Why The South Is Decades Ahead Of The West In Wildfire Prevention [archives - August 2021]

By Free Republic | Created at 2025-01-12 02:37:02 | Updated at 2025-01-12 05:23:11 3 hours ago

Why The South Is Decades Ahead Of The West In Wildfire Prevention [archives - August 2021]
NPR ^ | 8/31/2021 | Lauren Sommer

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 ...

TOPICS: Chit/Chat
KEYWORDS: californiaburnin; prescribedburns; wildfire

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Special note: CA burned 35k acres in prescribed burns in 2021 by the date of this article.

Want to know how many acres they burned in 2024?

72,000

"priorities" ya know. /s

1 posted on 01/11/2025 6:18:06 PM PST by logi_cal869

To: logi_cal869

Because conservatives govern, while liberals rule.

2 posted on 01/11/2025 6:19:01 PM PST by Jonty30 (Liberals are a fulfillment of II Tim3:5. We are instructed to have nothing to do with those people. )

To: logi_cal869

3 posted on 01/11/2025 6:21:06 PM PST by FreedomPoster (Islam delenda est)

To: logi_cal869

US Forest Service summary of prescribed fire in California for 2024:

“November 20, 2024 — The U.S. Forest Service successfully treated over 325,000 acres for forest health on national forests in California during the 2024 fiscal year. This includes over 72,000 acres of prescribed burning alone. The previous U.S. Forest Service record for prescribed fire was set in 2018 when 63,711 acres were treated. This marks significant progress toward the USFS target of deploying 150,000 acres of beneficial fire in California’s Strategic Plan for Expanding the Use of Beneficial Fire.”

https://wildfiretaskforce.org/usfs-completes-record-setting-year-for-prescribed-fire/

4 posted on 01/11/2025 6:21:19 PM PST by logi_cal869 (-cynicus the "concern troll" a/o 10/03/2018 /!i!! &@$%&*(@ -)

To: logi_cal869

5 posted on 01/11/2025 6:22:22 PM PST by logi_cal869 (-cynicus the "concern troll" a/o 10/03/2018 /!i!! &@$%&*(@ -)

To: logi_cal869

7 posted on 01/11/2025 6:24:19 PM PST by logi_cal869 (-cynicus the "concern troll" a/o 10/03/2018 /!i!! &@$%&*(@ -)

To: logi_cal869

Our little town is bracketed by thousands of acres of both national and state forests…not parks, forests. We never have wildfires because we have frequent controlled burns to manage underbrush and other combustibles. Of course, we’re Florida, not California….

8 posted on 01/11/2025 6:25:36 PM PST by clintonh8r (The truth is hate speech to those who hate the truth)

To: logi_cal869

9 posted on 01/11/2025 6:27:51 PM PST by logi_cal869 (-cynicus the "concern troll" a/o 10/03/2018 /!i!! &@$%&*(@ -)

To: logi_cal869

California government made huge mistakes.

However, the bigger picture scenario (which neither Democrats nor most FReepers would like to acknowledge) is that there are more people living in that semi-arid, fire prone area than the area can reasonably support long term.

Flame away. :-)

To: logi_cal869

When I returned to Oregon after three plus years in Florida, I found myself looking upward, a lot. There’s nothing taller than a palm tree in Florida. 100-plus foot tall trees are everywhere, here. And it rained in buckets in the summer, where I was. Apples and oranges, as far as fires go.

11 posted on 01/11/2025 6:30:43 PM PST by gundog (It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. the )

To: logi_cal869

California stopped maintaining their firebreaks, ostensibly because they interfered with the migration of an endangered mouse.

12 posted on 01/11/2025 6:31:07 PM PST by E. Pluribus Unum (The worst thing about censorship is █████ ██ ████ ████ ████ █ ███████ ████. FJB.)

To: clintonh8r; EBH

Well aware. I think it was a video pinged to me by FReeper EBH which alerted me to the dichotomy between your state & CA.

I did a little digging and found it to be factual and, in addition to my being ignorant about it despite long interest in fire ecology and efforts to mitigate conflagrations, hardly reported on at all.

13 posted on 01/11/2025 6:31:41 PM PST by logi_cal869 (-cynicus the "concern troll" a/o 10/03/2018 /!i!! &@$%&*(@ -)

To: Engraved-on-His-hands

California government made huge mistakes.

They were not "mistakes."

They were a plan.

14 posted on 01/11/2025 6:32:43 PM PST by E. Pluribus Unum (The worst thing about censorship is █████ ██ ████ ████ ████ █ ███████ ████. FJB.)

To: logi_cal869

Sierra Club will not allow forest management.

15 posted on 01/11/2025 6:33:22 PM PST by bray (It's not racist to be racist against races the DNC hates.)

To: E. Pluribus Unum

16 posted on 01/11/2025 6:33:56 PM PST by FreedomPoster (Islam delenda est)

To: logi_cal869

Because we’re not stupid down South.

17 posted on 01/11/2025 6:34:43 PM PST by ealgeone

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