With the growth of wildfires in the west over the last few days, many people are very upset. That includes me. Some of the areas burning are very special to me. But I want to share some biocentric perspectives on fire that are often missing.
First, as I say in this video, fires are mainly driven by climate, not fuels. That means that forest thinning and prescribed burns are, at a landscape scale, ineffective at reducing fire spread and intensity. George Wuerthner has written extensively about this.
This is a very important issue to me, as fires are always used as an excuse for more logging, both for forest thinning ("fuels management") and for "salvage." Burned forests are important carbon sinks and biodiverse wildlife habitat, and should be left alone to recover naturally. Logging is never good for forests.
Resources:
- Excellent interview with Ralph Bloemers on fire ecology: https://resistanceradioprn.podbean.com/e/resistance-radio-guest-ralph-bloemers/
- George Wuerthner: https://www.counterpunch.org/2022/08/08/yet-another-misleading-piece-on-wildfires-from-the-new-york-times/
#StopThinningForests #FireEcology #Fire #Ecology #Biocentrism #GlobalWarming
Exactly!