Why an exceptionally high number of firefighters have died in wildfires this year
Tim Ingalsbee, a former wildland firefighter and the executive director of the advocacy group Firefighters United for Safety, Ethics, and Ecology, said this year's spike in injuries and deaths is a sign of overaggressive tactics: "a predictable result of the worst policy choices in the worst possible conditions," he said.
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"It has been the perfect firestorm of severe climate-driven conditions that are conducive to easy ignition, rapid fire spread, large fire growth, and erratic fire behavior," Ingalsbee said.
America is losing its war against wildfire
Prescribed fire offers what the agency has become less tolerant of losing: control. But Tim Ingalsbee, executive director of advocacy group Firefighters United for Safety, Ethics, and Ecology (FUSEE), said a war on wildfire is unwinnable. “We’re just throwing good money after bad in these reactive, siege-like suppression spectacles, versus proactive preparation and treatments within communities.”
‘Like Trying to Fly a Plane While You’re Building It’
The airplane metaphor has become a common theme in conversations among wildland firefighters discussing the U.S. Wildland Fire Service (WFS). President Trump issued Executive Order 14308 mandating consolidation of federal wildfire programs, and the new agency is the product of that executive order, which seeks to combine fire programs of five different federal agencies across two Cabinet-level departments. The order set a deadline of 90 days for the agencies to complete consolidation. A year later, during a record-setting wildfire year, federal fire consolidation is far from complete.
Forest Service delays public rollout of its proposed repeal of Roadless Rule
The documents were expected to be released earlier this year, according to the agency.
In April, and in the absence of public meetings, Oregon-based groups hosted town halls in Portland, Bend and Eugene. Nearly 100 people gathered at Gratitude Brewing in Eugene to hear from local advocates and leaders, including Lane County Commissioner Laurie Trieger.
During that event, organizers with Oregon Wild, Cascadia Wildlands, and Firefighters United for Safety Ethics and Ecology outlined how people could prepare to comment again, anticipating another public comment period would open soon.
‘Scientifically inaccurate’: Wildland firefighters speak out against Roadless Rule repeal
While the USDA argues that the rollback will reduce the risk of wildfires, FUSEE says that is scientifically inaccurate.
“It is the professional opinion of the wildland firefighters who signed the letter that rescinding this rule will have the opposite effect,” FUSEE said in a press release announcing the letter.
Wildland Firefighters Issue Open Letter Opposing Trump Administration’s Plan to End the ‘Roadless Rule’ in National Forests
“Rescinding the Roadless Rule will push more firefighters into high-exposure, low-value suppression assignments while pulling resources away from at-risk communities.”
This knowledge, gained by years of on-the-ground firefighting experience, aligns with scientific research.
Oregon’s historic wildfires: unusual but not unprecedented
The most common word being used to describe Oregon’s ongoing wildfire cataclysm is “unprecedented.”
That’s certainly the case in modern recorded history when it comes to the sheer number of conflagrations and megafires that erupted starting Labor Day. A powerful windstorm caused fires to race through Oregon’s typically more fire-resistant forests on the west side of the Cascades for 72 hours.
Mastering fire with fire
This is the reality now while there's increasing wildfire activity, and we've done and tried our best to change nature to our liking. It's time that we start getting a grip on our own behavior and the way we live our lives, you know with these flammable buildings fueled by all this fossil fuel burning, and that's something that we can control. We can solve for those issues and those problems. Once we do that, once we protect communities from fire, then we can start talking about how to manage and restore ecosystems with fire.