California Burning

Natural disasters are increasing across the nation. In the West, these disasters often come in the form of wildfire, and perhaps no State understands the true cost of wildfire as California. This five part series takes a deep and critical look at how the State’s fire-prone forests have been managed, and how we can all learn from the past to be better stewards of the land and avoid catastrophic wildfires in the future. site

On the fifth and final episode of California Burning, we look for solutions that address the many different factors associated with wildfires. page pdf

This includes a talk about alternative building materials that can withstand fire, and a tour of a fire resistant house that survived the Carr fire while the rest of his neighborhood burnt.

We’ll also hear from a man starting a movement to restore ecosystems as well as a business woman using biochar to address the problems surrounding excess forest fuel and dead trees from bark beetle infestations.

Wendell Gilgert: I tell all the young people that I work with, it's not rocket science. It's more complex than that. It's tremendously complex. You know, cause you've got all these systems that are moving in different ways and all these processes and then you lay on top of that politics and economics and culture and sociology. So how the world works through all these different lenses that we all have to filter them through, then becomes incredibly complex. You know, putting a man on the moon is a trajectory. You know, we can figure that out with math and engineering. But the most difficult thing for humans to do is to live on an acre of land without spoiling it. And we have not figured out a way to do that yet.

John D. Liu: And so that's what we need to do. So who can do that? Well, the homeless people can do that. Young people who want to do that can do that. Retired people who want to do that, everybody can do that and you know all the students, every single person should know about this because every civilization that didn't protect their ecological systems and those systems collapsed, those civilizations failed and the sand is blowing over the ruins of once great civilizations around the world.

Point Blue's 160 scientists develop nature-based solutions to climate change, habitat loss, and other environmental threats to benefit wildlife and people. site search

The soil that produces our nation’s food supply is a weakened link slowly failing under ongoing strain. post

Before colonizers arrived in California, controlled burns had positive effect. post

1793: José Joaquín de Arrillaga, the Spanish governor of California, prohibits all burning and calls for using “the most severe punishment” to enforce this policy. 1850: The first meeting of the California Legislature outlaws intentionally setting large fires, as part of a horrifically racist act directed against Native Americans. 1905: The U.S. Forest Service is established with a policy of fire suppression. 1910: The Great Idaho Fire kills at least 85 people, including 78 firefighters, and burns more than 3 million acres of land. 1911: Influenced by the fire season of 1910, President William Taft signs into law the Weeks Act of 1911, in part providing cooperation for firefighting between federal, state and private actors. 1933: Federal government creates the Civilian Conservation Corps, recruiting thousands to fight fire. 1935: U.S. Forest Service establishes “10 a.m. policy,” which directed that all fires be suppressed by 10 a.m. the next day. 1944: U.S. Forest Service creates the Smokey Bear mascot to promote its fire-prevention message. 1963: UC Berkeley Professor A. Starker Leopold suggests the use of prescribed fire to the Department of the Interior. 1968: U.S. National Park Service begins to allow lightning fires to burn within special fire management zones. 1970S: U.S. Forest Service allows some lightning fires to burn on its lands, abandons 10 a.m. policy and encourages more prescribed fires. 1989: Federal government places tighter limits on “let-it-burn” policies after major wildfires through Yellowstone National Park. 2022: A California law reducing liability risk for prescribed burns and cultural burns takes effect in January.

Restoring Balance to the Land at Tryon Creek. pdf