTheNoise
3 жыл бұрын
Touché.
6:57, is that a helicopter?
Eyyy I got it
Climate change...pffft.