A Century of Fire Suppression Is Why California Is in Flames

Mother Jones ^ | December 12, 2017 | Elizabeth Shogren

[rlmorel]

Mother Jones. Who woulda thunk it?

[eyeamok]

“We have 100 years of fire suppression that has led to this huge accumulation of fuel loads, just dead and downed debris from trees and plant material in our forests, and in our woodlands,”

That's as far as I got because it is a LIE. We were still clearing, managing and cleaning up our Forests well into the 70's, but then along came The Sierra Club and the Courts began accepting their Bribes.

[moovova]

“Mother Jones. Who woulda thunk it?”

And the truff shall set you free.

[Lurker]

Fire Regime Condition Class. It’s a real thing:

https://www.nifc.gov/prevEdu/comm_guide/appendix/2BACKGROUND_FrccDefinitionsFinal.pdf

L

[Karliner]

Wow this from Mother Jones

[Swirl]

Also, too many people living in a desert. Solution, just add more illegal immigrants with open border policy. /sarc

[ClearCase_guy]

I think a key part of the problem is that the Left does really want this problem solved. They may see megafires as a solution. For them, the problem is that evil humans live in natural places and spoil the wonder of Mother Gaia. The megafires may drive humans out of the wilderness and into big city high-rises where they can be controlled more easily. De-populating much of the earth is a Leftist goal.

[ClearCase_guy]

I meant “Left doesn’t really want this problem solved”.

[LouAvul]

I used to live there. I remember this phenomenon going back decades.

The Sacramento Bee published an article about kalifornia being bullied by the enviroNazis (they didn't word it exactly like that, but that's the gist) and said that the Nazis would rather see 1,000 acres destroyed from natural causes (fire from lightening) than to see even 1 acre "destroyed" by man clearing out secondary growth/tinder.

And every fire season ("Yes, Myrtle, kalifornia has a 'fire' season."), kalifornians get to reap what the Nazis sow.

[D Rider]

Except that it is not true. The abandonment of forestry management practices that include selective clear cutting is at fault. The result was foreseen.

[Texas resident]

A friend of mine from Oxnard told me that back in the day, poor folks would go up into the mountains and collect dead underbrush to use as firewood for the winter. The forest floor was well kept. And they didn’t have all these huge fires either. Go figure.

[wardaddy]

It’s not what you think

They blame the wrong folks

[jerod]

Throughout the history of earth forest fires have burned and extinguish themselves naturally... Until the 20th century when smokey the bear came along and men needing work who had none during the dirty 30s needed a job... One genius way to employ them was hiring them as forest fire fighters... Altering that natural function will always lead to some kind of consequence. Naturally occurring fires cleanse the forest of dead and rotting wood... Without them, that dead and rotting wood dries up and actually creates more fires over time.

[LIConFem]

Horse$hit is MJ’s stock in trade.

[Tenacious 1]

This is an interesting and pretty intelligent article if you remove the consideration of Carbon Emissions and Global Warming. Still, it appeals to the Global Warming Radicals to take responsible action. So maybe the argument is cleverly designed to get support to actually go back to managing the forests through logging and thinning the growth and debris.

Their argument seems to be, overall, that not investing carbon emissions and money in logging and controlled burns causes MORE carbon emissions and global warming than doing nothing in the forests.

Flawed as the Carbon Emissions component of the argument might be, it does argue for the same solutions that more rational conservative and intelligent citizens would. Logging and lumber companies would manage the forests for free as they can profit from it by selling the lumber they remove.

[Tenacious 1]

Except that it is not true. The abandonment of forestry management practices that include selective clear cutting is at fault. The result was foreseen.

The article actually does address that, indirectly.

[Ken Regis]

This is a bunch of crap.

UNLESS the story was written at the time of the National Fire Plan (2000), or as a prelude to everything that has been done SINCE THEN. Burned Area Rehabilitation and Restoration, Community Assistance, Suppress Wildfires (according to Pre-Plans), and Reduce Risk through coordinated Reduction of accumulated Hazardous Fuels (which is the result of 100 years of mis-management)

[rlmorel]

I’ll read it more carefully, I passed my eyes over it. Thanks for the head’s up.

[moovova]

Maybe I misread the article. I thought the Mother Jones article was about reintroducing forestry management practices (controlled burns) that would lessen forest fire damage. I was just surprised I would be reading something like that in Mother Jones.