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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, AUGUST 31, 2018
editor@dailyastorian.com
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PRO-CON
Jae C. Hong/AP Photo
Tim Grant watches a wildfire burn in the
Cleveland National Forest near El Cariso, Calif.
IS CLIMATE CHANGE SPARKING
RECORD-BREAKING FOREST FIRES?
PRO: Climate change clearly
is a major culprit in the fires
devastating the western US
ANTA CLARA, Calif. — California is
agement has intercepted these processes and
burning, but it is hardly alone. Up and
mainly centered on fire suppression.
down the western half of the country,
The goals were laudable: Agencies kept the
92 wildfires are currently raging in states as
general public safe and protected lands and
diverse as Oregon, Alaska, Idaho and Arizona. natural resources such as timber and oil.
At the heart of the crisis, California is in the
Yet we may have done more harm than
middle of another record-breaking fire season,
good. Although fire suppression may satisfy
with 820,000 acres across the state already
short-term goals, in the long run, it encourages
ravaged — twice as many as by this point last
the growth of denser forests with less fire-re-
sistant species and more fuel, greatly exacer-
year. Three of California’s biggest recorded
bating the size and intensity of wildfires.
fires are burning right now.
We may be able to learn from California
While we cannot pin a particular fire on
— a state that has larger populations, more
climate change, their bundled appearance
extreme droughts, a history of intense forest
is consistent with the processes scientists
management and greater susceptibility to
understand and can describe, measure and
warming than most.
calculate.
Along with an intense fire sea-
And while part of our current fire
son, 2018 is shaping up to be the
crisis most certainly has its roots in
fourth-warmest year on record, only
forest management practices and
exceeded by the three previous years.
human settlement patterns, we now
In California, these warm years
have an opportunity to plan for a fire
have been overlapping with the most
future without putting on blinkers
IRIS
intense drought in recorded history.
when it comes to climate.
STEWART
Throughout the West, drought and
Healthy forests are vibrant eco-
FREY
systems that provide us with water,
heat have weakened trees and made
timber, biodiversity, recreational
them susceptible to disease and pests
opportunities and living spaces. They are part
such as the pine beetle that devastates forests
of why so many people find California and the
as far north as Canada.
Dead and weakened trees and excessive
West attractive places.
wood fuel from fire suppression have turned
On our current trajectory, we continue to
California into one giant tinderbox.
suppress low-intensity fires in increasingly
So can we blame those raging fires on
warmer environments, and are setting
human-induced climate change? Based on
ourselves up for more frequent and intense
physical processes, elevated greenhouse gas
mega-fires.
concentrations make warmer temperatures,
Alternatively, we can rethink our path for-
ward to help our forests establish a new equi-
shifts in precipitation and climatic extremes
librium between tree growth, fuel generation,
much more likely.
Although there is still much to learn about
low-intensity fire and warmer temperatures.
the way fires burn, warmer temperatures and
Most likely that would mean some con-
intense droughts facilitate extreme fire seasons trolled burns and greater control of where and
The costs of suppressing fires have reached how people live in regions of high fire risk. It
an all-time high, a mind-boggling $2.9 billion
would also mean that we need to fund research
in 2017 for California alone, and it is time to
and projects in areas as diverse as fire behav-
ior, disaster preparedness, economic recovery
take a no-nonsense look at what we can do
and forest restoration.
better.
Yes, we can talk about extreme fires with-
We also need to accept a transition period
out mentioning what often cannot be named
to this new strategy and its outcomes. In the
— climate change, but they are consistent with longer term, such an approach will save lives
what scientists expect from global warming.
and help us develop adaptation strategies to
In the West, natural forest systems period-
protect our economic and natural assets in a
ically burn with low-intensity fires that clear
changing world.
brush, help germination, and result in more
Iris Stewart Frey is an associate professor
fire, pest and disease-resistant open forests.
and chair of the Department of Environmental
Studies at Santa Clara University.
However, for over a century forest man-
S
CON: Climate change isn’t causing
California wildfires — blame lies
with bad forest management
D
ALLAS — California is suffering, yet
again, through a horrendous summer
MORE PHOTOS
of wildfires that are destroying forests,
View some of this summer’s devastating
homes — and lives. Many in the media seem
wildfires that are torching Western US states
to blame the size of the fires on climate change.
and those who are fighting them.
President Donald Trump had a different
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take in a recent tweet: “California wildfires are
being magnified & made so much worse by the
bad environmental laws ... Must also tree clear states. Wildfires took between 300,000 and
400,000 acres annually between 1940 and
to stop fire spreading!”
1985. There has been a steady increase ever
Trump is correct that human-caused poli-
cies may be playing a bigger role than human-
since. The current California wildfires have
consumed more than 1 million acres, according
caused climate change in the increasingly
to the Forest Service.
destructive wildfires.
Why the decades of smaller fires? Better-
For decades the U.S. Forest Service allowed
managed forests, especially when
logging companies to enter forests and
management focused on “select
clear out dead, stressed and diseased
cutting.”
trees and underbrush — all of which
But one of the purposes of the
are kindling for wildfires.
National Forest Management Act of
Between 1960 and 1990 roughly
1976 was to protect national forests
10 billion to 12 billion board feet of
from excessive logging. And it
timber was removed annually from
MERRILL
required forest planning based on a
national forests, according to the
MATTHEWS consensus of groups, including envi-
Forest Service. But a steady decline
ronmental organizations that tended to
led to only about 2.5 billion board feet
oppose the logging.
harvested in 2013, leaving forests filled with
In addition, the Engendered Species Act
dead and diseased trees.
tied the hands of effective management if spe-
As the Forest Service reported last
cific actions would have a perceived negative
December, in California “the total number of
impact on threatened species.
trees that have died due to drought and bark
Such changes ultimately made forest
beetles” reached an historic 129 million on 8.9
million acres. The dead trees continue to pose a management, in McClintock’s words, “all but
impossible.”
hazard to people and critical infrastructure ...”
The irony is that California Gov. Jerry
You can say that again! But it doesn’t have
Brown is dedicated to reducing carbon emis-
to be that way — and it wasn’t in the past.
sions — using more renewable energy sources,
California Rep. Tom McClintock, the
imposing higher mileage standards on cars and
Republican chairman of the Subcommittee on
Federal Lands, said at a committee hearing last trucks, etc. But the wildfires that have grown
so extensive on his watch undermine those
year: “The sale of excess timber ... provided
efforts.
a steady stream of revenue to the treasury and
The earth has been on a gradual warming
thousands of jobs to support local families. We
trend since the last ice age; there is very little
could match and maintain tree density to the
humans can do about that. And many climate
ability of the land to support it.”
scientists concede that most carbon-reducing
But, he continued, “Forty-five years ago,
proposals would have minimal impact on
we began imposing laws that have made the
management of our forests all but impossible.” rising temperatures.
But there is a lot we can do about reducing
The result of those changes has been a rapid
the size and intensity of wildfires, which would
expansion, not so much in the number but the
also reduce carbon emissions. And it starts
size of wildfires.
The Government Accountability Office has with embracing policies that were standard
practice decades ago. Well-managed forests are
published a chart showing the total number of
much safer and less-costly forests.
national forest acreage burned between 1910
Merrill Matthews is a resident scholar with
and 1997 — national forests, as opposed to
state and private forests, are mostly in western
the Institute for Policy Innovation.