With Fire Memory Fading, It's Time for Action
It's easy to forget and move on to the next disaster, but our forests in Southern California are still dangerously overgrown.
Nearly two months ago, monster fires swept across Southern California, killing 26 people, destroying 3640 homes, burning 739,597 acres, causing .2 billion in losses, and costing taxpayers more than 0 million to contain.
For those directly affected, the fires will never be forgotten. But, the monster fires - just images on TV to many - are becoming a memory that is already fading. It's easy to forget and move on to the next disaster, the next issue.
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However, this is one issue that must be addressed before we move on. Though the fires have passed, the threat remains: forest density has reached 200 to 500 trees per acre - 10 times what is natural. And the vast majority of the trees in the San Bernardino Mountains, dead and dying, stand ready to fuel the next monster fire.
The danger is still here. So, the question is: What are we going to do to protect lives and property, and restore our forests to a more natural and fire-resistant condition?
There are two choices for the future of Southern California's forests and brushlands, and no middle ground for debate.
First, leave them alone, or the "hands off" option. This means dooming hundreds of thousands of acres. No longer will people in this region enjoy shady forests of huge pines and firs. Instead, they will see thickets of oak and brush, and many animals will disappear. Not only that, but this option will pass to future generations an unending cycle of death and destruction from fire and insects, as well as accelerating costs for firefighting, and rehabilitating forests, brushlands, and communities.
Our second option is to restore the natural fire- and insect-resistant forests, and diverse natural brushlands, through active management. This would enhance watersheds and water quality, improve habitat for native wildlife, and expand scenic and recreational opportunities. Most importantly, it would secure a safe future for the people of Southern California by protecting communities and breaking the cycle of monster fires.
Both options cost money.
However, it may surprise you which one would cost more.
The "hands off" option will cost taxpayers at least seven times as much as the "management" option, not including the cost in lives and destruction of public and private property. The ratio in favor of management could be even higher by subtracting the economic value that might be derived from selling wood products and clean biomass energy.
There choice is clear. Active management is essential if we are to secure a safe and sustainable future for our forests and brushlands, and the people who depend on them.
We should manage these lands using history as a model for the future. The most important lesson we can learn is that historic forests and brushlands were sustainable, diverse, and far less susceptible to the monster fires we see today.
Historically, most of California's forests were open because Native American and lightning fires burned regularly. Fires usually crept along the ground, but some spots burned hot. Such scattered hot spots kept forests diverse by creating openings where young trees and shrubs could grow.
Brushlands like chaparral and coastal sage burned hotter than forests. These hot fires often swept over thousands of acres. They usually burned patches of a few thousand acres, sometimes larger, but seldom, if ever, hundreds of thousands of acres as we see today.
The patchiness of historic forests and brushlands is the key to their restoration and the solution to the wildfire problem. Some patches were freshly burned; others were young or old, depending on how many years passed since fire created a new opening where plants could grow. Young patches were hard to burn while older thicker patches burned easily. This variety of patches helped to contain hot fires by keeping them from spreading over large areas.
Today, the patchiness of our forests and brushlands is gone due to more than a century of fire control and preservation. So, they have lost their immunity to monster fires. Fires now spread across landscapes because we let most patches grow old and thick, and there are few
less- flammable younger patches left to slow the flames.
The evidence is clear. We cannot blame people for living in fire-prone rural areas because they want a more enjoyable lifestyle for their families. Fires may be inevitable, but not the monster fires that we created by failing to be good stewards of our forests and brushlands.
We must restore our forests and brushlands to a more fire-resistant condition by recreating the historic mosaic of patches. The less-flammable younger patches will contain hot fires and make them easier to extinguish. This, in combination with modern and effective firefighting organizations and less-flammable structures, will break the cycle of monster fires and protect the lives and property of the people of Southern California.
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Thomas M. Bonnicksen, Ph.D., is an historian of North American forests and the originator of "restoration forestry." He is professor emeritus of forest science at Texas A&M University, visiting scholar at The Forest Foundation,and author of "America's Ancient Forests" (John Wiley, 2000).