One major issue in the Western US, and probably increasingly in places like FL, TX, and maybe even the Midwest and Appalachia, is forest fire or wildfire. In past years within a 50 mile radius of my home, hundreds of thousands of acres of forest have burned. 12 years ago the Tyee Fire here set a record for forest fires at 120,000 acres. Since then, fires in NM and CO have surpassed that, and large areas of Yellowstone burned.
For people living in many rural areas - sometimes referred to as the "Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI)" - fire can be a recurring threat. So it seems odd to write a diary that views fire as an integral and necessary part of the ecosystem. As a Democrat and environmentally minded, it's even odder to commend any part of Bush's Healthy Forests Restoration Act (HFRA). But this diary does both.
If you grew up listening to Smokey the Bear talk about the evils of forest fires, you might find this statement from the
National Fire Plan (NFP) somewhat of a shock:
Though wildland fires play an integral role in many forest and rangeland ecosystems, decades of efforts directed at extinguishing every fire that burned on public lands have disrupted the natural fire regimes that once existed. Moreover, as more and more communities develop and grow in areas that are adjacent to fire-prone lands in what is known as the wildland/urban interface, wildland fires pose increasing threats to people and their property.
The National Fire Plan was developed in August 2000, following a landmark wildland fire season, with the intent of actively responding to severe wildland fires and their impacts to communities while ensuring sufficient firefighting capacity for the future. The NFP addresses five key points: Firefighting, Rehabilitation, Hazardous Fuels Reduction, Community Assistance, and Accountability.
This diary addresses the middle three points cited: Rehabilitation, Hazardous Fuels Reduction, Community Assistance. Please note also that the NFP was developed in 2000, prior to Bush becoming President. Part of Healthy Forests is an implementation of the National Fire Plan.
Rehabilitation
Fire ecology "is the study of ecosystems impacted by fire". Different ecosystems have adapted to fire in different ways. Where I live is a Ponderosa Pine ecosystem, common in the west. Ponderosa have evolved to live with low intensity fires - their bark actually "pops off" small plates in fires, carrying away heat that would damage the tree. Fires clear out the low brush and small trees in the understory, preventing them from over-growing and serving as fuel for high intensity fires. This ecosystem thrives on small, frequent fires - as often as every 5 to 10 years.
A lodgepole pine ecosystem (like parts of Yellowstone) has adapted to "stand replacement" types of fires, where existing trees are fire-killed, along with brush and small trees. Some varieties of pine-cones (like some lodgepole varieties) need high temperatures like a forest fire to open and spread their seeds. These ecosystems are adapted to less frequent fire than Ponderosa.
According to one long-time Forest Service firefighter I spoke with, in the 1920s a 2-man crew could often go out and contain a fire to few acres. Today, 1000 person crews (there are now about as many women fighting fires as men) often can't contain a fire to 40,000 acres.
Why? The Smokey the Bear policy was to extinguish fires as quickly as possible. This (along with practices like clear-cutting) allowed brush and small trees to proliferate in unburned areas, and fires went from low intensity (flame heights of 3-4 feet, can be fought with hand tools and small crews), to high intensity fires with flame heights of 20 to 200 feet, which can't really be fought at all. Forest fires now are "contained", never extinguished, until the fall rains or winter snows put them out. The high intensity fires kill even fire-adapted trees like Ponderosa, and worse, their intensity and temperature destroys seeds and sterilizes the soil, hampering natural restoration.
Rehabilitation is an attempt to restore the conditions where fire is a necessary and helpful part of the ecosystem. Most often this means:
Hazardous Fuel Reduction
In a forester's vocabulary, fuel isn't what goes in your gas tank - it's all of the vegetable material (live and dead trees, brush, grasses, duff, etc) that accumulates in a forest or range area. High-intensity fires are caused by too much fuel - "heavy fuel loads" or a lot of fuel per acre. To rehabilitate today's unhealthy forests, fuel loads need to be reduced.
There are a number of ways to accomplish fuel load reduction. The cheapest and most beneficial way is "controlled burns". A section of forest is "treated" (conditions which might cause uncontrollable fire are remediated by cutting and stacking) and then burned. Controlled burns require co-operating weather (mostly low winds - a major NM forest fire was started by controlled burning on a too-windy day) and are restricted by things like air quality laws. In my area, there were a total of 15 days this spring which qualified for controlled burning.
This method almost always costs less than $20-$25 per acre, and can go much lower in cost. It also works in hilly terrain (in my vicinity 60 degree and steeper slopes are common), and the burned vegetation returns nutrients to the soil.
Other methods are manual or mechanical removal of excess fuels. These are more labor intensive, usually require transportation and disposal of the removed fuels, remove nutrients from the treated site, and are considerably more expensive than controlled burning. However, controlled burning sometimes faces considerable opposition (including from some environmental groups at times) and, as in NM, has the potential to get out of hand if not done carefully.
In many places, the Forest Service, BLM or state agencies have adopted a policy of "let it burn" for remote fires - for ecologically sound reasons as well as for lower firefighting costs and increased firefighter safety. But in the wildland/urban interface ("urban" in this case means just about any place with one or more buildings), damage to property and potential loss of life are too serious to allow fires to burn uncontrollably and at high intensity. Moreover, private property in many rural areas also has heavy fuel loads, so the National Fire Plan also allows for:
Community Assistance
One of the best parts of Bush's Healthy Forests Restoration Act (HFRA) provides a comprehensive scheme and funding (really!) to assist communities in protecting themselves from wildfire. (The HFRA also contains ass-backwards rules for logging that allow removing large trees from WUI areas, which increases fire risks - it ain't all good).
I want to mention two programs which you can utilize around your house or in your community for fire protection/forest rehabilitation - both on private and public lands - and a third somewhat related program as well.
The first program, aimed at individuals, is the Fire Wise program (especially check out the the "Firewise you can use" section of the linked website). Fire Wise is a program aimed at homeowners to educate them about making their property fire-safe. In our area, you don't think about "if" your property will burn, but "when?" - fire, again, is a natural part of the ecosystem, and largely unpreventable (somewhere between 50% and 70% of fires locally result from natural causes like lightning).
The key concept in Fire Wise is the idea of "defensible space", and the program will teach you what that is and how to create it. Basically, it's an area from 50 to 200 feet (depending on climate, terrain and vegetation) around your home and buildings where flame heights can be maintained below 4 feet. This both makes your home defensible safely by firefighters, and the lower intensity reduces the temperatures that can cause your home to burn (houses are fuel too). High intensity fires can ignite a home even if the flames never reach it, and can ignite wood framing behind aluminum, steel or even concrete siding or stucco - the air space between the fire and your home acts like an insulating blanket, keeping temperatures below the ignition point.
State and Federal agencies offer Fire Wise seminars (local 2-day seminars included free stays at a local resort for out-of towners), and have Fire Wise literature (very good). You can also call your local Department of Natural Resources (or equivalent) or Forest Service ranger station and have someone knowledgeable come out and do a risk assessment of your property - highly recommended (it's like private tutoring in fire ecology).
The other program funded by HFRA is the development of Community Wildfire Protection Plans(CWPP). In addition to the handbook in the link, a google search will turn up plans that many communities have already written.
Developing a CWPP can make you and your neighbors eligible for Federal assistance ($$) to remediate fire hazards on your property or neighborhood. What's done, and in fact the entire plan, is completely under local and property owner control. Your CWPP committee develops the plan and proposes the projects they want accomplished; private property owners can control what's done on their property and how it's done (for example, removed fuels can be chipped for mulch, trees cut for firewood, some areas left untouched, etc).
In dveloping the plan, you define the boundaries of your plan area (ours is about 10 X 25 miles, and includes large chunks of National Forest). You identify (with help) fire hazards in your area and propose actions to remove or minimize them, which can include things like firebreaks, controlled burns or thinning on public lands. You write your proposal and submit grant requests (again, with help).
The most amazing part of developing our CWPP has been the response from governmental units. At our plan meetings, we've had Forest Service people (head ranger, fire operations supervisor, fire ecologist) at every meeting, people from the DNR, our district fire chief, Conservation District people, BLM people, even our County Commissioner. Part of the reason there's so much participation (and co-operation) is the lure of funds. But the various government representatives are also genuinely interested in both the environment and protecting lives and property.
Our plan meetings have been an exercise in how well government can work. We have detailed maps on every imaginable subject and reams of data from Forest Service, DNR and fire district studies - most of it from GIS (Geographical Information System) databases, so data can be remapped to show almost anything we ask for (structure locations, locations of fire starts, terrain and fuel types, historical fire data, etc). In addition, we've had hours of instruction in firefighting and fire ecology from very knowledgeable people, and even got a field trip guided by the fire ops supervisor and fire ecologists over our plan area. These people are both frank and environmentally conscious and oriented to the rehabilitation and fuel reduction described above. My favorite comment overheard from one government employee was "Logging is not the answer".
HFRA funds are administered and grant request written by state agencies - usually the Department of Natural Resources, or whatever your state calls it. If there isn't a CWPP plan in progress in your neighborhood, you can start one by contacting the governmental units and your neighbors.
The last program I want to mention briefly is the Certified Emergency Response Team (CERT), which we're incorporating into our plan. CERT is a program administered by the Dept of Homeland Security. CERT teams are volunteers given about 20 hours of training who serve as an auxiliary in emergency situations, like floods, fires, storms, or terrorist attacks. They relieve skilled emergency personnel like firefighters, police, and paramedics of the more mundane duties in an emergency situation. While wildland fires probably aren't a direct concern to most dKos readers, CERT training is available and useful almost anywhere. God (and New Orleans) knows DHS and FEMA could use the help.
I thought I knew something about these topics before getting involved in our local CWPP, but I've learned a tremendous amount in the last few weeks. I'm still learning, so any comments or corrections from experts in this area (and I'm not one of those) would be appreciated.