Tentative Optimism
We can adapt to fire on the landscape by changing our attitudes and practices. By combining the forces of federal, tribal, state, and local powers, we can fire harden our communities and prepare for future blazes.
Hello, readers! To my own shock and surprise, I’m feeling uncharacteristically optimistic about the future. This is probably a fleeting phenomenon, but I figured I should explain why I feel as though we might yet succeed in regional and local wildfire mitigation.
Just last year, California drafted a Wildfire and Forest Resilience Action Plan that will be executed by a Task Force of the same name. You can read the full plan here: https://www.fire.ca.gov/media/ps4p2vck/californiawildfireandforestresilienceactionplan.pdf. This plan identifies four overarching goals: 1.) increase the pace and scale of forest health projects; 2.) strengthen protection of communities; 3.) manage forests to achieve the state’s economic and environmental goals; and 4.) drive innovation and measure progress. Successfully implementing this plan will require widespread cooperation between state, tribal, federal, regional, and local organizations. We have only just begun flexing the full force of our combined strength!
California spends billions of dollars reacting to wildfires, desperately responding to repeated disasters after the conflagrations have already begun. With this action plan, task force, and a huge influx of funding to the tune of billions more dollars from the Inflation Reduction Act, we are aggressively shifting to preventative measures.
I just recently learned from an excellent expert panelist discussion that for every dollar spent on preventative efforts, $3-$8 are saved in damages and losses from wildfire. Watch the full webinar here if you want to “nerd out” as hard as I do: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqvrxsC1ta0. Mind you, the webinar is two hours long but it is absolutely jam-packed full of information, valuable perspectives, and achievable solutions that can be accomplished with existing technology, indigenous tribal knowledge, and scientific understanding. After watching, I couldn’t help but think, “Hey, we might actually stand a chance! We can do this!”
First and foremost, as identified by the first goal of the Action Plan, California must scale up forest treatments (thinning, prescribed burning, reforestation) to a landscape level. Currently, projects cover only localized areas on the order of magnitude of several thousand (10^3) acres, but what we really need are projects that span tens or hundreds of thousands (10^4 or 10^5) of acres. This is a massive gap in what we’ve been doing versus what we need to do, but with enough people-power in a burgeoning workforce, we can strive toward a prosperous, healthy forest.
Such massive workloads will require conservancy collectives and cooperatives to pool their resources, share their data, streamline their forest treatments and wildfire responses, share funding rather than compete for it, and standardize reporting metrics so that all stakeholders and key players can measure progress in the same way. All of this is possible!
To any and all young people (or older folks looking for a new career path) I implore you to get involved in land and water management. There is no way to sustain any economy of any kind without nourishing a viable ecosystem around and within us. Everything we have, Earth has provided. Without salmon, we have no fisheries, no food. Without forests, we have no lumber or paper products. Without habitat, we have no game to hunt, no beautiful opportunities for recreation. Scaling up treatments to a landscape level requires ALL HANDS on deck. There is no shortage of work and all levels of land management are experiencing a huge influx of capital.
Trinity County is already tackling goal #2 (strengthening protection of communities) with rigor. The Resource Conservation District and Watershed Research and Training Center have been scaling up fuels reduction, chipping, and burning projects in the WUI (wildland urban interface/intermix) all across the county. Some insurance companies are being legislatively pressured to offer discounts to homeowners who take preventative measures against wildfire. CAL FIRE has tons of information on home hardening and creating sufficient defensible space (https://www.fire.ca.gov/dspace/). And if you really want to dig your heels in and rage back against the blazes, VOLUNTEER for your local fire department!
We always need more folks becoming familiar with the tools and techniques to manage the flames. Knowledge is our most powerful tool for dispelling fear. There is a paradigm shift unfolding, and someday we will learn to cohabitate with good, frequent, ecosystem-enriching low-intensity fires. Let’s GO!