Posted on 01/11/2025 6:18:06 PM PST by logi_cal869
In early May, flames began to spread through a pine forest, consuming a dense carpet of leaves and underbrush. The burn was the definition of a "good fire," intentionally ignited to clear vegetation that could fuel future infernos.
It happened in the state leading the nation in controlled burns: Florida.
As Western states contend with increasingly catastrophic wildfires, some are looking to the Southeastern U.S., where prescribed fire is widespread thanks to policies put in place decades ago. From 1998 to 2018, 70% of all controlled burning in the country was in the Southeast.
While a continent apart, both regions have a similar need for fire. For thousands of years, forests and woodlands experienced regular burning, both sparked by lightning and used by Native American tribes, which prevented the buildup of flammable growth. Without fire, the landscape is prone to intense, potentially devastating wildfires.
- snip -
Western states have a long way to go Florida has done prescribed burns on more than 1.6 million acres so far this year. California has only burned around 35,000 acres. The state is 2.5 times larger than Florida.
California recently signed an agreement with the U.S. Forest Service to reduce vegetation on 1 million acres of public lands, but the goal is still out of reach. Experts estimate that tens of millions of acres need addressing statewide, but lack of funding, personnel and political will has limited the work on public lands.
(Excerpt) Read more at npr.org ...
Some areas in California get less than five inches of rain a year. Some areas in North Carolina get close to 90 inches of rain a year. Yet 40 million people choose to live in a fire-prone area with limited water supplies. It’s simply a disaster waiting to happen.
Life is better in the South.
I learned it from other posters on FR.
https://freerepublic.com/focus/news/4289407/posts?page=28#28
https://freerepublic.com/focus/news/4289356/posts?page=3#3
Older article on legislation that prevents homeowners from removing brush.
https://www.newsmax.com/hostetter/california-fires/2007/10/31/id/322044/
Let me educate you.
I was born and raised in Southern California.
rain about 20 inches or so per year.
Then spent over 20 years in WA state at over 100
inches per year.
Then 25 years in Hawaii at over 100 inches per year.
Due to military service and work I spent some time on
on the eastern part of the USA.
Your entire coast is a sewer compared to the western coast and other areas in the US.
I was once offered a job in Maryland at a good raise from my Boeing pay, I politely declined, after all I’m a contract management team engineer, not out job hunting.
But the idea of living on the East coast of the USA
is repugnant. I’d rather spend another winter in North Dakota, or Guam.
It is not the weather, it is the people.
Get the idea?
Exactly.
We don’t have canyons, big wind, or droughts that last for months on end.
Let me educate you.
Maryland isn’t the South.
And we are very glad that you are staying out West.
Shhhhhh. Or Shusssh!
Seems like that is the case with Israel?
I think you make a lot of southerners happy in your choice.
I go by the Mason Dixon line.
As afar as the south, My wife refused to let me accept a job at Kennedy space center,
I love the real south, just not the North Eastern part.
I’ll stay in Hawaii, just to make you happy.
Aloha!
bookmark.
Common sense. Light dry wood with a zippo, and you have yourself a Forrest fire. Do it without water and you are toast. The rest is just application.
I am not trying to be belligerent but I think the definition of the South, according to the people who live there, is actually the States that were in the CSA and possibly territories associated with those states. Maryland is a border state, as is Kentucky, as is Kansas. Delaware, and West Virginia are also border Yankees. The South is Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Tennessee, Arkansas, Texas, and maybe Oklahoma and New Mexico which were territories.
I consider both Missouri and Kentucky to be part of the south. Most of my Missouri ancestors during the war fought for the confederacy. They of course wanted to remain neutral at first - my third great grandfather was a blacksmith in the Missouri Homeguard, but as union aggression increased, he was pretty much forced to join the CSA army as the whole area became confederate.
I've spent my whole life living in both southern Missouri (Ozarks) and eastern Kentucky (Appalachia) - the two states are very similar. I actually own a home in each area. Whenever I travel anywhere else in the south, it reminds me of my two home states.
In 2010, Texas had massive wildfires. They consumed several thousand homes and many thousands of acres.
When I say we had a drought that year, it was so bad trees were following dogs just to get some liquid. I was hand-watering the foundation of my home on a daily basis to avoid cracks.
No one roasted Texas. They understood that we were starved for water and the winds were pushing the fires further and further. We had burn bans and water rationing everywhere. At no time did our hydrants run dry.
I feel bad for the folks that lost their homes; however, the gross mismanagement by CA officials over the years is criminal.
Related:
LA Fires Renew Debate Over Prescribed Burns and Fire Preparedness in California
https://freerepublic.com/focus/news/4289603/posts?page=1
Yes, in the South it typically rains more in the summer than in the winter. The West Coast usually gets rain and snow in the winter and varying degrees of drought during the summer. It is a recipe for wildfires if the forests are not managed.
I go by the laws of that time, Mason Dixon line.
The re-writing of history by Yankees doesn’t work.
BTW I’m an American born and raised in California.
and I don’t have the deep prejudices the south and north share.
For my part, the best neighbors I had were Mexican and the worst were Back East northerners.
se habla espanol(Pardon my spelling and gutter Spanish)
No habla New Yorker.
“Let me educate you... Get the idea?”
Holy cow you sound like just about the most annoying person on the face of the Earth. Did you hate the East Coast because every last person you met punched you in the face?
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