Silver Fire Defies Popular Beliefs About Wildfire l (That older “overgrown” vegetation is the cause of large wildfires)

Silver Fire Defies Popular Beliefs About Wildfire by Burning Within the Deadly 2006 Esperanza Fire Scar

Esperanza Fire

According to conventional wisdom, the seven-year-old vegetation was not supposed to burn

SAN DIEGO, Calif. – Defying the fundamental assumption underlying Cal Fire’s new vegetation treatment proposal (that older “overgrown” vegetation is the cause of large wildfires), the devastating Silver Fire near Banning, California, burned through invasive weeds and young, desert chaparral recovering from the deadly 2006 Esperanza Fire (see attached map). Such high fire frequency will lead to the spread of more weeds and the loss of native chaparral.

Proponents of backcountry vegetation treatments have maintained that the cause of large wildfires is unnatural “fuel” build up due to past fire suppression efforts. Younger fuels, they maintain, will not carry a fire. For example, in commenting on the July 2013 Mountain Fire near Idyllwild, UC Riverside geographer, Dr. Richard Minnich, maintained that allowing fires to consume as many acres as possible would increase the protection of nearby communities for fifty years (Press Enterprise 7/18/13). The loss of 26 homes and the burning of young vegetation by the Silver Fire contradicts Dr. Minnich’s contention that much of southern California is in pretty good shape because older vegetation burned off during a spate of wildfires over the past decade (KPCC 8/10/13).

While sounding intuitively correct, such fuel-focused perspectives are not supported by the most recent scientific research. With a rapidly drying climate and an increasing population causing more ignitions, whether the fuel be weedy grasses, young or old native shrubs, or trees, southern California wildfires will likely continue to be large and intense.

Like earthquakes, large wildland fires in southern California are inevitable. Instead of trying to prevent them by clearing large areas of backcountry habitat, we need to use strategies that have been proven to be the most effective in protecting lives, property, and the natural environment from wildland fire. Namely, create communities that are firesafe through hazard relevant zoning, fire resistant construction and retrofits, appropriate defensible space, and strategic fuel breaks (within 1,000 feet of homes) in conjunction with firefighter safety zones. For those communities in indefensible locations, evacuate the residents, then focus firefighting resources on communities that are defensible. Such an approach needs to be incorporated into Cal Fire’s proposed Vegetation Treatment Plan.

Additional information regarding the most recent science on fire is available on our website:

http://www.californiachaparral.org/fire/firescience.html

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CFN - California Fire News 2013 

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Fire Service Unfairly Blamed for Large Wildland Fires - California Chaparral Institute #CaFire

 Research rejects past fire suppression and “unnatural” fuel build-up as factors in the size and occurrence of large fires in southern California  

Fire Service Unfairly Blamed for Wildfires

  SAN DIEGO, Calif. – A new scientific review and five major studies now refute the often repeated notion that past fire suppression and “unnatural” fuel build-up are responsible for large, high-intensity fires in southern California. Such fires are a natural feature of the landscape. Fire suppression has been crucial in protecting native shrubland ecosystems that are suffering from too much fire rather than not enough. 

 The research has also shown that the creation of mixed-age classes (mosaics) of native chaparral shrublands through fuel treatments like prescribed burns will not provide reliable barriers to fire spread; however, strategic placement may benefit fire suppression activities.

The research will be presented during a special California Board of Forestry hearing, August 8, 2013, 8am, at the Four Points Sheraton Hotel, in Ventura, California.

  Advocates of the fire suppression/mosaic view often misinterpret the research and ignore contrary information. For example, the recent Mountain fire near Idyllwild in the San Bernardino National Forest was blamed on 130 years of fire suppression. More than half of the area had burned in the 1980s. A 770 acre portion had burned five years ago. The 2007 fires in southern California re-burned nearly 70,000 acres that had burned in 2003. 

The majority of southern California’s native habitats are threatened by too much fire rather than not enough. This is especially true for chaparral, sage scrub, and desert habitats. Fires less than ten to twenty years apart can convert native shrublands to highly flammable, non-native grasslands.  

 “All of us need to take responsibility in making our homes and communities fire safe,” said Richard Halsey, director of the California Chaparral Institute. “Political leaders also need to find the courage to prevent developments from being built in high fire hazard locations. Blaming the fire service for large, intense fires because of their past efforts to protect lives, property, and the environment from wildfires is counterproductive and contrary to the science.”   

 The scientific review can be found here: http://www.californiachaparral.org/images/Halsey_and_Tweed_Why_Large_Wildfires_F S_Paradigm.pdf  PO Box 545 • Escondido, CA 92033  • 769-822-0029                                  www.californiachaparral.org         
   

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