Was it Incompetence or Climate Change?

Let us state something that should be obvious.  The surpus fuel problem is just too big to allow proper handling and we have progressively expnded housing into at risk areas.  who does not want his private home out in the woods?

fuel surplus needs to be burned off on a steady schedule that is easily established and is typically several years apart.  It is a surface burn that clears out the surface fuel and also knocks back the underbrush and usually does not do lasting damage to the trees themselves who also need grooming and thinning.

Our current problem is actually building in this environment and it does not get better because fuel elimination is no ones priority.  We build willy nilly and let someone else sweat the fire detail.  like building on a flood plain or on the coast for that matter.

Do not live in a fuel rich environment.  Make sure you have a wide fire break.  governments need to get such lands off the tax rolls.  

Was it Incompetence or Climate Change?

August 31, 2023 by Brian Wang

https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2023/08/was-it-incompetence-or-climate-change.html#more-186479

Various unfortunate events have been some blaming climate change. The Maui fire, Canadian wildfires, years of California wildfires and food inflation.

Maui Grass Problem

Maui did not fix its vegetation problem for years.

The root cause of the Maui fire was addressed in the Wall Street Journal, NY Times and other reporting. The WSJ titled: “Everybody Knew the Invasive Grass of Maui Posed a Deadly Fire Threat, but Few Acted.” Warnings went unheeded about the abandoned plantations above Lahaina; buildup of vegetation fueled ‘catastrophic’ spread.

NY Post – The grasses — including guinea grass, molasses grass and buffelgrass — were brought to the islands from Africa as livestock forage and were considered effective because they proved drought-resistant, experts say. But their advantages have backfired. “These grasses are highly aggressive, grow very fast and are highly flammable,” said Melissa Chimera, whose grandmother lived on the Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Co.’s plantation in Maui after emigrating from the Philippines.

Maui wildfires in 2018 destroyed 21 homes. In 2018, Clay Trauernicht, a specialist in wildland fire science and management at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, sounded the alarm in a letter in 2018, to the Maui News.

Then during the Maui fire the grid was not turned off and water was not diverted to fight the fire.

California 140+ Million Dead Trees and Not Controlled Burning Them

California has not fixed its dead tree problems for over a decade.Florida leads the way with controlled burns and burned more than 2 million acres last year. Why is California having less than 4 of the controlled burns of Florida (60,000 acres versus over 2 million)?

Wildfire control protocols from 1977.

FUELBREAKS AND OTHER FUEL MODIFICATION FOR WILDLAND FIRE CONTROL

Lisle R. Green, Supervisory Range Scientist

Pacific Southwest Forest and Range Experiment Station

Agriculture Handbook No. 499

April 1977

For over 100 years, there have been procedures around managing forests and using fire to clear out dead trees. The competent management of forests is a procedure that was known for over 100 years. Climate change only works as an excuse if you do everything right and things still more.