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.
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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 ...
I got send to jail for defending myself against them!
I love the South. Yer missing out.
The South is the best place on Earth.
Because they’re (generally) not governed by idiot leftists.
We have controlled burns in Georgia as well. Timber forests are regularly thinned and there is very little fuel should a fire be started accidentally. Government agencies do not overly-regulate timber-lands and trust those managing the properties to use industry best practices to produce high quality timber and do what is necessary to keep the chance of a rapidly spreading wildfire to a minimum.
Over-regulation and bowing down to the eco-wackos contributed greatly to the CA fires. DEI incompetence did the rest.
Laz!
I never in all my years on FR would have expected a comment from you!
I love the deep south, not the northern coast south.
I’d rather spend a day in Mobile or Biloxi than one
in Myrtle beach.
That is just me.
By the same token I’d rather spend a day in Hell, MI than one in Chicago or New York city.
Greenie extremists are just insane. Thanks again.
Hey rellic! Let me tell you a little story. I was on FR about two years or so, sometime in 2001, and I commented to someone. They responded something like, "Wow! I got a comment from the great Laz!"
That made me feel downright uncomfortable. I'm not great. I'm just another a-hole with a keyboard.
So please, always view me as an equal, because I am.
I love the deep south, not the northern coast south. I’d rather spend a day in Mobile or Biloxi than one in Myrtle beach. That is just me. By the same token I’d rather spend a day in Hell, MI than one in Chicago or New York city.
My view is very similar, except I would put Atlanta right in with the coastal south. It's a mess of northern-thinking and borderline 'woke'. I had to leave and get out to God's country.
When I first got to Hall County, I needed something from a John Deere dealership. The guy behind the counter, a young kid, was chewing some tobacco, and proudly showed me his brand-new Confederate flag tattoo on his arm. We got to talking guns, and he lifts his shirt to show me his primary conceal-carry pistol.
It was within those five minutes that I realized I was HOME. 😊
I’m in MO right up against the 3 million acre Mark Twain National Forest and we do get red flag weather. We who live here burn off our brush and leaves every year to protect our own properties and we manage to do so without catching the world on fire. Same with farmers burning off their fields every year or two.
Logging is allowed/practiced in the Forest by permit. The permits cost quite a bit but no so much as to kill profit and the Forestry service designates where it can be done. They also do prescribed burns. You can also get a permit to cut firewood anywhere in the Forest for $20 per 6 months but it can only be wood already on the ground.
If you can follow one of the loggers, it’s good firewood that just wasn’t good enough for the saw mill. Usually rotted up the middle but solid otherwise. The tops also. That creates a way to make sure loggers aren’t leaving behind fuel because they’re followed by those $20 permit people that clean up after them.
In other words, we knuckle dragging, Bible thumping flyover people use our brains to figure out how to do things without really spending. The Missouri Dept of Conservation works hand in hand with the US Forestry to come up with solutions to problems.
MDC also manages the deer/game population and much of that 3 million acres can be hunted. The MDC manages natural resources well enough and our state laws are such that NGOs like Sierra Club can’t mess with us.
“there are more people living in that semi-arid, fire prone area than the area can reasonably support long term.”
Your general concern is legitimate—I would call it a zero defect situation.
There is just no room for error—so crazy environmental and DEI policies make failure certain.
Additional comment:
Desalination plants are an excellent long term mitigation strategy for California.
A hundred of them would be a lot cheaper than the railway to nowhere.
If homo sapiens are smart they can thrive in such areas for centuries to come.
If they are stupid they will perish.
Nice. Good to hear.
;-)
Most forest lands in the South, in fact any state east of the Rockies, are privately owned. The Feds own a majority of the lands in the West, possibly little under half in California. Public land policy is politically driven, not market driven. When ii suited Federal objectives to allow farming, livestock raising, and mining in the West, the Feds were permissive. After about 1970, Federal policy was driven by environmental concerns and human activities in public lands were discouraged. Compound that with lunatic liberals in Colorado, New Mexico, California, Washington, and Oregon and you have our current situation that is a factor in the Los Angeles fires.
LOOK AT THE GOOD SIDE OF IT! The Smelt fish are doing well now the reservoirs and dams once used for fire suppression, have been destroyed and drained. and the brush was for nesting birds and ground animals so the Greenies could go out and commune with Mother Nature!
Now Mother Nature has bit them in the butt big time. Remember the old advertisement on TV..”IT’S NOT NICE TO FOOL MOTHER NATURE!”
***California government made huge mistakes.***
I remember a statement in the US military when I was in.
“There are NO ACCIDENTS! THEY ARE CAUSED!”
They do controlled burns down in the Ozark forests south of here. Only wildfires we have had is when some goof ball decided to burn his trash on a windy day.
So simple and basically zero cost to taxpayers. Charge for logging, charge for forest floor cleanup as firewood permits. Use the proceeds to fund controlled burns. Helps that we don’t have evil or insane people here starting fires.
You have a mastery of the metaphor
You know despite his square headed lantern jawed hostility to Dixie I still listen to him daily
He’s good on some things
Thank u
👊
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