![]() You can’t take one year and say that’s a trend Eric Knapp Last year, the state exceeded its goal to treat 100,000 acres, and officials say the added resource availability this year has put agencies on track to meet or exceed that figure in 2022. Newsom touted his administration’s $2.8bn allocation for forest management, preparedness and mitigation, and highlighted a federal partnership that set a goal of treating 1m acres annually by 2025. “We have not made up for 100 years of neglect,” said Governor Gavin Newsom, flanked by a row of firefighters, during a November news conference declaring the end of peak wildfire season. Policy has been slow to shift, but agencies at the state and federal level have poured unprecedented funding into plans and treatments this year hoping to accelerate sluggish progress. ![]() “We need to continue to work on this and expect the worst outcomes until we do something different,” she said, “and we don’t have a lot of time.” Quinn-Davidson agrees that California’s agencies and communities have to be nimble and ready to do fire mitigation work when conditions are right and resources are available, because next year is unlikely to offer the same opportunities. “We got lucky this year with well-timed precipitation that quenched some of the fires that had potential to become larger,” he said, adding that the early onset of rains and an unusually cool autumn reduced the risks that typically stretch later into the year. ![]() “We still face significant risk of megafire in the next fire season, and we need to double down on forest management strategies that are better aligned with the needs of these fire-dependent ecosystems,” said Dr Alex Hall, director of the Center for Climate Science at the University of California, Los Angeles. We need to double down on forest management strategies that are better aligned with the needs of these ecosystems Dr Alex Hall But the windows to perform them safely are shifting, adding new dangers along with an increased urgency. But an accumulation of dry vegetation, fueled by decades of neglect by forest managers and a prolonged drought, has set the stage for megafires of extreme size and severity.įorest treatments, which include thinning the thickets and applying low-intensity flames close to the ground, are proven strategies to reduce the risk. Treating millions of fire-prone acres in California and other states across the west is an essential yet sisyphean task.įire is an important part of ecosystems across the American west. “But now is the time to continue to think about fire.” ‘We don’t have a lot of time’ “We dodged a bullet,” says Quinn-Davidson. The question now is whether California will use the quieter-than-expected season to its advantage. Scientists and fire officials are hopeful that the surprisingly smaller season has freed resources and broadened the windows during which essential landscape treatments that help stave off catastrophic fires can be performed. Graphic showing the number of acres burned and total number of fires in California from 2012 to 2022. She and other experts say the perceived lull is more of an anomaly than a hopeful trend. Despite the welcome reprieve brought by fewer acres burned, the dangers posed by the climate crisis have not dulled. “There is this element of luck to it – and this year, we got really lucky,” said Lenya N Quinn-Davidson, an area fire adviser with the University of California’s Cooperative Extension, a research institution. There is this element of luck to it – and this year, we got really lucky Lenya N Quinn-Davidson ![]() The patches of high-intensity burning that consumed mountain towns and turned tree-covered slopes into moonscapes offer a glimpse of the risks that remain, as well as a reminder that it could have been a lot worse. Nine people lost their lives and communities were destroyed. Fires may have been comparatively smaller than previous years, but some still burned fiercely, leaving devastation in their wake. Resource availability played a role, but so did helpful timing, as weather conditions continuously aligned in California’s favor, ensuring enough firefighters were available to battle each blaze from the onset.īut even with smaller numbers, the state wasn’t spared. The number of fires sparked remained similar to past seasons, indicating most were stopped before they ballooned in size. More than 4.2m acres burned across the state that year, the most in California’s history. A Joshua tree stands in front of the Bobcat fire on 19 September 2020, in Juniper Hills, California.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |