Oregon’s Labor Day wildfires raise controversial questions about how forests are managed
From a small airplane flying above the Holiday Farm and Beachie Creek fires, the extent and severity of the devastation look colossal, as if some angry god took a blowtorch to the landscape and didn’t stop until it lay in ruin.
Friendly Fire
Spurred by disasters like Hurricane Katrina and Superstorm Sandy, cities across the country have, over the past 15 years, learned to “live with water.” After more than a century of filling wetlands, damming rivers, and diverting streams and stormwater flows into concrete channels, public officials, influenced by a coterie of landscape architects and planners, have embraced the opposite strategy, investing in open space networks that use dynamic natural systems to slow, store, and absorb floodwaters.
Authorities Urge Orange County Residents To Stop Building Additions Onto Homes Currently On Fire
YORBA LINDA, CA—Asking the members of the wealthy local citizenry to put a brief pause on their construction projects, Orange County authorities reportedly urged residents Thursday to stop building additions onto homes that are currently on fire.
Land Managers Can’t Burn the West Fast Enough
The West will have many more summers like this past one. Extreme heat waves, wind events, and droughts will make severe, destructive fires an inevitability. The air will be choked with smoke from July to October, and tens of thousands of people will likely be displaced by wildfires in the next decade. For all of humanity’s attempts at setting boundaries between our spaces and wild ones, every summer proves that the two are irreversibly interwoven.
Experts To Western States: Time To Finally Fight Wildfires With More Fire
If historically flawed forest management is half the problem here – battling most every fire - the other half is the world's warming climate with hotter, drier conditions igniting a Century of built-up fuel.
See You On the Other Side
Although the terrain grew steeper and rockier and the brush appeared even thicker, somewhere near that rock outcropping, a Jet Ranger helicopter, 2 Tango Kilo (2TK), was holding a hover, unable to get under the smoke column. This was the same ship that had dropped us off just 30 minutes earlier.
Two firefighters badly burned as two wildfires in California's Orange County prompt evacuation of 71,000 homes
LOS ANGELES — Two rapidly spreading wildfires prompted the evacuation of more than 85,000 people in two cities in upscale sections of Southern California's Orange County, fire officials said Monday.
A burning planet: Why we must learn to live with fire
There is a paradox at the core of Earth’s unravelling firescapes.
'People are burned out': Brutal fire season is taking a toll on firefighters' mental health
Josh Baker just got home from a 50-day deployment to three California wildfires. Although his job wasn’t dangerous – he worked on a support team, making calls to track down equipment such as port-a-potties and bulldozers – the hours were long, the stakes were high and the work was exhausting.
Rethinking Our Relationship With Fire
During this fire season, millions of acres of land have burned throughout the western U.S., with over 4 million acres burned in California alone, and the fire season is not over. Fires have destroyed thousands of homes, dozens of lives have been lost, and persistent smoke from these fires has created hazardous air quality across the West. The long-term impacts of smoke inhalation are yet to be realized. Near Bozeman, we recently experienced the fast-moving Bridger Foothills Fire, which consumed 30 homes in a matter of hours.
Record wildfires continue to expand across Colorado
Colorado has become a major hotspot for record-breaking wildfires in the Western United States in the 2020 fire season with flames reaching the major population centers of Boulder and Fort Collins. As of Thursday, eleven different fires have been burning across the state razing over 550,000 acres and dozens of homes. Thousands of residents are under evacuation orders.
Homeowners taking fireproofing seriously after devastating wildfires
EUGENE, Ore. — Rebuilding after the Holiday Farm Fire left a trail of ash where homes used to be now has homeowners taking fireproofing seriously.
We talked with some people who are already planning for prevention in the next fire season.
Prescribed Burn Associations Are One Answer to California’s Megafires
For years, Wolfy Rougle was known as “the kale lady” at her local farmers' market. She grew the leafy green, along with other cool-season vegetables, on her farm in the blue oak woodland foothills of Tehama County, California. The garden and greenhouse took up a small fraction of her property—she left the rest undisturbed, save for cutting firewood and harvesting wild foods.
Amid devastating US fires, experts urge fire prevention rethink.
Tim Ingalsbee, a former wildland USFS and NPS firefighter who now runs the FUSEE think-tank told Al Jazeera huge wildfires could be prevented if there were a more robust state and national prescribed burn strategy. “There wouldn’t be the big catastrophic fires that burned small towns, it would not be the disaster we’re seeing today,” he said.
Trump reverses course, approving assistance for California wildfires
President Trump late Friday reversed course on providing assistance for California’s wildfires, granting the request just hours after denying it.
California has had its most devastating wildfire season in history, currently battling 12 major fires that have burned through more than 4 million acres, according to figures released by the state yesterday.
Trump rejects California request for major wildfire assistance
SACRAMENTO — President Donald Trump’s administration has rejected California’s request for a major disaster declaration tied to the Creek Fire and five other catastrophic blazes, a rare move considering the breadth and high-profile nature of the disaster.
Thoughtful Forest Management and Better Building Practices Can Help Mitigate the Impact of Wildfires
More than five million acres have burned across the West Coast in this year’s unusually severe wildfire season. Billowing smoke has traveled across the country, degrading air quality as far east as Washington, DC, and amplifying health risks for a nation still grappling with COVID-19.
Restoring California’s forests to reduce wildfire risks will take time, billions of dollars and a broad commitment
As California contends with its worst wildfire season in history, it’s more evident than ever that land management practices in the state’s forested mountains need major changes.