I just listened to an episode of the Times’ Daily about this year’s fire season, and some of the points resonated. While we’re being told all about climate change’s role, the concern that nearly a century of government mismanagement of the entire forest system is being pushed aside. I honestly thought we’d learned our lessons from the Yellowstone fires of 1988 — that our overmanagement and suppression of fires made them worse — but it seems that in some cases the message wasn’t presented strongly enough.
Of course, one of the problems is that rich people live up there in the mountains, and so they’ve got the attention of the politicians — the ones who make the policies that protect wealthy landowners’ playgrounds. Throw in environmentalists whose fights against logging and clearing of land have left many stands uncleared and unkempt. And of course there’s drought, which happens whether the climate is changing or not. All of these things together make for a disaster waiting to happen. And it did this year.
This video talks a bit about this, and I especially appreciate the Native American perspective. They understand how to be good stewards of the land on which they live. We should certainly listen.