MoAlpha

Just remember, it’s not just the lungs and airways that take a hit. PM2.5 pass from the respiratory surfaces into the bloodstream and cause endothelial damage, increasing heart attack and stroke risk among other things. Nasty, nasty stuff.

indyfabz

You mean like twigs for birds' nests?

rm -rf

Fire area compared to previous years. It's likely to get worse, since summers have thunderstorms with lightning and not much rain.

https://news.yahoo.com/north-america...125825693.html

rumrunn6

time for DIY home air filters. or at least get prepared with these supplies, because when you need them they might be hard to get

SkinGriz

There was timber that just got smoked by Wrightwood that was worth harvesting as far as DBH goes.

Point being the current no interference except to extinguish paradigm doesn’t work.

Burning is the only natural way to get rid of excess fuel. Bitter pill to swallow.

terrymorse 

Those things will make a dent in California's forest problems. The mega-drought has killed so many big, mature trees. 150 million at a a recent count, with 36 million more last year.

40 million acres of forest. Powder keg forest.




Meanwhile, the AQI in Northern California is surprisingly good. For the moment.

SkinGriz

If it’s not harvestable, burn it.
If the drought killed the trees, burn them.
How do you cleanse a forest of pests like pine beetles?
Burn it.
How do you open the forest floor so the deer, quail, and turkey can eat?

Before “modern” forestry everything Rockies and west burnt hot and frequent.

terrymorse 

I don't think simply doing prescribed burns to remove sick and dead trees is going to work in the West. There's so much fuel that every fire is now a potential wildfire disaster.

Fires are happening so often in the same places that trees aren't growing mature enough to produce seeds, so there will be no trees growing to replace the burned ones. No seeds, no forest.

rumrunn6

wow look at all those homes surrounded so closely by those trees! aren't there rules about clearing trees a certain distance from homes due to fire dangers?

terrymorse 

There are "defensible space" rules that specify clearing up to 100 feet from any structure. Bass Lake (pictured above) is in Madera County, which has this requirement:

"Fuels shall be maintained in a condition so that a wildfire burning under average weather conditions would be unlikely to ignite the structure."

My parents once owned a cabin in Bass Lake, surrounded by 100-150 ft. pine trees, and we had to clear the property of fuel (mostly pine needles) often. But those huge living trees were never considered a threat in a fire. The forest was healthy then.

My sister used to live in Auberry, and their property had lots of these tall pines. A few years ago, they all died at once due from drought. Cal Fire required them to remove them.