Federal money will support Native American burn practices in Oregon’s oak habitats
A project incorporating traditional Native American management practices for oak habitat restoration in Oregon has been awarded $9.23 million.
The project also seeks to permanently protect designated oak savannas and woodlands, and give Native Americans access to them for cultural use and environmental stewardship.
Federal money will support Native American burn practices in Oregon’s oak habitats
A project incorporating traditional Native American management practices for oak habitat restoration in Oregon has been awarded $9.23 million. The USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service awarded the money, which will go to the Oregon Agricultural Trust and its partners.
The traditional management practices include setting fire to the landscape in order to rejuvenate certain plants, eradicate pests, and reduce slash and debris, commonly known as “cultural burns.”
Park Service should refrain from planting sequoia seedlings and let nature do its job
The death of numerous sequoias got lots of media coverage, though subsequent analyses are finding many trees assumed to have been killed are in fact alive. More recently, attention has shifted to what’s happening with sequoia regrowth after the fire. There’s been a concerning lack of new sequoia seedlings surviving over the past century, putting the future of sequoia ecosystems in doubt.
This is what I witnessed in Redwood Mountain Grove: verdant carpets of young sequoias stretching up to my knees and covering the hillsides. And this new generation is thriving. Researchers are finding high survival rates, vigorous growth and new seedlings continuing to emerge two years after fire.
Read more at: https://www.sacbee.com/opinion/op-ed/article280709210.html#storylink=cpy
America’s new wildfire risk goes beyond forests
Forest fires may get more attention, but a new study reveals that grassland fires are more widespread and destructive across the United States. Almost every year since 1990, the study found, grass and shrub fires burned more land than forest fires did, and they destroyed more homes, too.
Why many scientists are now saying climate change is an all-out ‘emergency’
“Scientists are more willing to speak out,” Ripple said. “As a group, we’ve been pretty hesitant, historically.” But, he added, “I feel like scientists have a moral obligation to warn humanity.”
'Get bitten by the fire': Book explores wildfire's mystique, science in a shifting climate
Science journalist M.R. O'Connor's new book "Ignition," published Tuesday by Bold Type Books, will make you fall in love with the flickering, challenging mystery of fire, and even, cautiously, with its fearful ferocity.
How megafires are remaking the world
This incendiary age, which some scientists have called the Pyrocene, could lead to “a wholesale conversion of what habitats are where on the planet,” Dr. Hodges said. “Right now, everybody is talking about fires and smoke and who dies, because of the immediacy of this fire year. But really, truly, the long-term consequences are much more severe and sustained.”
This wildfire season, here’s another terrifying threat to worry about
Members of Congress have already proposed bipartisan bills that could shore up pay and benefits for our firefighters. It’s imperative that our government take legislative action to permanently secure and stabilize the earnings of those bravely defending our communities.The consequences of inaction are dire. If lawmakers don’t stabilize firefighter pay, about a third to half of the 11,000 U.S. Forest Service firefighters could leave the service, according to the National Federation of Federal Employees.
Thousands of federal firefighters face a looming pay cut. How much is up to Congress
Federal wildland firefighters were on the frontlines of some of the harshest wildfires to hit the U.S. and Canada this summer. But as Congress is inching towards its Sept. 30 deadline to fund the government, those firefighters stand to lose half their salaries.
The threat of wildfires is rising. So are new artificial intelligence solutions to fight them
Wildfires fueled by climate change have ravaged communities from Maui to the Mediterranean this summer, killing many people, exhausting firefighters and fueling demand for new solutions. Enter artificial intelligence.
Firefighters and startups are using AI-enabled cameras to scan the horizon for signs of smoke. A German company is building a constellation of satellites to detect fires from space. And Microsoft is using AI models to predict where the next blaze could be sparked.
With wildfires becoming larger and more intense as the world warms, firefighters, utilities and governments are scrambling to get ahead of the flames by tapping into the latest AI technology — which has stirred both fear and excitement for its potential to transform life. While increasingly stretched first responders hope AI offers them a leg up, humans are still needed to check that the tech is accurate.
Learn to live with wildfire smoke, British Columbians told
British Columbians are going to have to live with the health effects of huge forest fires for decades to come and need to be prepared to protect themselves individually and as communities.
“We are going to have to face this again and again and again,” Health Minister Adrian Dix said.
He said it means training and hiring more nurses and providing greater support to health workers as they work with affected people in communities.
And, he stressed, among those most affected by fires and the resulting evacuation alerts and orders are the elderly living in care homes.
A Northern California tribe works to protect traditions in a warming world
"One of the first things the government outlawed was cultural burning," said the Southern Sierra Miwuk's Lerma.
State officials made this tribal practice of igniting small fires illegal in 1850. The years of fire suppression that followed have made wildfires worse.
"'Smokey the Bear' all over the place," said Fouch-Moore. "And now our forests are overgrown and in bad health. And they're like, 'Oh wait, maybe we should let the Indians do their thing.'"
In recent years, the National Park Service and the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE) have started to collaborate with Indigenous communities to return traditional burning to the land.
Preparing homes for wildfires is big business that's only getting started
Some insurance companies give people a break if they invest in home hardening. These are long-recommended techniques: fire-resistant roofs, covered gutters, no plants or mulch within 5 feet of the house, mesh on air vents that can stop embers from flying inside.
America’s fire spotters aren’t ready to fade away just yet
Wildfires unfold across vast, difficult terrain, in fast-changing conditions and with a frightening amount of random chance. In places like Glacier, officials don’t just put them all out. They must decide, sometimes hour by hour, whether letting a fire burn might provide ecological benefits or whether it is threatening enough lives and property to justify putting firefighters at risk.
New technology aids in these decisions, said Andy Huntsberger, a district fire management officer in the Flathead. But “it doesn’t replace the human element,” he said.
Climate change boosts risk of explosive wildfire growth in California by 25%, study says
Climate change has ratcheted up the risk of explosive wildfire growth in California by 25% and will continue to drive extreme fire behavior for decades to come, even if planet-warming emissions are reduced, a new study has found.
Living with wildfire: How to protect more homes as fire risk rises in a warming climate
Humans have learned to fear wildfire. It can destroy communities, torch pristine forests and choke even faraway cities with toxic smoke.
Wildfire is scary for good reason, and over a century of fire suppression efforts has conditioned people to expect wildland firefighters to snuff it out. But as journalist Nick Mott and I explore our new book, “This Is Wildfire: How to Protect Your Home, Yourself, and Your Community in the Age of Heat,” and in our podcast “Fireline,” this expectation and the approach to wildfire will have to change.
Over time, extensive fire suppression has set the stage for the increasingly destructive wildfires we see today.
North America’s summer of wildfire smoke: 2023 was only the beginning
The pressing question on many people’s minds: “Is this the new normal?” From our perspective as air quality scientists, we think the answer is likely “yes.”
How Indigenous techniques saved a community from wildfire
“When you think about how wildfire seasons are playing out, if we invested more into the proactive, then we would need less of that reactive wildfire response,” said Kira Hoffman, a wildfire researcher at the University of British Columbia. “We’re not going to see probably the effects of a lot of this mitigation and treatment for 10 or 20 years. But that’s when we’re really going to need it.”
Wildfires are an essential component of the natural cycle of forests, but in recent years, more of them have grown so big that containment is nearly impossible. Fire prevention zones — created in the offseason — can help slow approaching blazes so that people can escape, and can also enable firefighters to gain control over some areas.
We need to rethink wildfire in order to better protect ourselves
A wildfire on a Hawaiian island might appear at first glance like an anomaly. But the factors that created it—heat, drought, and wind—make fires like this one a possibility across much of America. Driven by a changing climate, a century of forest mismanagement, and more development in fire–prone areas, devastating fires are becoming the norm. Those dramatic images can leave us feeling powerless in the overwhelming force of fire. But that doesn’t have to be the case.