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Last post 3 years ago by Smooth light. 23 replies replies.
Wildfires
MACS Offline
#1 Posted:
Joined: 02-26-2004
Posts: 79,593
Welcome to the (Unnecessary) Mega Fire Generation!
By Del Albright, Fire Chief (retired)

25-30 years ago, a 10,000 – 15,000-acre fire was a huge conflagration. Now we are experiencing 100,000 - 400,000-acre fires regularly.

I would like to offer an explanation based on over 30 years of government service including 26 years with the fire service, as well as beginning my fire career with a Master’s Degree in Prescribed Burning.
NO! It is not just global warming (climate change).
NO! It is not understaffed or ill-trained firefighters.
NO! It is not Mamma Nature getting even with our urban sprawl.
NO! It is not careless campers or hunters.
NO! It is not kids with matches.

YES! It is a combination of many things but more importantly, it is the LACK of forest/brushland/grassland management caused by wacko, radical enviro groups imposing excessive regulations, and restrictions on our ability to keep the west safe from wildfire.

Here are the key takeaways from this article:
· The lack of controlled burning/prescribed fire is directly responsible for the huge build-ups of flammable fuels.
· The end of maintaining fire breaks (roads) in forested areas leaves firefighters with inadequate access.
· The end of logging and good timber management as we used to know it is directly responsible for forests that are now tinderboxes.

Let us take a deeper look at these reasons.

CONTROLLED BURNS:
Going back to Native Americans in America, controlled burning (later called Prescribed Fire) have saved the west from huge conflagrations. By burning large brush fields and using fire to thin understory brush in the forest, we kept the big boomers at bay. We had programs designed to reduce “chaparral” in the west, thus limiting the ability for fires to get ragingly out of control.
In the early days of settling the west, ranchers regularly burned brush fields to make way for grazing and wildlife habitat.
This entire program of controlled or prescribed fire is a near thing of the past.

ROADS/FIRE BREAKS:
When I started with the fire service in the 1970’s we had regularly scheduled building, repairing, cleaning, and maintaining fire breaks around rural housing areas and developments. We kept fire roads cleared and usable for large fire equipment. We had access to remote areas which allowed us to attack fires when they were small. Roads provided a place to start a safe backfire. Oh, backfires! Another art nearly lost today due to liability and excessive oversight by the media and radical enviro groups who have political power.

LOGGING/TIMBER MANAGEMENT:
If you live in the Pacific Northwest, you probably remember sawmills. They are all gone for the most part because the radical environmental rules have made logging a financial nightmare. You wonder why wood is so expensive these days? We cannot log; that’s why. Yes, there are still a few holdouts logging here and there. But the feds are hampered by so many regulations and restrictions that our timber stands either get bug infested or succumb to wildfires.
We used to thin forest stands regularly – fire crews, inmate crews, machines that munch up underbrush, and yes, even pesticides to keep the forests healthy. Now, you can pick about any state in the west with timber and you see more bug-killed trees than live ones!
In our western grasslands, the lack of proactive landscape management in desert states has resulted in vast acreages dominated by a cheatgrass-fire cycle that is ruining wildlife habitat and causing bigger and more damaging conflagrations. This invasive species needs to be managed or these western deserts will never be the same – nor will our wildlife species.
In timber areas, for the most part, we no longer control pests and bugs; we no longer do any substantial thinning of the underbrush; logging is kaput, and forest management is a façade. It is not the fault of our public land managers; it is the imposition of radical regulation. It is politics.

SUMMARY:
Public land management is no longer based on science but rather politics. The same goes for wildlife management. Radical enviro groups lobby politicians (and raise untold dollars in support) to STOP all the things that will make our forests, brushlands, and deserts safe and healthy. It is ironic (and pathetic) because for all their efforts to “save the world” they are destroying our world, piece by piece.
To see fires in California reach half a million acres is beyond belief!
What can we do? We must STOP the silliness and over-regulation and allow sound public land management, never forgetting that public lands are FOR the public. Help good politicians get elected and stay in office. Recall bad politicians. Do everything in your power to negate, refute, or STOP the radical movement that has stagnated management of our resources.
Brewha Offline
#2 Posted:
Joined: 01-25-2010
Posts: 12,147
Drafter said it was caused by windmills....
HockeyDad Offline
#3 Posted:
Joined: 09-20-2000
Posts: 46,065
Day 25 of Spare the Air alert here. Easily broke the record days ago. The county is sending out emergency text messages for everyone to stay indoors. Our carbon footprint is huge.
delta1 Offline
#4 Posted:
Joined: 11-23-2011
Posts: 28,754
got an idea: get all the able bodied unemployed Americans, and some sidelined immigrant workers too...re-constitute the CCC, hand every one of them a rake and send them to CA and OR to clean up the underbrush in the forests that are still standing...
Smooth light Offline
#5 Posted:
Joined: 06-26-2020
Posts: 3,598
Another progressive program up in flames.

But it's someone's else fault , not me.

🏞️ remember these!!!
ZRX1200 Offline
#6 Posted:
Joined: 07-08-2007
Posts: 60,476
CCC actually wouldn’t be a bad idea Al, problem is the numbers that chose to actively stay homeless to be drunk and or high, or refuse mental help. But there is many I think it would be good for and I believe it would be good for them and society.

Problem is FEDERAL government ownership of state land. The fuel loads are not a product of global warming which IS a factor. The forests have been mismanaged for decades mostly through active LIES (see spotted owl). Look at the effort to move to road diets.....we’ve had MASSIVE issues with traffic with evacuations and I’m curious to see what comes of complaints about the lack of new lanes and the DEPLETION OF EXISTING LANES we’ve had due to PISS poor “management” of infrastructure (there is funding btw, it built artsy bridge overpasses and BIKE LANES).

This is my personal problem with what the left has done to my state. And my personal problem with the misuse of federal powers (owning state lands) this was ACTUALLY what the Bundy ranch was about not refusing to pay grazing fees.
Gene363 Offline
#7 Posted:
Joined: 01-24-2003
Posts: 30,669
Exactly! And of course, this has been common knowledge for many years. It was known back the I was living in the San Gabriel mountains in So Cal circa 1978. But money spent on maintaining the forests/brush lands and firefighting capabilities just doesn't buy lots like other programs, so the forests/brush land and the firefighting capabilities to care for them were ushered into F'ville.

Meanwhile all the nature loving suburbanites stated building more and more homes in brush country, they wanted to build with woodsy materials and insisted on plantings right up to the house. They also ignored fire inspectors recommendations for clearing land around homes and sealing up entry to burning embers.

Living in brush country is like living on a flood plane, sooner or later, you are not going to be happy.
JadeRose Offline
#8 Posted:
Joined: 05-15-2008
Posts: 19,525
delta1 wrote:
got an idea: get all the able bodied unemployed Americans, and some sidelined immigrant workers too...re-constitute the CCC, hand every one of them a rake and send them to CA and OR to clean up the underbrush in the forests that are still standing...




This is exactly what is needed.
DrafterX Offline
#9 Posted:
Joined: 10-18-2005
Posts: 98,508
they'd get tired of raking and burn it.... Mellow
Smooth light Offline
#10 Posted:
Joined: 06-26-2020
Posts: 3,598
It's not their fault. They didn't think it would turn out this way. ❄️

Basic common sense, forest/land management works.🏞️

First you got to tell them what a forest is.😊
Whistlebritches Offline
#11 Posted:
Joined: 04-23-2006
Posts: 22,127
delta1 wrote:
got an idea: get all the able bodied unemployed Americans, and some sidelined immigrant workers too...re-constitute the CCC, hand every one of them a rake and send them to CA and OR to clean up the underbrush in the forests that are still standing...



Al I always knew you had a good idea in youBigGrin
deadeyedick Offline
#12 Posted:
Joined: 03-13-2003
Posts: 16,957
We are at 350 miles from the California fires and the smoke is heavy enough here to keep it like a cloudy day even though it’s bright sun
HockeyDad Offline
#13 Posted:
Joined: 09-20-2000
Posts: 46,065
The smoke from California will ultimately cover the county.
delta1 Offline
#14 Posted:
Joined: 11-23-2011
Posts: 28,754
Opel is a prolific toker, but he ...
Smooth light Offline
#15 Posted:
Joined: 06-26-2020
Posts: 3,598
SMOKEY THE BEAR, had to take forced retirement.😎 After they shot his wife and made a rug of her for some environmentalist.

Seen him at the tiki bar, in Tahiti. a couple of years ago.🍹🌴🏖️🍹

Global warming - climate change, remember only you can prevent or Forest Fires!🤡

Speyside Offline
#16 Posted:
Joined: 03-16-2015
Posts: 13,106
Excellent article MACS, thank you.
HockeyDad Offline
#17 Posted:
Joined: 09-20-2000
Posts: 46,065
Smooth light wrote:
SMOKEY THE BEAR, had to take forced retirement.😎 After they shot his wife and made a rug of her for some environmentalist.

Seen him at the tiki bar, in Tahiti. a couple of years ago.🍹🌴🏖️🍹

Global warming - climate change, remember only you can prevent or Forest Fires!🤡



Little known fact... Smokey the Bear’s wife was a black bear. She was shot and killed by a cop who thought she had a gun but it was actually a picnic basket. She had 15 priors for stealing picnic baskets. It’s a bear thing.
MACS Offline
#18 Posted:
Joined: 02-26-2004
Posts: 79,593
HockeyDad wrote:
Little known fact... Smokey the Bear’s wife was a black bear. She was shot and killed by a cop who thought she had a gun but it was actually a picnic basket. She had 15 priors for stealing picnic baskets. It’s a bear thing.


Okay, I almost choked I laughed so hard.
Gene363 Offline
#19 Posted:
Joined: 01-24-2003
Posts: 30,669
HockeyDad wrote:
The smoke from California will ultimately cover the county.


Things that keep me awake at night.Anxious
Gene363 Offline
#20 Posted:
Joined: 01-24-2003
Posts: 30,669
HockeyDad wrote:
Little known fact... Smokey the Bear’s wife was a black bear. She was shot and killed by a cop who thought she had a gun but it was actually a picnic basket. She had 15 priors for stealing picnic baskets. It’s a bear thing.



Rimshot!
Mr. Jones Offline
#21 Posted:
Joined: 06-12-2005
Posts: 19,359
Wellllll

ALL YOU CBID SHEEPLES....

I HAVE TOLD YOU THIS MANY TIMES BEFORE...

BUT HERE GOES AGAIN...


ALL THESE "ACCIDENTAL FIRES" in calli-land???

Are caused by lone wolf HADJI TERRORISTS...

THEY RENT CHEAP HERTZ RENTAL CARS under false I.D....THEY PROCEED TO HOME DEPOT AND BUY 5 GALLON GAS CANS WITH HOODIES ON ...WITH CASH...

THEY GO TO THE NEAREST GAS STATION AND BUY PREMIUM GAS...

THEN THEY FIND THE DENSEST SCRUB BRUSH NEAR WINDY CANYONS AND HIGH END HOUSING AREAS...
they empty half the can on the brush then lay a Wiley coyote trail of gas to the car...then place the half full can back at the soaked brush pile...go back to the car and light the trail...

A BILLION dolla "kill the infidel fire " is then underway for
Less than $500 clams...CHEAP ASS TERRORIST STRIKES IS WHAT THEY REALLY ARE...

JUST ACCEPT IT FOR FACT...

The GUBMENT will never admit it...
xibbumbero Offline
#22 Posted:
Joined: 01-25-2002
Posts: 12,535
This last week was the 50th anniversary of the Laguna fire. I was on that fire for 3daze. I was a young FF @ the time and had never seen so much fire in my life. It was an amazing and eye opening experience.
My take on how CalFire addresses these wildland fires: CalFire should have Fire lookouts like they used to have. They should also have aircraft @ the ready to be able to respond in 15min. At first sign of fire,attack it in the incipient phase and drown the crap out of it. IMO,they respond w/equipment as the fire grows. Not a proper strategy,IMO. X Shame on you
Smooth light Offline
#23 Posted:
Joined: 06-26-2020
Posts: 3,598
They got rid of that stuff so they can blame it on climate change and global warming.
CLIMATE FIRES 🤡
It's not my fault it's the earth's, still passing the buck. Next week pave the world maybe?💡
They need a fire marshal to enforce codes. Like occupancy and land conservation and management. 🏞️🏄🌞
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