NOTE: This op-ed includes a video at the conclusion, describing the “Natural Wildfire Abatement and Forest Protection Plan.”
The Question stands: Are some County and State elected officials going to continue selling American Citizens the myth that ‘Prescribed Burns’ – ‘Controlled Burns’ – ‘Cultural Burns’ are somehow a Silver Bullet for reducing catastrophic wildfires?
Empirically speaking, the data we have prove that prescribed burning by any name is not only very costly, it’s led to some of the largest and most expensive wildfire disasters ever.
As we have already seen time and time again, ‘prescribed burning’, also known as ‘controlled burning’ is extremely dangerous, deadly and financially costly in many ways even when used by highly-trained professionals.
The most recent use of prescribed burning by professionals at the United States Forest Service (USFS) turned-disaster was experienced in New Mexico, where two prescribed burns went-wrong, joined together, and became the largest and most costly wildfire disaster in the history of New Mexico.
From the Washington Post:
In a statement, the Forest Service said that what began as a controlled burn in the Santa Fe National Forest in January, meant to clear away vegetation and prevent catastrophic wildfires in the future, turned into a “sleeper fire.” It overwintered beneath the ground, continuing to burn slowly until it re-emerged in early April.
Fueled by strong, gusty winds, the Calf Canyon fire escaped firefighters’ attempts to contain it.
On April 22, it merged with the Hermits Peak fire, which also began as a prescribed burn set by the Forest Service that grew out of control. In the month since then, the combined blazes have destroyed hundreds of homes and displaced thousands of people.
When it comes to ‘prescribed burning’, ‘controlled burning’ or as it’s now being rebranded as ‘Eco-Cultural Fire’ to confuse taxpayers into thinking it’s somehow safer fire, playing with fire, regardless of who’s doing it or where, results in disaster, time and time again.
An excerpt from a 2015 article from Outside Magazine titled, ‘When Prescribed Burns Go Wrong’, clearly shows that the disasters that stem from prescribed burning, are being repeated over and over, as are the evolving explanations and excuses for the disasters.
Tom Scanlan’s house burned down on an early spring afternoon in March 2012. Just days before, the Colorado State Forest Service had set fire to the dangerously overgrown forest near the Lower North Fork of the Platte River, about 40 miles outside Denver. The controlled burn was supposed to stave off a future blaze; instead, warm temperatures and high winds fanned a wall of flames that torched 1,400 acres, left three people dead, and destroyed 23 homes — even those like Scanlan’s with defensible space.
“They did a number of things wrong,” says the 69-year-old former aeronautics executive, “but the biggest thing was setting that fire in the first place.”
Each year, more people like Scanlan move into the so-called wildland-urban interface. Ten million new homes were built in these exurban areas between 2000 and 2010; over 30 percent of America’s housing stock is now in the WUI. That means a growing number of people risk evacuation, property loss, and death when these kinds of accidents occur.
In March of this year, high winds and temperatures rekindled an extinguished burn in Red Lodge, Montana, forcing 500 skiers off the local ski area; another burn, in Victorville, California, quickly exploded into a 70-acre wildfire that required evacuation of 25 houses. The fires aren’t always so small. In 2000, the prescribed Cerro Grande fire near Los Alamos, New Mexico, torched over 280 homes. While residents have sued government agencies over burns gone wild, it’s hard to prove negligence; it’s more common to receive a small payout through emergency funds. (Those affected by the North Fork fire that destroyed Scanlan’s home received approximately $18 million from the Colorado government.)
There are many more examples of prescribed or ‘controlled’ burns gone wrong and causing death and costly disaster.
It’s evident that any arguable benefits of these intentional fires is far outweighed by the adverse results of these prescribed burns.
Think about what is being sold, that; burning fuels in the winter that didn’t get burned by a wildfire somehow makes the landscape safer… The giant BUG in that ointment is the fact that grass and brush are annual fuels, and come back onto the landscape in full force by late spring or early summer… and dry quickly and stay dry longer thanks to climate change.
So what, exactly is accomplished by winter prescribed burning?
The answer is: very little, other than spending boatloads of tax dollars and risking more devastation being inflicted upon the people, homes, forests, wildlife and watersheds.
The most important questions goes unasked: why?
It seems that there are people who are directly or indirectly monetizing annual wildfires, who are not interested in asking the single most important question in regard to the evolution of wildfire.
Why now is the landscape suffering from a buildup of overabundant annually occurring grass and brush wildfire fuels?
The answer to this most important question is not climate change, nor is it a lack of logging trees.
The answer and reason for the now massive buildups of annual grass and brush, which are the key fuels in over 60% of all wildfires, is that our native species herbivory has collapsed due to mismanagement. Prodigious grass and brush fuels that grow annually, even in spite of climate change, are the root cause of catastrophic wildfires.
There is an important tool being intentionally sequestered by some elected officials in favor of the lucrative enterprises related to wildfire suppression (aka: firefighting).
That tool is a Plan known as the Natural Wildfire Abatement and Forest Protection Plan.
The winners from implementing this Plan include:
1. Timber Industry
2. Forest and wildlife enthusiasts
3. Fisheries
4. Hunting Industry (benefits all game animals)
5. Livestock Industry
6. Insurance Industry
7. Climate Change/Crises
Learn more in this 28-minute video.
William E. Simpson II is a naturalist, author, and conservationist living in the Soda Mountain wilderness area among the wild horses that he studies. Learn more at Wild Horse Fire Brigade.