Stanford Researchers Publish First Paper to Quantify How Much Protection We Get From Beneficial Fires
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See California Wildlife Return to Wildfire Zones, Courtesy of Hidden Cameras
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California Wildfire Study: Spend on Prevention to Save on Disasters
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Born and raised in Tennessee, Shara loves to travel and has lived overseas in Italy, Japan and Australia.","avatar":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/9968feeee672a136559a0d7b615ee13e?s=600&d=blank&r=g","twitter":null,"facebook":null,"instagram":null,"linkedin":null,"sites":[{"site":"science","roles":["editor"]}],"headData":{"title":"Shara Tonn | KQED","description":null,"ogImgSrc":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/9968feeee672a136559a0d7b615ee13e?s=600&d=blank&r=g","twImgSrc":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/9968feeee672a136559a0d7b615ee13e?s=600&d=blank&r=g"},"isLoading":false,"link":"/author/stonn"},"dventon":{"type":"authors","id":"11088","meta":{"index":"authors_1591205172","id":"11088","found":true},"name":"Danielle Venton","firstName":"Danielle","lastName":"Venton","slug":"dventon","email":"dventon@kqed.org","display_author_email":true,"staff_mastheads":["science"],"title":"Science reporter","bio":"Danielle Venton is a reporter for KQED Science. She covers wildfires, space and oceans (though she is prone to sea sickness).\r\n\r\nBefore joining KQED in 2015, Danielle was a staff reporter at KRCB in Sonoma County and a freelancer. She studied science communication at UC Santa Cruz and formerly worked at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland where she wrote about computing. She lives in Sonoma County and enjoys backpacking.","avatar":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/ebaf11ee6cfb7bb40329a143d463829e?s=600&d=blank&r=g","twitter":"DanielleVenton","facebook":null,"instagram":null,"linkedin":null,"sites":[{"site":"arts","roles":["contributor"]},{"site":"news","roles":["editor"]},{"site":"futureofyou","roles":["editor"]},{"site":"science","roles":["editor"]}],"headData":{"title":"Danielle Venton | KQED","description":"Science reporter","ogImgSrc":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/ebaf11ee6cfb7bb40329a143d463829e?s=600&d=blank&r=g","twImgSrc":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/ebaf11ee6cfb7bb40329a143d463829e?s=600&d=blank&r=g"},"isLoading":false,"link":"/author/dventon"}},"breakingNewsReducer":{},"campaignFinanceReducer":{},"firebase":{"requesting":{},"requested":{},"timestamps":{},"data":{},"ordered":{},"auth":{"isLoaded":false,"isEmpty":true},"authError":null,"profile":{"isLoaded":false,"isEmpty":true},"listeners":{"byId":{},"allIds":[]},"isInitializing":false,"errors":[]},"navBarReducer":{"navBarId":"news","fullView":true,"showPlayer":false},"navMenuReducer":{"menus":[{"key":"menu1","items":[{"name":"News","link":"/","type":"title"},{"name":"Politics","link":"/politics"},{"name":"Science","link":"/science"},{"name":"Education","link":"/educationnews"},{"name":"Housing","link":"/housing"},{"name":"Immigration","link":"/immigration"},{"name":"Criminal Justice","link":"/criminaljustice"},{"name":"Silicon Valley","link":"/siliconvalley"},{"name":"Forum","link":"/forum"},{"name":"The California Report","link":"/californiareport"}]},{"key":"menu2","items":[{"name":"Arts & Culture","link":"/arts","type":"title"},{"name":"Critics’ Picks","link":"/thedolist"},{"name":"Cultural Commentary","link":"/artscommentary"},{"name":"Food & Drink","link":"/food"},{"name":"Bay Area Hip-Hop","link":"/bayareahiphop"},{"name":"Rebel Girls","link":"/rebelgirls"},{"name":"Arts Video","link":"/artsvideos"}]},{"key":"menu3","items":[{"name":"Podcasts","link":"/podcasts","type":"title"},{"name":"Bay Curious","link":"/podcasts/baycurious"},{"name":"Rightnowish","link":"/podcasts/rightnowish"},{"name":"The Bay","link":"/podcasts/thebay"},{"name":"On Our Watch","link":"/podcasts/onourwatch"},{"name":"Mindshift","link":"/podcasts/mindshift"},{"name":"Consider This","link":"/podcasts/considerthis"},{"name":"Political Breakdown","link":"/podcasts/politicalbreakdown"}]},{"key":"menu4","items":[{"name":"Live Radio","link":"/radio","type":"title"},{"name":"TV","link":"/tv","type":"title"},{"name":"Events","link":"/events","type":"title"},{"name":"For Educators","link":"/education","type":"title"},{"name":"Support KQED","link":"/support","type":"title"},{"name":"About","link":"/about","type":"title"},{"name":"Help Center","link":"https://kqed-helpcenter.kqed.org/s","type":"title"}]}]},"pagesReducer":{},"postsReducer":{"stream_live":{"type":"live","id":"stream_live","audioUrl":"https://streams.kqed.org/kqedradio","title":"Live Stream","excerpt":"Live Stream information currently unavailable.","link":"/radio","featImg":"","label":{"name":"KQED Live","link":"/"}},"stream_kqedNewscast":{"type":"posts","id":"stream_kqedNewscast","audioUrl":"https://www.kqed.org/.stream/anon/radio/RDnews/newscast.mp3?_=1","title":"KQED Newscast","featImg":"","label":{"name":"88.5 FM","link":"/"}},"science_1985230":{"type":"posts","id":"science_1985230","meta":{"index":"posts_1591205157","site":"science","id":"1985230","score":null,"sort":[1699653602000]},"guestAuthors":[],"slug":"stanford-researchers-publish-first-paper-to-quantify-how-much-protection-we-get-from-beneficial-fires","title":"Stanford Researchers Publish First Paper to Quantify How Much Protection We Get From Beneficial Fires","publishDate":1699653602,"format":"standard","headTitle":"Stanford Researchers Publish First Paper to Quantify How Much Protection We Get From Beneficial Fires | KQED","labelTerm":{"site":"science"},"content":"\u003cp>Five years after the Camp Fire, the deadliest fire in California’s recorded history, the state is still grappling with how to prevent wildfire destruction and live in harmony with natural fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://news.stanford.edu/2023/11/10/valuing-prescribed-fire\">New research published Friday\u003c/a> from Stanford University and Columbia University points the way forward. In it, researchers quantify for the first time the magnitude of protection an area enjoys following a mild, beneficial fire — such as a prescribed fire — and how long that protection lasts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The authors find that after an area has experienced low-intensity fire, the likelihood of a future high-intensity fire — the kind that grows out of control and takes out neighborhoods — is reduced by 64%. The protection lasts at least six years and then diminishes after that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It totally substantiates what we already see on the ground and what we already know to be true, which is that low- to moderate-severity fire begets more of the same,” said Lenya Quinn-Davidson, the director of the UC Ag and Natural Resources Fire Network.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Xiao Wu, lead author, hopes policy makers will pay attention.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We really provide a practical solution to fight against wildfires,” said Wu, now at Columbia University. “This is a critical moment for both federal and state policymakers.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Congress is currently reassessing the U.S. Forest Service’s wildfire strategy as part of reauthorizing the Farm Bill. Both the U.S. Forest Service and the state of California are proposing dramatically increasing their use of prescribed fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The research may also find an audience among local officials and the public health community.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There are debates in terms of the risk and the benefits of using prescribed fire,” Wu said. “This could help fill out the terms of that cost-benefit equation.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1985184\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1500px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1985184\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/RxFireEffects.jpg\" alt=\"A chart showing an upward trend.\" width=\"1500\" height=\"911\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/RxFireEffects.jpg 1500w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/RxFireEffects-800x486.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/RxFireEffects-1020x619.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/RxFireEffects-160x97.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/RxFireEffects-768x466.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Researchers found that low-intensity fires reduced risk of high-intensity fires in conifer forests by about 60%. The benefits wane over time. \u003ccite>(Wu, et al. / Science Advances)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>While prescribed and low-intensity to moderate-intensity fires tend to leave an area much safer, they do come with risks of their own. Prescribed burns generate smoke and in some rare instances can escape control. Also, this research indicates there is little advantage to burning too often — it would just produce needless smoke.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To do the analysis, the research team looked at 20 years of satellite data in California over most of the state’s forested areas. Satellites can detect not just the location but also the intensity of, or heat radiated by, a fire. After analyzing all detectable fires and categorizing for intensity, the team could then see how likely a high-intensity fire was to burn in the same area in subsequent years.[aside postID=\"science_1984593,science_1983015,news_11961878\" label=\"Related Coverage\"]To gather enough data for a robust statistical analysis, the researchers included low-intensity natural fires alongside prescribed fires. These fires mostly stay on the ground and do not destroy tree canopy. The authors say this is the first study to assess how much protection, both in size and duration, beneficial fires give at such a large scale — in all forests in California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Quinn-Davidson, who frequently advises policy makers on fire resiliency, says this paper points to an important, but often overlooked fact: a mild wildfire can be just as good as a prescribed fire for cleaning up overgrown vegetation and promoting fire safety.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It doesn’t matter if it’s prescribed fire or if it’s wildfire, if it’s having good effects on the ground. Those effects last for multiple years and change the trajectory of future fire,” she said, adding this should spur more conversations about intentionally managing wildfires to behave like prescribed fires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We can’t keep talking about wildfires if it’s always catastrophic. We need to assess where the areas that had good fire are and what that’s going to mean for the next fire that comes through. And this paper helps us think about that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":"New research from Stanford and Columbia quantifies, for the first time, the magnitude of protection an area enjoys following a mild, beneficial fire — such as a prescribed burn — and how long that lasts. \r\n","status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1704845837,"stats":{"hasAudio":false,"hasVideo":false,"hasChartOrMap":false,"iframeSrcs":[],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":false,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":16,"wordCount":689},"headData":{"title":"Stanford Researchers Publish First Paper to Quantify How Much Protection We Get From Beneficial Fires | KQED","description":"New research from Stanford and Columbia quantifies, for the first time, the magnitude of protection an area enjoys following a mild, beneficial fire — such as a prescribed burn — and how long that lasts. \r\n","ogTitle":"","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"","twDescription":"","twImgId":""},"sticky":false,"excludeFromSiteSearch":"Include","articleAge":"0","path":"/science/1985230/stanford-researchers-publish-first-paper-to-quantify-how-much-protection-we-get-from-beneficial-fires","audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Five years after the Camp Fire, the deadliest fire in California’s recorded history, the state is still grappling with how to prevent wildfire destruction and live in harmony with natural fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://news.stanford.edu/2023/11/10/valuing-prescribed-fire\">New research published Friday\u003c/a> from Stanford University and Columbia University points the way forward. In it, researchers quantify for the first time the magnitude of protection an area enjoys following a mild, beneficial fire — such as a prescribed fire — and how long that protection lasts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The authors find that after an area has experienced low-intensity fire, the likelihood of a future high-intensity fire — the kind that grows out of control and takes out neighborhoods — is reduced by 64%. The protection lasts at least six years and then diminishes after that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It totally substantiates what we already see on the ground and what we already know to be true, which is that low- to moderate-severity fire begets more of the same,” said Lenya Quinn-Davidson, the director of the UC Ag and Natural Resources Fire Network.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"fullwidth"},"numeric":["fullwidth"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Xiao Wu, lead author, hopes policy makers will pay attention.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We really provide a practical solution to fight against wildfires,” said Wu, now at Columbia University. “This is a critical moment for both federal and state policymakers.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Congress is currently reassessing the U.S. Forest Service’s wildfire strategy as part of reauthorizing the Farm Bill. Both the U.S. Forest Service and the state of California are proposing dramatically increasing their use of prescribed fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The research may also find an audience among local officials and the public health community.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There are debates in terms of the risk and the benefits of using prescribed fire,” Wu said. “This could help fill out the terms of that cost-benefit equation.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1985184\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1500px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1985184\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/RxFireEffects.jpg\" alt=\"A chart showing an upward trend.\" width=\"1500\" height=\"911\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/RxFireEffects.jpg 1500w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/RxFireEffects-800x486.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/RxFireEffects-1020x619.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/RxFireEffects-160x97.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/11/RxFireEffects-768x466.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Researchers found that low-intensity fires reduced risk of high-intensity fires in conifer forests by about 60%. The benefits wane over time. \u003ccite>(Wu, et al. / Science Advances)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>While prescribed and low-intensity to moderate-intensity fires tend to leave an area much safer, they do come with risks of their own. Prescribed burns generate smoke and in some rare instances can escape control. Also, this research indicates there is little advantage to burning too often — it would just produce needless smoke.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To do the analysis, the research team looked at 20 years of satellite data in California over most of the state’s forested areas. Satellites can detect not just the location but also the intensity of, or heat radiated by, a fire. After analyzing all detectable fires and categorizing for intensity, the team could then see how likely a high-intensity fire was to burn in the same area in subsequent years.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"aside","attributes":{"named":{"postid":"science_1984593,science_1983015,news_11961878","label":"Related Coverage "},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>To gather enough data for a robust statistical analysis, the researchers included low-intensity natural fires alongside prescribed fires. These fires mostly stay on the ground and do not destroy tree canopy. The authors say this is the first study to assess how much protection, both in size and duration, beneficial fires give at such a large scale — in all forests in California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Quinn-Davidson, who frequently advises policy makers on fire resiliency, says this paper points to an important, but often overlooked fact: a mild wildfire can be just as good as a prescribed fire for cleaning up overgrown vegetation and promoting fire safety.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It doesn’t matter if it’s prescribed fire or if it’s wildfire, if it’s having good effects on the ground. Those effects last for multiple years and change the trajectory of future fire,” she said, adding this should spur more conversations about intentionally managing wildfires to behave like prescribed fires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We can’t keep talking about wildfires if it’s always catastrophic. We need to assess where the areas that had good fire are and what that’s going to mean for the next fire that comes through. And this paper helps us think about that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}}],"link":"/science/1985230/stanford-researchers-publish-first-paper-to-quantify-how-much-protection-we-get-from-beneficial-fires","authors":["11088"],"categories":["science_40","science_4450"],"tags":["science_959","science_113","science_1498","science_3693"],"featImg":"science_1985183","label":"science"},"science_1984299":{"type":"posts","id":"science_1984299","meta":{"index":"posts_1591205157","site":"science","id":"1984299","score":null,"sort":[1695306643000]},"guestAuthors":[],"slug":"how-wildfire-smoke-is-erasing-years-of-progress-toward-cleaning-up-americas-air","title":"How Wildfire Smoke Is Erasing Years of Progress Toward Cleaning Up America's Air","publishDate":1695306643,"format":"standard","headTitle":"How Wildfire Smoke Is Erasing Years of Progress Toward Cleaning Up America’s Air | KQED","labelTerm":{},"content":"\u003cp>Over the last few decades, air in the U.S. has undergone a remarkable transformation: pollution levels of health-damaging tiny particles have dropped by roughly 40% since 2000, primarily thanks to the country’s decades-long effort to improve air quality through the Clean Air Act, a landmark environmental law.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Smoke from wildfires fueled by human-driven climate change, however, has erased roughly 25% of those air quality gains, according to \u003ca href=\"https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06522-6\">a new study\u003c/a> published Wednesday in \u003cem>Nature\u003c/em>. “We’ve seen really remarkable improvements in air quality,” says Marissa Childs, one of the authors of the study and a researcher at Harvard’s Center for the Environment. “But wildfire smoke is undoing that progress in many states.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The effects are more pronounced in Western states, where smoke-laden days have become an annual fact of life. \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2022/10/25/1131279317/pacific-northwest-schools-cancel-outdoor-activities-when-air-quality-is-unhealth\">Schools\u003c/a>\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/transcripts/550656850\"> keep kids inside during recess\u003c/a>; \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2023/08/25/1195926923/canada-wildfire-smoke-asthma-cdc-new-york-hospital-visits\">emergency rooms\u003c/a> know to prepare when wildfires break out nearby. The study found that since 2016, in states like California, Washington, and Oregon, wildfire smoke has added enough pollution to the air to wipe out nearly half of the total air quality gains made from 2000 onward.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Midwest, South, and eastern states are not immune. “This is impacting way more places than we used to think and at a larger scale,” says Childs. Even before this year’s\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2023/08/22/1195154996/some-of-canadas-wildfires-likely-made-worse-by-human-driven-climate-change\"> Canadian wildfires\u003c/a> blanketed the Eastern seaboard in thick smoke, smoke plumes regularly tanked air quality far from\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2023/06/26/1184393713/canadas-wildfires-are-part-of-a-worrying-trend-but-theyre-not-without-precedent\"> the actual wildfires\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>The Clean Air Act worked until now\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The bipartisan Clean Air Act, signed into law in 1970, has had remarkable success cleaning up \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2023/06/19/1179670466/air-pollution-satellite-baltimore-climate-change\">the nation’s air\u003c/a>. In its first few decades, levels of the six major pollutants it addressed dropped by \u003ca href=\"https://www.epa.gov/clean-air-act-overview/40th-anniversary-clean-air-act\">more than 40%\u003c/a>. Since 2000, the drop has continued nearly everywhere in the country.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote align=\"right\" size=\"medium\" citation=\"Marissa Childs, author and researcher, Harvard's Center for the Environment\"]‘We’ve seen really remarkable improvements in air quality. But wildfire smoke is undoing that progress in many states.’[/pullquote]One major target of the Clean Air Act is PM2.5 — tiny particles about 30 times smaller than the diameter of a human hair. Many different sources contribute to PM2.5 including dust, and soot from burning coal or gas. The super-small particles are also produced when anything burns such as forests, grasslands, and houses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Closing or retiring coal and gas-fired power plants cut PM2.5 levels nearby. So did improving car and truck fuel efficiency and pollution-control technologies like catalytic converters — though pollution levels near major roadways still often exceed the EPA’s daily standard. Nationally, PM2.5 levels dropped \u003ca href=\"https://www.epa.gov/air-trends/particulate-matter-pm25-trends\">another 42% between 2000 and 2022\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Overall, there was a big improvement — but it was not shared equitably,” says Tarik Benmarhnia, an environmental epidemiologist at the University of California, San Diego. Communities of colo\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2023/06/19/1179670466/air-pollution-satellite-baltimore-climate-change\">r remained exposed to higher pollution\u003c/a>,\u003ca href=\"https://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/doi/full/10.1289/EHP8584\"> even as total levels dropped\u003c/a>. Black communities in particular breathe in much more heavy pollution from \u003ca href=\"https://www.science.org/doi/full/10.1126/sciadv.abf4491\">cars, heavy industry, and construction\u003c/a> than any other groups. That’s a pattern that holds nationwide and over decades, including into today’s efforts to cut back fossil fuel pollution, which are at risk of \u003ca href=\"https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-41131-x\">continuing the disparities\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>More smoke is not good for anyone’s health\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Overall, the country’s air was getting cleaner. But Childs, who was living in California at the time watching wildfire seasons break record after record, could tell that wasn’t the whole story.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scientists were pinpointing how climate change exacerbated the burns. The answer, they found over and over, \u003ca href=\"https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2213815120\">was a lot\u003c/a>. Hotter, drier conditions sucked more moisture out of vegetation, priming it to burn explosively and extensively when a spark happened to catch.[aside postID='science_1926793,science_1930023,news_11834305' label='Related coverage']Decades and even centuries of fire suppression — the long-held policy of the U.S. Forest Service and other agencies — also fed the wildfires. Many habitats across the Western U.S. evolved to experience frequent burns, which cleared away excess fuel, and Indigenous communities often used fire to keep those habitats open as well. Now forests are packed with \u003ca href=\"https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ecs2.3250\">many more trees\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The combination has led to wildfires that burn 10 times the acreage as 50 years ago. Massive, destructive burn years like 2020 are projected to become much more common as \u003ca href=\"https://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-021-00299-0\">climate change marches forward\u003c/a>, though \u003ca href=\"https://www.fs.usda.gov/features/professionals-prepare-for-prescribed-burn#:~:text=Prescribed%20fire%20helps%20reduce%20wildfire,less%20available%20material%20to%20burn.\">aggressive forest management\u003c/a> could blunt some of the worst outcomes,\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/transcripts/1126912268\"> research shows\u003c/a>. And wildfires are not just tied to the West. This year, wildfires burned from Canada’s East to West coasts and deep into Louisiana.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Christopher Migliaccio, an immunologist at the University of Montana, studies the impact of wildfire smoke on human health. When he moved to Montana in 2000, wildfires weren’t top-of-mind for most people. But within the past decade, “the concern has gotten huge,” he says. “And it’s gone global.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s because the health impacts leak well outside the immediate realm of the fires. Smoke, and all its fine particles, can travel thousands of miles. “When you see a wildfire smoke plume, you see that pollution. Essentially, the smoke that you’re seeing is PM2.5,” says Colleen Reid, an environmental public health expert at the University of Colorado, Boulder.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s not yet completely clear if \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2022/05/17/1099482986/eliminating-fossil-fuel-air-pollution-would-save-about-50-000-lives-study-finds\">wildfire smoke particles\u003c/a> induce different health outcomes than PM2.5 from other sources, like roadways, though \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2021/03/05/973848360/study-finds-wildfire-smoke-more-harmful-to-humans-than-pollution-from-cars\">some research points that direction\u003c/a>. But the tiny particles from fires and other pollution sources are so small they cross from lungs into the bloodstream, driving inflammation throughout the body. Even short-term exposure to wildfire smoke makes lung problems like asthma worse, as well as a panoply of other health issues, from heart attacks to neurological issues.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Migliaccio \u003ca href=\"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32764367/\">led a study\u003c/a> that followed Montanans exposed to extremely high doses of smoke for 49 straight days in 2017. It found their lung function was depressed for at least two years afterward.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 41 states, air quality had been getting better between 2000 and the 2010s. But as wildfires exploded, those improvements stopped or even reversed. Smoke was responsible for just intermittent “exceedances,” when air pollution exceeds EPA’s limits, in the early part of the record. By 2020-2022, wildfire smoke was the primary cause of bad air in four western states and a major contributor in 17 others.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Solutions are not straightforward\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Wildfires are a natural and necessary ecological reality in many parts of the country. But research predicts the frequency and size of fires will\u003ca href=\"https://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-021-00299-0\"> grow precipitously in coming decades\u003c/a>, increasing peoples’ exposure to smoke.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Clean Air Act effectively regulates point-source pollution, like soot from power plants. It is less effective at regulating risk from smoke, which drifts across state borders and affects people far from the wildfires themselves.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dialing back the climate pressures that exacerbate wildfires is critical, says Childs. But so is creating forest and fire management policies that reduce exposure to very high concentrations of smoke. That could be, somewhat counterintuitively, increasing the number of \u003cem>prescribed\u003c/em> fires, which can lessen the risk of catastrophic wildfires, though they also generate local smoke plumes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the meantime, people can take steps to protect themselves from inevitable smoke exposure, says Reid. Installing air filters in your home — and keeping them clean — can go a long way. Health experts recommend wearing N95 or KN95 masks if you have to go outdoors, and to avoid exercise in smoky air if possible.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=How+wildfire+smoke+is+erasing+years+of+progress+toward+cleaning+up+America%27s+air&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":"A new study finds that smoke from massive wildfires has eroded about a quarter of the air quality gains from the last few decades. ","status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1704845898,"stats":{"hasAudio":false,"hasVideo":false,"hasChartOrMap":false,"iframeSrcs":[],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":false,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":22,"wordCount":1294},"headData":{"title":"How Wildfire Smoke Is Erasing Years of Progress Toward Cleaning Up America's Air | KQED","description":"A new study finds that smoke from massive wildfires has eroded about a quarter of the air quality gains from the last few decades. ","ogTitle":"","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"","twDescription":"","twImgId":""},"source":"NPR","sourceUrl":"https://www.kqed.org/news/affiliate/npr","sticky":false,"nprByline":"\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/people/1193795778/alejandra-borunda\">Alejandra Borunda\u003c/a>","nprImageAgency":"David Dee Delgado/Getty Images","nprStoryId":"1200143622","nprApiLink":"http://api.npr.org/query?id=1200143622&apiKey=MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004","nprHtmlLink":"https://www.npr.org/2023/09/20/1200143622/how-wildfire-smoke-is-erasing-years-of-progress-toward-cleaning-up-americas-air?ft=nprml&f=1200143622","nprRetrievedStory":"1","nprPubDate":"Wed, 20 Sep 2023 11:40:00 -0400","nprStoryDate":"Wed, 20 Sep 2023 11:00:20 -0400","nprLastModifiedDate":"Wed, 20 Sep 2023 11:40:59 -0400","excludeFromSiteSearch":"Include","showOnAuthorArchivePages":"No","articleAge":"0","path":"/science/1984299/how-wildfire-smoke-is-erasing-years-of-progress-toward-cleaning-up-americas-air","audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Over the last few decades, air in the U.S. has undergone a remarkable transformation: pollution levels of health-damaging tiny particles have dropped by roughly 40% since 2000, primarily thanks to the country’s decades-long effort to improve air quality through the Clean Air Act, a landmark environmental law.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Smoke from wildfires fueled by human-driven climate change, however, has erased roughly 25% of those air quality gains, according to \u003ca href=\"https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06522-6\">a new study\u003c/a> published Wednesday in \u003cem>Nature\u003c/em>. “We’ve seen really remarkable improvements in air quality,” says Marissa Childs, one of the authors of the study and a researcher at Harvard’s Center for the Environment. “But wildfire smoke is undoing that progress in many states.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"fullwidth"},"numeric":["fullwidth"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The effects are more pronounced in Western states, where smoke-laden days have become an annual fact of life. \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2022/10/25/1131279317/pacific-northwest-schools-cancel-outdoor-activities-when-air-quality-is-unhealth\">Schools\u003c/a>\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/transcripts/550656850\"> keep kids inside during recess\u003c/a>; \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2023/08/25/1195926923/canada-wildfire-smoke-asthma-cdc-new-york-hospital-visits\">emergency rooms\u003c/a> know to prepare when wildfires break out nearby. The study found that since 2016, in states like California, Washington, and Oregon, wildfire smoke has added enough pollution to the air to wipe out nearly half of the total air quality gains made from 2000 onward.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Midwest, South, and eastern states are not immune. “This is impacting way more places than we used to think and at a larger scale,” says Childs. Even before this year’s\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2023/08/22/1195154996/some-of-canadas-wildfires-likely-made-worse-by-human-driven-climate-change\"> Canadian wildfires\u003c/a> blanketed the Eastern seaboard in thick smoke, smoke plumes regularly tanked air quality far from\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2023/06/26/1184393713/canadas-wildfires-are-part-of-a-worrying-trend-but-theyre-not-without-precedent\"> the actual wildfires\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>The Clean Air Act worked until now\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The bipartisan Clean Air Act, signed into law in 1970, has had remarkable success cleaning up \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2023/06/19/1179670466/air-pollution-satellite-baltimore-climate-change\">the nation’s air\u003c/a>. In its first few decades, levels of the six major pollutants it addressed dropped by \u003ca href=\"https://www.epa.gov/clean-air-act-overview/40th-anniversary-clean-air-act\">more than 40%\u003c/a>. Since 2000, the drop has continued nearly everywhere in the country.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"‘We’ve seen really remarkable improvements in air quality. But wildfire smoke is undoing that progress in many states.’","name":"pullquote","attributes":{"named":{"align":"right","size":"medium","citation":"Marissa Childs, author and researcher, Harvard's Center for the Environment","label":""},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>One major target of the Clean Air Act is PM2.5 — tiny particles about 30 times smaller than the diameter of a human hair. Many different sources contribute to PM2.5 including dust, and soot from burning coal or gas. The super-small particles are also produced when anything burns such as forests, grasslands, and houses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Closing or retiring coal and gas-fired power plants cut PM2.5 levels nearby. So did improving car and truck fuel efficiency and pollution-control technologies like catalytic converters — though pollution levels near major roadways still often exceed the EPA’s daily standard. Nationally, PM2.5 levels dropped \u003ca href=\"https://www.epa.gov/air-trends/particulate-matter-pm25-trends\">another 42% between 2000 and 2022\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Overall, there was a big improvement — but it was not shared equitably,” says Tarik Benmarhnia, an environmental epidemiologist at the University of California, San Diego. Communities of colo\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2023/06/19/1179670466/air-pollution-satellite-baltimore-climate-change\">r remained exposed to higher pollution\u003c/a>,\u003ca href=\"https://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/doi/full/10.1289/EHP8584\"> even as total levels dropped\u003c/a>. Black communities in particular breathe in much more heavy pollution from \u003ca href=\"https://www.science.org/doi/full/10.1126/sciadv.abf4491\">cars, heavy industry, and construction\u003c/a> than any other groups. That’s a pattern that holds nationwide and over decades, including into today’s efforts to cut back fossil fuel pollution, which are at risk of \u003ca href=\"https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-41131-x\">continuing the disparities\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>More smoke is not good for anyone’s health\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Overall, the country’s air was getting cleaner. But Childs, who was living in California at the time watching wildfire seasons break record after record, could tell that wasn’t the whole story.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scientists were pinpointing how climate change exacerbated the burns. The answer, they found over and over, \u003ca href=\"https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2213815120\">was a lot\u003c/a>. Hotter, drier conditions sucked more moisture out of vegetation, priming it to burn explosively and extensively when a spark happened to catch.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"aside","attributes":{"named":{"postid":"science_1926793,science_1930023,news_11834305","label":"Related coverage "},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Decades and even centuries of fire suppression — the long-held policy of the U.S. Forest Service and other agencies — also fed the wildfires. Many habitats across the Western U.S. evolved to experience frequent burns, which cleared away excess fuel, and Indigenous communities often used fire to keep those habitats open as well. Now forests are packed with \u003ca href=\"https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ecs2.3250\">many more trees\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The combination has led to wildfires that burn 10 times the acreage as 50 years ago. Massive, destructive burn years like 2020 are projected to become much more common as \u003ca href=\"https://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-021-00299-0\">climate change marches forward\u003c/a>, though \u003ca href=\"https://www.fs.usda.gov/features/professionals-prepare-for-prescribed-burn#:~:text=Prescribed%20fire%20helps%20reduce%20wildfire,less%20available%20material%20to%20burn.\">aggressive forest management\u003c/a> could blunt some of the worst outcomes,\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/transcripts/1126912268\"> research shows\u003c/a>. And wildfires are not just tied to the West. This year, wildfires burned from Canada’s East to West coasts and deep into Louisiana.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Christopher Migliaccio, an immunologist at the University of Montana, studies the impact of wildfire smoke on human health. When he moved to Montana in 2000, wildfires weren’t top-of-mind for most people. But within the past decade, “the concern has gotten huge,” he says. “And it’s gone global.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s because the health impacts leak well outside the immediate realm of the fires. Smoke, and all its fine particles, can travel thousands of miles. “When you see a wildfire smoke plume, you see that pollution. Essentially, the smoke that you’re seeing is PM2.5,” says Colleen Reid, an environmental public health expert at the University of Colorado, Boulder.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s not yet completely clear if \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2022/05/17/1099482986/eliminating-fossil-fuel-air-pollution-would-save-about-50-000-lives-study-finds\">wildfire smoke particles\u003c/a> induce different health outcomes than PM2.5 from other sources, like roadways, though \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2021/03/05/973848360/study-finds-wildfire-smoke-more-harmful-to-humans-than-pollution-from-cars\">some research points that direction\u003c/a>. But the tiny particles from fires and other pollution sources are so small they cross from lungs into the bloodstream, driving inflammation throughout the body. Even short-term exposure to wildfire smoke makes lung problems like asthma worse, as well as a panoply of other health issues, from heart attacks to neurological issues.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Migliaccio \u003ca href=\"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32764367/\">led a study\u003c/a> that followed Montanans exposed to extremely high doses of smoke for 49 straight days in 2017. It found their lung function was depressed for at least two years afterward.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 41 states, air quality had been getting better between 2000 and the 2010s. But as wildfires exploded, those improvements stopped or even reversed. Smoke was responsible for just intermittent “exceedances,” when air pollution exceeds EPA’s limits, in the early part of the record. By 2020-2022, wildfire smoke was the primary cause of bad air in four western states and a major contributor in 17 others.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Solutions are not straightforward\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Wildfires are a natural and necessary ecological reality in many parts of the country. But research predicts the frequency and size of fires will\u003ca href=\"https://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-021-00299-0\"> grow precipitously in coming decades\u003c/a>, increasing peoples’ exposure to smoke.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Clean Air Act effectively regulates point-source pollution, like soot from power plants. It is less effective at regulating risk from smoke, which drifts across state borders and affects people far from the wildfires themselves.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dialing back the climate pressures that exacerbate wildfires is critical, says Childs. But so is creating forest and fire management policies that reduce exposure to very high concentrations of smoke. That could be, somewhat counterintuitively, increasing the number of \u003cem>prescribed\u003c/em> fires, which can lessen the risk of catastrophic wildfires, though they also generate local smoke plumes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the meantime, people can take steps to protect themselves from inevitable smoke exposure, says Reid. Installing air filters in your home — and keeping them clean — can go a long way. Health experts recommend wearing N95 or KN95 masks if you have to go outdoors, and to avoid exercise in smoky air if possible.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=How+wildfire+smoke+is+erasing+years+of+progress+toward+cleaning+up+America%27s+air&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"floatright"},"numeric":["floatright"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}}],"link":"/science/1984299/how-wildfire-smoke-is-erasing-years-of-progress-toward-cleaning-up-americas-air","authors":["byline_science_1984299"],"categories":["science_31","science_40","science_4450"],"tags":["science_505","science_524","science_959","science_3463","science_113"],"featImg":"science_1984300","label":"source_science_1984299"},"science_1982166":{"type":"posts","id":"science_1982166","meta":{"index":"posts_1591205157","site":"science","id":"1982166","score":null,"sort":[1680872451000]},"guestAuthors":[],"slug":"the-epa-wants-cleaner-air-but-fire-experts-worry-new-rule-risks-making-it-worse","title":"Here's Why Wildfire Experts Are Worried About an EPA Plan for Cleaner Air","publishDate":1680872451,"format":"standard","headTitle":"Here’s Why Wildfire Experts Are Worried About an EPA Plan for Cleaner Air | KQED","labelTerm":{"site":"science"},"content":"\u003cp>Few laws have been as successful, or saved the United States as much money, as the \u003ca href=\"https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/RL/RL30853\">Clean Air Act (PDF)\u003c/a>. First enacted in 1955, the act was a response to alarming disasters like the \u003ca href=\"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5922205/\">Donora Smog\u003c/a> of 1948 in Western Pennsylvania and 1952’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.bbc.com/news/av/uk-england-london-20615186\">Great Smog of London\u003c/a>, where thick dirty air from factories and vehicles enveloped communities for days and caused widespread deaths.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Congress intended for the act to be frequently reevaluated and, if necessary, updated. The Environmental Protection Agency sets legal limits for how much pollution air districts are allowed to let into the air. Currently, the EPA is proposing tightening the standard for tiny particulates floating in the air, originating from motors, engines and fires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Updating and tightening the standard is very popular among public health professionals, air regulators and the environmental justice community, who point to a mountain of evidence that this pollution takes lives early.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California Attorney General Rob Bonta, along \u003ca href=\"https://oag.ca.gov/system/files/attachments/press-docs/2023-03-28%20AGO%20Coalition%20-%20PM%20NAAQS%20Comment%20Letter.pdf\">with 17 other attorneys general, also supports limit tightening (PDF)\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many in the environmental justice community, concerned about the disproportionate air pollution burden that many lower-income communities and communities of color live with, would like to see standards tightened even further. In California, that’s especially true in the San Joaquin Valley and the South Coast Air Basin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We should have had lowered standards years ago. It’s a relief to see it now being proposed,” said Genevieve Amsalem, research and policy director at the Central California Environmental Justice Network. “Any time that you lower that standard, you’re going to be saving lives.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She considers bad air the region’s biggest environmental public health threat, one that especially affects communities of color.[pullquote size='medium' align='left' citation=\"Genevieve Amsalem, research and policy director, Central California Environmental Justice Network\"]‘Everyone knows a parent who has brought their baby, or their 2-year-old, into the ER because they couldn’t breathe. You know, the baby’s turning blue. It’s a story you hear across generations.’[/pullquote]“Everyone knows a parent who has brought their baby, or their 2-year-old, into the ER because they couldn’t breathe. You know, the baby’s turning blue,” Amsalem said. “It’s a story you hear across generations.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Data backs up this impression: Counties in the San Joaquin Valley consistently have among the \u003ca href=\"https://californiahealthline.org/news/dirty-air-and-disasters-sending-kids-to-the-er-for-asthma/\">worst rates of childhood asthma\u003c/a> in the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But there are worries among the fire science community that the EPA’s proposed rule could have its opposite intended effect. They worry it may leave the state with ultimately worse air in the long run by stifling the use of prescribed fire. The ultimate outcome will affect everyone living in California and beyond.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Wildfire is really challenging the paradigm that is at the core of the Clean Air Act — that emissions can be controlled,” said Michael Wara, an energy and climate scholar at Stanford University in \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uA1wg9yzGxM&t=32s\">a presentation to students and researchers\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Wildfire emissions are not being successfully controlled. They’re growing,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Clean Air Act was written during a time when smokestack air pollution was the key problem standing in the way of healthy air, and the U.S. Forest Service could seemingly put any wildfire out by \u003ca href=\"https://foresthistory.org/research-explore/us-forest-service-history/policy-and-law/fire-u-s-forest-service/u-s-forest-service-fire-suppression/#:~:text=In%201935%2C%20the%20Forest%20Service,eliminate%20fire%20from%20the%20landscape.\">10 a.m. the next day\u003c/a>. All over the country, wildfires bent more or less easily to the will of firefighters, and the big sources of pollution could be regulated at the emission’s source. But that was a different climate reality.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Clean air keeps people out of hospitals\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Today, with \u003ca href=\"https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/R/R44840/4\">emissions from the worst pollutants down by more than 70% (PDF)\u003c/a>, the EPA estimates \u003ca href=\"https://www.epa.gov/clean-air-act-overview/benefits-and-costs-clean-air-act-1990-2020-second-prospective-study#:~:text=In%202020%2C%20the%20Clean%20Air,reductions%20in%20ambient%20particulate%20matter\">the Clean Air Act saves 230,000 lives annually\u003c/a> and hundreds of thousands more from asthma, bronchitis and heart attacks. Public health experts estimate the benefits of all these lives saved and hospital visits avoided into the \u003ca href=\"https://www.epa.gov/clean-air-act-overview/benefits-and-costs-clean-air-act-1970-1990-study-design-and-summary-results\">many trillions of dollars\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wildfires are now a major producer of both carbon emissions and tiny specks of sooty pollutants known as PM 2.5. A 2022 study from the National Center for Atmospheric Research found that \u003ca href=\"https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-29623-8\">wildfire pollution was beginning to reverse decades of clean air gains\u003c/a>. (Researchers at Stanford in 2020 had \u003ca href=\"https://escholarship.org/content/qt5134m9d8/qt5134m9d8.pdf?t=qpc4ro\">similar findings [PDF]\u003c/a>.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The EPA’s plan would update its standard for PM 2.5.[aside label=\"Related Stories\" tag=\"air-quality\"]Shorthand for “particulate matter of 2.5 microns in size or less,” PM 2.5 is a class of pollutants based on dimensions rather than origin or chemical makeup. It would take about 30 of them lined up to cross the width of a human hair. It’s their size that’s the key problem: It allows them to get deep into the lungs and even cross into the bloodstream, causing heart and respiratory problems. In short, it’s a terrible pollutant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Public comment on the proposal closed late last month, and the EPA is now deciding whether and how to implement revisions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The EPA estimates \u003ca href=\"https://www.epa.gov/sciencematters/epa-researchers-contribute-american-thoracic-society-workshop-report-wildland-fire\">a third of the PM 2.5 we breathe in this country is from wildfires\u003c/a>. For those in the West during wildfire season, it can be 90%.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And if wildfire trends continue and worsen, as climate models suggest they will, then we’ve seen nothing yet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To avoid the worst outcomes, Wara of Stanford points to the need to dramatically increase the use of prescribed fire in pyro-adapted landscapes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Some of the best hopes that we have for reducing public health impacts from wildfire and [general] impacts from wildfire have to do with substituting prescribed fire emission for high-intensity wildfire emission,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>The rub: Wildfire smoke vs. prescribed fire smoke\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The EPA enforces its clean air standards. If air districts do not achieve these clean-air goals, then the EPA can take over air permitting within a district and even impose a ban on new federal highway grants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, EPA officials recognize that sometimes air districts are out of compliance through no fault of their own. In this case, they are allowed to file for an “exceptional event.” In this bureaucratic process, the “event” is linked to the cause of pollution going over the legal limit. It is meant for events that are unforeseeable and are unlikely to occur in the same location again, like a volcanic explosion. If the link can be made, then emissions from that event can be subtracted from the total, and the air district is no longer in trouble with the EPA.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To use an analogy, if you couldn’t pay off your credit card bill some month because you had an unforeseen emergency expense, this would be the process by which you might convince the credit card company to waive that charge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1970817\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1970817\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/gettyimages-1228496051-11803c34ee7e287ff491ad1597467efb869d819a-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"An aerial view shows neighborhoods enshrouded in smoke as the Bobcat Fire advances toward foothill cities and new evacuation order go into effect on September 13, 2020 in Monrovia, California.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/gettyimages-1228496051-11803c34ee7e287ff491ad1597467efb869d819a-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/gettyimages-1228496051-11803c34ee7e287ff491ad1597467efb869d819a-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/gettyimages-1228496051-11803c34ee7e287ff491ad1597467efb869d819a-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/gettyimages-1228496051-11803c34ee7e287ff491ad1597467efb869d819a-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/gettyimages-1228496051-11803c34ee7e287ff491ad1597467efb869d819a-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/gettyimages-1228496051-11803c34ee7e287ff491ad1597467efb869d819a-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/gettyimages-1228496051-11803c34ee7e287ff491ad1597467efb869d819a-2048x1536.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/gettyimages-1228496051-11803c34ee7e287ff491ad1597467efb869d819a-1920x1440.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An aerial view shows neighborhoods in Monrovia enshrouded in smoke from the Bobcat Fire on Sept. 13, 2020. \u003ccite>(David McNew/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>It is a long, technically involved process. A California Air Resources Board (CARB) \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/sites/default/files/2021-11/2020_Northern_California_EE_Full_Demo_Final.pdf\">exceptional events filing (PDF)\u003c/a> for ozone concentrations during the Northern California wildfires of 2020 runs 228 pages.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The problem, as seen by many in the wildfire science community, is that while this process essentially means air districts are not on the hook for wildfire smoke, they are on the hook for prescribed fire smoke. And prescribed fire — the most affordable, effective inoculation against future wildfires — has never been used as a basis for an exceptional event in California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But fire scientists and those in fire agencies worry this new rule will stifle the state and federal plans to expand the use of prescribed fire as a core strategy to stem out-of-control wildfires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’ve got to start doing larger prescribed burns if we want to make a difference to what is actually happening on our landscape,” said Scott Stephens, fire science professor at UC Berkeley. “That just means there’s going to be more smoke.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pro-prescribed-fire groups, including the National Association of Forest Service Retirees, have \u003ca href=\"https://nafsr.org/advocacy/2023/031023%20NAFSR%20response%20to%20EPA%20PM2.5%20rule%20change.pdf\">submitted comments detailing their concern (PDF)\u003c/a> that the proposed rule “will reduce the Nation’s ability to implement strategies intended to reduce unwanted wildfire effects on communities and wildlands, including barriers to increasing the pace and scale of prescribed burning.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1976585\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1998px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1976585\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/winter-oak-woodland-burning-2b67dc9298069f3e95da35a79dcd1b2aa432876f.jpg\" alt=\"A firefighter lights a prescribed burn in Humboldt County to reduce the underbrush without killing trees.\" width=\"1998\" height=\"1499\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/winter-oak-woodland-burning-2b67dc9298069f3e95da35a79dcd1b2aa432876f.jpg 1998w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/winter-oak-woodland-burning-2b67dc9298069f3e95da35a79dcd1b2aa432876f-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/winter-oak-woodland-burning-2b67dc9298069f3e95da35a79dcd1b2aa432876f-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/winter-oak-woodland-burning-2b67dc9298069f3e95da35a79dcd1b2aa432876f-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/winter-oak-woodland-burning-2b67dc9298069f3e95da35a79dcd1b2aa432876f-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/winter-oak-woodland-burning-2b67dc9298069f3e95da35a79dcd1b2aa432876f-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/winter-oak-woodland-burning-2b67dc9298069f3e95da35a79dcd1b2aa432876f-1920x1440.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1998px) 100vw, 1998px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Prescribed burns, like this one in Humboldt County, reduce the underbrush without destroying trees. \u003ccite>(Lenya Quinn-Davidson/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>A large group of fire specialists, including professors, cultural burners and ecologists, wrote in a comment letter to the EPA that its plan “would put the EPA on the wrong side of policies and actions planned by federal, state, local and Tribal entities to address the wildfire crisis and ultimately, to reduce harmful PM2.5 emissions and impacts by reducing wildfire smoke.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Smoke from prescribed fires is less intense and less damaging than smoke from wildfires. Many scientists view it as \u003ca href=\"https://www.lung.org/policy-advocacy/healthy-air-campaign/prescribed-fire-report#:~:text=Prescribed%20burns%20can%20be%20used,supporting%20ecosystem%20health%20and%20resiliency.\">a protective trade-off\u003c/a> — some pollution now in exchange for greater fire safety (and less pollution) in the future.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Air districts supportive, with qualifications\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Both the \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/news/carb-statement-us-epa-proposal-strengthen-health-based-standards-fine-particulate-matter\">California Air Resources Board\u003c/a> and the \u003ca href=\"https://www.baaqmd.gov/~/media/files/communications-and-outreach/publications/news-releases/2023/pmnaaqs_230105_2023_001-pdf.pdf?la=en\">Bay Area Air Quality Management District (PDF)\u003c/a> have submitted comments supporting a tightening of the PM 2.5 standard. In interviews with KQED, regulators from both organizations also expressed support for prescribed burning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Charles Knoderer, meteorologist at BAAQMD, said that the air district views prescribed burning as a partner and ally in lowering the risk of wildfires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We can control when they’re doing the burning and we can minimize the amount of smoke that’s released,” he said. “Wildfires will put out a ton more smoke, and at that point there’s really no controlling it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Neither Bay Area nor California air regulators seem to share the worries of the fire community that the EPA will hamper the increased use of prescribed fire, however.[pullquote size='medium' align='left' citation=\"Charles Knoderer, meteorologist, Bay Area Air Quality Management District\"]‘We can control when they’re doing the burning and we can minimize the amount of smoke that’s released. Wildfires will put out a ton more smoke, and at that point there’s really no controlling it.’[/pullquote]Edie Chang, deputy executive officer at CARB, said her agency has heard from the prescribed-fire community and has brought up the issue in comments to the EPA.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re trying to see how we can streamline or make suggestions for how EPA might modify their policies or their guidance to help us be able to balance the increased use of prescribed fire that we need for forest management, for managing and reducing the catastrophic wildfires that we experience in California,” said Chang.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She expressed hope that the rule’s implementation phase, which it now heads into, would be the time for nitty-gritty details to be worked out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Even though they can be expunged from the data, residents are still feeling [the effects of wildfire] very much so,” said Amsalem, of the Central California Environmental Justice Network. She hopes agencies will work out this issue, she said, “because we do need to do more prescribed burning to reduce the catastrophic events.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>EPA’s proposed workaround leaves burners skeptical\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The EPA also seems aware of these concerns. In its proposed rule, it says it acknowledges stakeholder concerns about the importance of prescribed fire and intends to work with stakeholders to address these issues. It also says \u003ca href=\"https://www.epa.gov/sites/default/files/2019-08/documents/ee_prescribed_fire_final_guidance_-_august_2019.pdf\">prescribed fires have the potential to qualify for exceptional events (PDF)\u003c/a>, which could encourage their continued and expanded use.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, this has environmental lawyers very concerned. Sara Clark of the law firm Shute, Mihaly and Weinberger works with nonprofit organizations and supports prescribed fire and Indigenous cultural burners. She thinks the EPA’s reasoning as written might not hold up under a judge’s evaluation.[aside label=\"More Stories\" tag=\"prescribed-burning\"]“[The EPA] does a lot of linguistic acrobatics to try and clarify how a prescribed fire is … not reasonably preventable or controllable. But it’s called a ‘controlled burn,’” said Clark. “I’m concerned about the legal underpinnings there.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She also believes that the time and technical expertise needed to file for an exceptional event exemption would make air regulators wary of using it. Extensive documentation and analysis is needed to submit for an exceptional events determination from CARB or the EPA.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A recent Government Accountability Office report echoes these concerns. The report says \u003ca href=\"https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-23-104723.pdf\">the EPA could do a better job working with other agencies to reduce impacts from wildfires (PDF)\u003c/a>, including making it easier to conduct prescribed fires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stakeholders interviewed by the GAO said that state and local agencies aren’t likely to use the exceptional events provision for prescribed burns because “the agencies would not likely approve prescribed burns that could cause National Ambient Air Quality Standards exceedances in the first place.” And they said that “exceptional event demonstrations are technically complicated and resource intensive.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Put another way, it’s more likely that prescribed burns would never happen if air regulators thought they might have to file for an exceptional event.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It is also legally uncharted, or nearly uncharted, territory. \u003ca href=\"https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-23-104723.pdf\">The EPA has received only one exceptional events demonstration for a prescribed burn (PDF)\u003c/a> — too much ozone was associated with prescribed burns in the Flint Hills of Kansas in December 2012. But since then, no tribal, state or local agency has submitted an exceptional event demonstration for a prescribed burn, according to EPA officials.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Should wildfires be considered exceptional?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The EPA’s proposed rule is based in part on the recommendations of the Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee, a collection of public health experts. In their \u003ca href=\"https://www.lawandenvironment.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2022/03/casac-review-of-the-epas-policy-assessment-for-the-reconsideration-of-the-national-ambient-air-quality-standards-for-particulate-matter-external-review-draft-october-2021.pdf?utm_source=mondaq&utm_medium=syndication&utm_content=inarticlelink&utm_campaign=article\">letter sent last spring to EPA administrator Michael Regan (PDF)\u003c/a>, they questioned whether even wildfires ought to be routinely considered exceptional events, considering they are the result of human-caused climate change, fire suppression and forest management policies and, often, problems with equipment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In some parts of the country, wildfires are no longer ‘exceptional’ The dramatic increase in wildfires over the last decade is not natural,” the authors write, pointing to forest management, climate change and utility power lines. “These are (in theory) at least partially controllable.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In UC Berkeley’s Stephens’ view, the rule as proposed is an unacceptable passing of the buck.[pullquote size='medium' align='left' citation=\"Scott Stephens, fire science professor, UC Berkeley\"]‘If you do proactive work like prescribed burning, you have to justify it through a rule that is onerous. But if a wildfire is occurring, causing damage to people, burning down homes, no one’s accountable. I just don’t see how that can work.’[/pullquote]“If you do proactive work like prescribed burning, you have to justify it through a rule that is onerous,” he said. “But if a wildfire is occurring, causing damage to people, burning down homes, no one’s accountable. I just don’t see how that can work.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Of course, for those affected by the worst air quality in the state, pollution is damaging whether it’s from a diesel engine, a prescribed fire or a catastrophic wildfire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Most people interviewed for this story said they hope that as the EPA decides how to implement the rule over the course of this year, it will find a route that both protects public health from human-made sources like smokestacks and tailpipes and encourages proactive wildfire protection.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The key decision is going to be what happens in the U.S. EPA, PM 2.5 rulemaking. It’s really going to set the course for what is allowed or not allowed on the part of air districts over the next five to 10 years,” said Stanford’s Wara. He hopes for a path that can support both priorities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“But if we just act as if it’s the year 2000 or sometime in the 1990s or even 1970 and the U.S. Forest Service reigned supreme over wildfire in the West?” he said. “We are not going to get this outcome.”\u003c/p>\n\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":"The EPA is planning to tighten standards within the Clean Air Act, but a difference in how wildfire and prescribed fire smoke are accounted for could lead to perverse incentives.","status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1704846055,"stats":{"hasAudio":false,"hasVideo":false,"hasChartOrMap":false,"iframeSrcs":[],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":false,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":53,"wordCount":2766},"headData":{"title":"Here's Why Wildfire Experts Are Worried About an EPA Plan for Cleaner Air | KQED","description":"The EPA is planning to tighten standards within the Clean Air Act, but a difference in how wildfire and prescribed fire smoke are accounted for could lead to perverse incentives.","ogTitle":"","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"","twDescription":"","twImgId":""},"sticky":false,"subhead":"The EPA is planning to tighten standards within the Clean Air Act, but a difference in how wildfire and prescribed fire smoke is accounted for could lead to perverse incentives.","excludeFromSiteSearch":"Include","articleAge":"0","path":"/science/1982166/the-epa-wants-cleaner-air-but-fire-experts-worry-new-rule-risks-making-it-worse","audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Few laws have been as successful, or saved the United States as much money, as the \u003ca href=\"https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/RL/RL30853\">Clean Air Act (PDF)\u003c/a>. First enacted in 1955, the act was a response to alarming disasters like the \u003ca href=\"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5922205/\">Donora Smog\u003c/a> of 1948 in Western Pennsylvania and 1952’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.bbc.com/news/av/uk-england-london-20615186\">Great Smog of London\u003c/a>, where thick dirty air from factories and vehicles enveloped communities for days and caused widespread deaths.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Congress intended for the act to be frequently reevaluated and, if necessary, updated. The Environmental Protection Agency sets legal limits for how much pollution air districts are allowed to let into the air. Currently, the EPA is proposing tightening the standard for tiny particulates floating in the air, originating from motors, engines and fires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Updating and tightening the standard is very popular among public health professionals, air regulators and the environmental justice community, who point to a mountain of evidence that this pollution takes lives early.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California Attorney General Rob Bonta, along \u003ca href=\"https://oag.ca.gov/system/files/attachments/press-docs/2023-03-28%20AGO%20Coalition%20-%20PM%20NAAQS%20Comment%20Letter.pdf\">with 17 other attorneys general, also supports limit tightening (PDF)\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many in the environmental justice community, concerned about the disproportionate air pollution burden that many lower-income communities and communities of color live with, would like to see standards tightened even further. In California, that’s especially true in the San Joaquin Valley and the South Coast Air Basin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"fullwidth"},"numeric":["fullwidth"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We should have had lowered standards years ago. It’s a relief to see it now being proposed,” said Genevieve Amsalem, research and policy director at the Central California Environmental Justice Network. “Any time that you lower that standard, you’re going to be saving lives.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She considers bad air the region’s biggest environmental public health threat, one that especially affects communities of color.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"‘Everyone knows a parent who has brought their baby, or their 2-year-old, into the ER because they couldn’t breathe. You know, the baby’s turning blue. It’s a story you hear across generations.’","name":"pullquote","attributes":{"named":{"size":"medium","align":"left","citation":"Genevieve Amsalem, research and policy director, Central California Environmental Justice Network","label":""},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“Everyone knows a parent who has brought their baby, or their 2-year-old, into the ER because they couldn’t breathe. You know, the baby’s turning blue,” Amsalem said. “It’s a story you hear across generations.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Data backs up this impression: Counties in the San Joaquin Valley consistently have among the \u003ca href=\"https://californiahealthline.org/news/dirty-air-and-disasters-sending-kids-to-the-er-for-asthma/\">worst rates of childhood asthma\u003c/a> in the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But there are worries among the fire science community that the EPA’s proposed rule could have its opposite intended effect. They worry it may leave the state with ultimately worse air in the long run by stifling the use of prescribed fire. The ultimate outcome will affect everyone living in California and beyond.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Wildfire is really challenging the paradigm that is at the core of the Clean Air Act — that emissions can be controlled,” said Michael Wara, an energy and climate scholar at Stanford University in \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uA1wg9yzGxM&t=32s\">a presentation to students and researchers\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Wildfire emissions are not being successfully controlled. They’re growing,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Clean Air Act was written during a time when smokestack air pollution was the key problem standing in the way of healthy air, and the U.S. Forest Service could seemingly put any wildfire out by \u003ca href=\"https://foresthistory.org/research-explore/us-forest-service-history/policy-and-law/fire-u-s-forest-service/u-s-forest-service-fire-suppression/#:~:text=In%201935%2C%20the%20Forest%20Service,eliminate%20fire%20from%20the%20landscape.\">10 a.m. the next day\u003c/a>. All over the country, wildfires bent more or less easily to the will of firefighters, and the big sources of pollution could be regulated at the emission’s source. But that was a different climate reality.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Clean air keeps people out of hospitals\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Today, with \u003ca href=\"https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/R/R44840/4\">emissions from the worst pollutants down by more than 70% (PDF)\u003c/a>, the EPA estimates \u003ca href=\"https://www.epa.gov/clean-air-act-overview/benefits-and-costs-clean-air-act-1990-2020-second-prospective-study#:~:text=In%202020%2C%20the%20Clean%20Air,reductions%20in%20ambient%20particulate%20matter\">the Clean Air Act saves 230,000 lives annually\u003c/a> and hundreds of thousands more from asthma, bronchitis and heart attacks. Public health experts estimate the benefits of all these lives saved and hospital visits avoided into the \u003ca href=\"https://www.epa.gov/clean-air-act-overview/benefits-and-costs-clean-air-act-1970-1990-study-design-and-summary-results\">many trillions of dollars\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wildfires are now a major producer of both carbon emissions and tiny specks of sooty pollutants known as PM 2.5. A 2022 study from the National Center for Atmospheric Research found that \u003ca href=\"https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-29623-8\">wildfire pollution was beginning to reverse decades of clean air gains\u003c/a>. (Researchers at Stanford in 2020 had \u003ca href=\"https://escholarship.org/content/qt5134m9d8/qt5134m9d8.pdf?t=qpc4ro\">similar findings [PDF]\u003c/a>.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The EPA’s plan would update its standard for PM 2.5.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"aside","attributes":{"named":{"label":"Related Stories ","tag":"air-quality"},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Shorthand for “particulate matter of 2.5 microns in size or less,” PM 2.5 is a class of pollutants based on dimensions rather than origin or chemical makeup. It would take about 30 of them lined up to cross the width of a human hair. It’s their size that’s the key problem: It allows them to get deep into the lungs and even cross into the bloodstream, causing heart and respiratory problems. In short, it’s a terrible pollutant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Public comment on the proposal closed late last month, and the EPA is now deciding whether and how to implement revisions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The EPA estimates \u003ca href=\"https://www.epa.gov/sciencematters/epa-researchers-contribute-american-thoracic-society-workshop-report-wildland-fire\">a third of the PM 2.5 we breathe in this country is from wildfires\u003c/a>. For those in the West during wildfire season, it can be 90%.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And if wildfire trends continue and worsen, as climate models suggest they will, then we’ve seen nothing yet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To avoid the worst outcomes, Wara of Stanford points to the need to dramatically increase the use of prescribed fire in pyro-adapted landscapes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Some of the best hopes that we have for reducing public health impacts from wildfire and [general] impacts from wildfire have to do with substituting prescribed fire emission for high-intensity wildfire emission,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>The rub: Wildfire smoke vs. prescribed fire smoke\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The EPA enforces its clean air standards. If air districts do not achieve these clean-air goals, then the EPA can take over air permitting within a district and even impose a ban on new federal highway grants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, EPA officials recognize that sometimes air districts are out of compliance through no fault of their own. In this case, they are allowed to file for an “exceptional event.” In this bureaucratic process, the “event” is linked to the cause of pollution going over the legal limit. It is meant for events that are unforeseeable and are unlikely to occur in the same location again, like a volcanic explosion. If the link can be made, then emissions from that event can be subtracted from the total, and the air district is no longer in trouble with the EPA.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To use an analogy, if you couldn’t pay off your credit card bill some month because you had an unforeseen emergency expense, this would be the process by which you might convince the credit card company to waive that charge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1970817\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1970817\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/gettyimages-1228496051-11803c34ee7e287ff491ad1597467efb869d819a-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"An aerial view shows neighborhoods enshrouded in smoke as the Bobcat Fire advances toward foothill cities and new evacuation order go into effect on September 13, 2020 in Monrovia, California.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/gettyimages-1228496051-11803c34ee7e287ff491ad1597467efb869d819a-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/gettyimages-1228496051-11803c34ee7e287ff491ad1597467efb869d819a-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/gettyimages-1228496051-11803c34ee7e287ff491ad1597467efb869d819a-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/gettyimages-1228496051-11803c34ee7e287ff491ad1597467efb869d819a-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/gettyimages-1228496051-11803c34ee7e287ff491ad1597467efb869d819a-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/gettyimages-1228496051-11803c34ee7e287ff491ad1597467efb869d819a-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/gettyimages-1228496051-11803c34ee7e287ff491ad1597467efb869d819a-2048x1536.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/gettyimages-1228496051-11803c34ee7e287ff491ad1597467efb869d819a-1920x1440.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An aerial view shows neighborhoods in Monrovia enshrouded in smoke from the Bobcat Fire on Sept. 13, 2020. \u003ccite>(David McNew/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>It is a long, technically involved process. A California Air Resources Board (CARB) \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/sites/default/files/2021-11/2020_Northern_California_EE_Full_Demo_Final.pdf\">exceptional events filing (PDF)\u003c/a> for ozone concentrations during the Northern California wildfires of 2020 runs 228 pages.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The problem, as seen by many in the wildfire science community, is that while this process essentially means air districts are not on the hook for wildfire smoke, they are on the hook for prescribed fire smoke. And prescribed fire — the most affordable, effective inoculation against future wildfires — has never been used as a basis for an exceptional event in California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But fire scientists and those in fire agencies worry this new rule will stifle the state and federal plans to expand the use of prescribed fire as a core strategy to stem out-of-control wildfires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’ve got to start doing larger prescribed burns if we want to make a difference to what is actually happening on our landscape,” said Scott Stephens, fire science professor at UC Berkeley. “That just means there’s going to be more smoke.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pro-prescribed-fire groups, including the National Association of Forest Service Retirees, have \u003ca href=\"https://nafsr.org/advocacy/2023/031023%20NAFSR%20response%20to%20EPA%20PM2.5%20rule%20change.pdf\">submitted comments detailing their concern (PDF)\u003c/a> that the proposed rule “will reduce the Nation’s ability to implement strategies intended to reduce unwanted wildfire effects on communities and wildlands, including barriers to increasing the pace and scale of prescribed burning.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1976585\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1998px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1976585\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/winter-oak-woodland-burning-2b67dc9298069f3e95da35a79dcd1b2aa432876f.jpg\" alt=\"A firefighter lights a prescribed burn in Humboldt County to reduce the underbrush without killing trees.\" width=\"1998\" height=\"1499\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/winter-oak-woodland-burning-2b67dc9298069f3e95da35a79dcd1b2aa432876f.jpg 1998w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/winter-oak-woodland-burning-2b67dc9298069f3e95da35a79dcd1b2aa432876f-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/winter-oak-woodland-burning-2b67dc9298069f3e95da35a79dcd1b2aa432876f-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/winter-oak-woodland-burning-2b67dc9298069f3e95da35a79dcd1b2aa432876f-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/winter-oak-woodland-burning-2b67dc9298069f3e95da35a79dcd1b2aa432876f-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/winter-oak-woodland-burning-2b67dc9298069f3e95da35a79dcd1b2aa432876f-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/08/winter-oak-woodland-burning-2b67dc9298069f3e95da35a79dcd1b2aa432876f-1920x1440.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1998px) 100vw, 1998px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Prescribed burns, like this one in Humboldt County, reduce the underbrush without destroying trees. \u003ccite>(Lenya Quinn-Davidson/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>A large group of fire specialists, including professors, cultural burners and ecologists, wrote in a comment letter to the EPA that its plan “would put the EPA on the wrong side of policies and actions planned by federal, state, local and Tribal entities to address the wildfire crisis and ultimately, to reduce harmful PM2.5 emissions and impacts by reducing wildfire smoke.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Smoke from prescribed fires is less intense and less damaging than smoke from wildfires. Many scientists view it as \u003ca href=\"https://www.lung.org/policy-advocacy/healthy-air-campaign/prescribed-fire-report#:~:text=Prescribed%20burns%20can%20be%20used,supporting%20ecosystem%20health%20and%20resiliency.\">a protective trade-off\u003c/a> — some pollution now in exchange for greater fire safety (and less pollution) in the future.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Air districts supportive, with qualifications\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Both the \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/news/carb-statement-us-epa-proposal-strengthen-health-based-standards-fine-particulate-matter\">California Air Resources Board\u003c/a> and the \u003ca href=\"https://www.baaqmd.gov/~/media/files/communications-and-outreach/publications/news-releases/2023/pmnaaqs_230105_2023_001-pdf.pdf?la=en\">Bay Area Air Quality Management District (PDF)\u003c/a> have submitted comments supporting a tightening of the PM 2.5 standard. In interviews with KQED, regulators from both organizations also expressed support for prescribed burning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Charles Knoderer, meteorologist at BAAQMD, said that the air district views prescribed burning as a partner and ally in lowering the risk of wildfires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We can control when they’re doing the burning and we can minimize the amount of smoke that’s released,” he said. “Wildfires will put out a ton more smoke, and at that point there’s really no controlling it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Neither Bay Area nor California air regulators seem to share the worries of the fire community that the EPA will hamper the increased use of prescribed fire, however.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"‘We can control when they’re doing the burning and we can minimize the amount of smoke that’s released. Wildfires will put out a ton more smoke, and at that point there’s really no controlling it.’","name":"pullquote","attributes":{"named":{"size":"medium","align":"left","citation":"Charles Knoderer, meteorologist, Bay Area Air Quality Management District","label":""},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Edie Chang, deputy executive officer at CARB, said her agency has heard from the prescribed-fire community and has brought up the issue in comments to the EPA.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re trying to see how we can streamline or make suggestions for how EPA might modify their policies or their guidance to help us be able to balance the increased use of prescribed fire that we need for forest management, for managing and reducing the catastrophic wildfires that we experience in California,” said Chang.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She expressed hope that the rule’s implementation phase, which it now heads into, would be the time for nitty-gritty details to be worked out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Even though they can be expunged from the data, residents are still feeling [the effects of wildfire] very much so,” said Amsalem, of the Central California Environmental Justice Network. She hopes agencies will work out this issue, she said, “because we do need to do more prescribed burning to reduce the catastrophic events.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>EPA’s proposed workaround leaves burners skeptical\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The EPA also seems aware of these concerns. In its proposed rule, it says it acknowledges stakeholder concerns about the importance of prescribed fire and intends to work with stakeholders to address these issues. It also says \u003ca href=\"https://www.epa.gov/sites/default/files/2019-08/documents/ee_prescribed_fire_final_guidance_-_august_2019.pdf\">prescribed fires have the potential to qualify for exceptional events (PDF)\u003c/a>, which could encourage their continued and expanded use.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, this has environmental lawyers very concerned. Sara Clark of the law firm Shute, Mihaly and Weinberger works with nonprofit organizations and supports prescribed fire and Indigenous cultural burners. She thinks the EPA’s reasoning as written might not hold up under a judge’s evaluation.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"aside","attributes":{"named":{"label":"More Stories ","tag":"prescribed-burning"},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“[The EPA] does a lot of linguistic acrobatics to try and clarify how a prescribed fire is … not reasonably preventable or controllable. But it’s called a ‘controlled burn,’” said Clark. “I’m concerned about the legal underpinnings there.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She also believes that the time and technical expertise needed to file for an exceptional event exemption would make air regulators wary of using it. Extensive documentation and analysis is needed to submit for an exceptional events determination from CARB or the EPA.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A recent Government Accountability Office report echoes these concerns. The report says \u003ca href=\"https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-23-104723.pdf\">the EPA could do a better job working with other agencies to reduce impacts from wildfires (PDF)\u003c/a>, including making it easier to conduct prescribed fires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stakeholders interviewed by the GAO said that state and local agencies aren’t likely to use the exceptional events provision for prescribed burns because “the agencies would not likely approve prescribed burns that could cause National Ambient Air Quality Standards exceedances in the first place.” And they said that “exceptional event demonstrations are technically complicated and resource intensive.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Put another way, it’s more likely that prescribed burns would never happen if air regulators thought they might have to file for an exceptional event.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It is also legally uncharted, or nearly uncharted, territory. \u003ca href=\"https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-23-104723.pdf\">The EPA has received only one exceptional events demonstration for a prescribed burn (PDF)\u003c/a> — too much ozone was associated with prescribed burns in the Flint Hills of Kansas in December 2012. But since then, no tribal, state or local agency has submitted an exceptional event demonstration for a prescribed burn, according to EPA officials.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Should wildfires be considered exceptional?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The EPA’s proposed rule is based in part on the recommendations of the Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee, a collection of public health experts. In their \u003ca href=\"https://www.lawandenvironment.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2022/03/casac-review-of-the-epas-policy-assessment-for-the-reconsideration-of-the-national-ambient-air-quality-standards-for-particulate-matter-external-review-draft-october-2021.pdf?utm_source=mondaq&utm_medium=syndication&utm_content=inarticlelink&utm_campaign=article\">letter sent last spring to EPA administrator Michael Regan (PDF)\u003c/a>, they questioned whether even wildfires ought to be routinely considered exceptional events, considering they are the result of human-caused climate change, fire suppression and forest management policies and, often, problems with equipment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In some parts of the country, wildfires are no longer ‘exceptional’ The dramatic increase in wildfires over the last decade is not natural,” the authors write, pointing to forest management, climate change and utility power lines. “These are (in theory) at least partially controllable.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In UC Berkeley’s Stephens’ view, the rule as proposed is an unacceptable passing of the buck.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"‘If you do proactive work like prescribed burning, you have to justify it through a rule that is onerous. But if a wildfire is occurring, causing damage to people, burning down homes, no one’s accountable. I just don’t see how that can work.’","name":"pullquote","attributes":{"named":{"size":"medium","align":"left","citation":"Scott Stephens, fire science professor, UC Berkeley","label":""},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“If you do proactive work like prescribed burning, you have to justify it through a rule that is onerous,” he said. “But if a wildfire is occurring, causing damage to people, burning down homes, no one’s accountable. I just don’t see how that can work.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Of course, for those affected by the worst air quality in the state, pollution is damaging whether it’s from a diesel engine, a prescribed fire or a catastrophic wildfire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Most people interviewed for this story said they hope that as the EPA decides how to implement the rule over the course of this year, it will find a route that both protects public health from human-made sources like smokestacks and tailpipes and encourages proactive wildfire protection.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The key decision is going to be what happens in the U.S. EPA, PM 2.5 rulemaking. It’s really going to set the course for what is allowed or not allowed on the part of air districts over the next five to 10 years,” said Stanford’s Wara. He hopes for a path that can support both priorities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"floatright"},"numeric":["floatright"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“But if we just act as if it’s the year 2000 or sometime in the 1990s or even 1970 and the U.S. Forest Service reigned supreme over wildfire in the West?” he said. “We are not going to get this outcome.”\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}}],"link":"/science/1982166/the-epa-wants-cleaner-air-but-fire-experts-worry-new-rule-risks-making-it-worse","authors":["11088"],"categories":["science_31","science_39","science_40","science_4450","science_3730"],"tags":["science_524","science_2080","science_4414","science_959","science_113"],"featImg":"science_1982200","label":"science"},"science_1978094":{"type":"posts","id":"science_1978094","meta":{"index":"posts_1591205157","site":"science","id":"1978094","score":null,"sort":[1641586386000]},"guestAuthors":[],"slug":"see-california-wildlife-return-to-hidden-cameras-courtesy-of-hidden-cameras","title":"See California Wildlife Return to Wildfire Zones, Courtesy of Hidden Cameras","publishDate":1641586386,"format":"aside","headTitle":"See California Wildlife Return to Wildfire Zones, Courtesy of Hidden Cameras | KQED","labelTerm":{"site":"science"},"content":"\u003cp>[gallery ids=\"1978095,1978107,1978108,1978104,1978102,1978103,1978100,1978105,1978106\"]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When a wildfire blazes through a forest, animals need to fly or run away or burrow underground and hide. Larger animals like \u003ca href=\"https://myodfw.com/articles/wildfire-and-its-impact-fish-and-wildlife\">deer and elk may seek safety in a lake or river\u003c/a>. During the most ferocious fires, some animals die.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What do California’s worsening fires mean for the state’s wildlife? Researchers at the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, or CDFW, and UC Berkeley asked this question, and offer some answers in a \u003ca href=\"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/ddi.13374\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">recent study published\u003c/a> in Diversity and Distributions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Using some 1,500 camera traps set mostly in Northern California forests, and gathering nearly half a million images over a decade, the researchers found that areas where fires were less severe tend to have an increase in biodiversity, particularly in forest carnivores like bears and bobcats.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It makes sense if you look [at] what these forests have evolved and adapted to over millennia — that fire was much more common,” said lead author Brett Furnas, a quantitative ecologist with CDFW. “And more of that fire was low-severity than high-severity.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Low-severity fire probably helps carnivores hunt because the regrowth of understory plants, like grasses, flowers and shrubs, support the small mammals that carnivores prey upon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Furnas says seeing (through the camera traps) how animals use areas after fire shows that moving back to a more natural, pre-colonial, pre-suppression fire regime, where fires are more frequent and less intense, would benefit plants and animals in forest ecosystems.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1978119\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1978119 size-medium\" title=\"Image from figure in Diversity and Distributions\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/12/Screen-Shot-2021-12-23-at-3.43.43-PM-800x632.png\" alt=\"Showing location of camera traps.\" width=\"800\" height=\"632\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/12/Screen-Shot-2021-12-23-at-3.43.43-PM-800x632.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/12/Screen-Shot-2021-12-23-at-3.43.43-PM-160x126.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/12/Screen-Shot-2021-12-23-at-3.43.43-PM-768x607.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/12/Screen-Shot-2021-12-23-at-3.43.43-PM.png 1018w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Map of the camera trap locations in Northern California from figure in study supported by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>One way to achieve this is by using prescribed fires or controlled burns. This is a win for wildlife, says Furnas, and a win for public safety.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Native people in California (and all over the world) have \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1973196/the-karuk-used-fire-to-manage-the-forest-for-centuries-now-they-want-to-do-that-again\">set fires on the landscape since time immemorial\u003c/a> to increase biodiversity and protect against catastrophic fires. California is in the midst of a movement to restore more native burning and prescribed burning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We can use controlled burning to mimic a lot of these same effects that we get from low-severity fire. That’s good for wildlife. But we know it’s also good for a lot of things,” Furnas says. “It mitigates the air pollution and also the risk to people’s homes and all the other things that we see with these really large fires that are out of control.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Adding some nuance, Furnas says it’s ultimately best for an ecosystem to have a variety of types of fire, including small patches of severe fire and small patches that have not burned for a long time. Unburned areas, for example, can provide higher forest cover suitable for breeding, resting or hiding. Patches of high-severity fire can be good for restarting forest succession.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A diversity of fire is important,” he says. “We know that wildlife likes diversity, not just one thing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The camera traps captured many thousands of images of wildlife, including 15 species of carnivores, such as foxes, martens, badgers and weasels. We asked Furnas to send us some of his favorite images from the camera traps. Please enjoy (above).\u003c/p>\n\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":"These bears, mountain lions, bobcats, martens and other forest carnivores, such as foxes and badgers, find good habitat in forests where fires burn with low severity. ","status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1704846334,"stats":{"hasAudio":false,"hasVideo":false,"hasChartOrMap":false,"iframeSrcs":[],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":true,"hasHearkenModule":false,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":15,"wordCount":567},"headData":{"title":"See California Wildlife Return to Wildfire Zones, Courtesy of Hidden Cameras | KQED","description":"These bears, mountain lions, bobcats, martens and other forest carnivores, such as foxes and badgers, find good habitat in forests where fires burn with low severity. ","ogTitle":"","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"","twDescription":"","twImgId":""},"sticky":false,"excludeFromSiteSearch":"Include","path":"/science/1978094/see-california-wildlife-return-to-hidden-cameras-courtesy-of-hidden-cameras","audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"gallery","attributes":{"named":{"ids":"1978095,1978107,1978108,1978104,1978102,1978103,1978100,1978105,1978106","label":""},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When a wildfire blazes through a forest, animals need to fly or run away or burrow underground and hide. Larger animals like \u003ca href=\"https://myodfw.com/articles/wildfire-and-its-impact-fish-and-wildlife\">deer and elk may seek safety in a lake or river\u003c/a>. During the most ferocious fires, some animals die.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What do California’s worsening fires mean for the state’s wildlife? Researchers at the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, or CDFW, and UC Berkeley asked this question, and offer some answers in a \u003ca href=\"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/ddi.13374\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">recent study published\u003c/a> in Diversity and Distributions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Using some 1,500 camera traps set mostly in Northern California forests, and gathering nearly half a million images over a decade, the researchers found that areas where fires were less severe tend to have an increase in biodiversity, particularly in forest carnivores like bears and bobcats.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It makes sense if you look [at] what these forests have evolved and adapted to over millennia — that fire was much more common,” said lead author Brett Furnas, a quantitative ecologist with CDFW. “And more of that fire was low-severity than high-severity.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"fullwidth"},"numeric":["fullwidth"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Low-severity fire probably helps carnivores hunt because the regrowth of understory plants, like grasses, flowers and shrubs, support the small mammals that carnivores prey upon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Furnas says seeing (through the camera traps) how animals use areas after fire shows that moving back to a more natural, pre-colonial, pre-suppression fire regime, where fires are more frequent and less intense, would benefit plants and animals in forest ecosystems.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1978119\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1978119 size-medium\" title=\"Image from figure in Diversity and Distributions\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/12/Screen-Shot-2021-12-23-at-3.43.43-PM-800x632.png\" alt=\"Showing location of camera traps.\" width=\"800\" height=\"632\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/12/Screen-Shot-2021-12-23-at-3.43.43-PM-800x632.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/12/Screen-Shot-2021-12-23-at-3.43.43-PM-160x126.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/12/Screen-Shot-2021-12-23-at-3.43.43-PM-768x607.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/12/Screen-Shot-2021-12-23-at-3.43.43-PM.png 1018w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Map of the camera trap locations in Northern California from figure in study supported by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>One way to achieve this is by using prescribed fires or controlled burns. This is a win for wildlife, says Furnas, and a win for public safety.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Native people in California (and all over the world) have \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1973196/the-karuk-used-fire-to-manage-the-forest-for-centuries-now-they-want-to-do-that-again\">set fires on the landscape since time immemorial\u003c/a> to increase biodiversity and protect against catastrophic fires. California is in the midst of a movement to restore more native burning and prescribed burning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We can use controlled burning to mimic a lot of these same effects that we get from low-severity fire. That’s good for wildlife. But we know it’s also good for a lot of things,” Furnas says. “It mitigates the air pollution and also the risk to people’s homes and all the other things that we see with these really large fires that are out of control.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Adding some nuance, Furnas says it’s ultimately best for an ecosystem to have a variety of types of fire, including small patches of severe fire and small patches that have not burned for a long time. Unburned areas, for example, can provide higher forest cover suitable for breeding, resting or hiding. Patches of high-severity fire can be good for restarting forest succession.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A diversity of fire is important,” he says. “We know that wildlife likes diversity, not just one thing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The camera traps captured many thousands of images of wildlife, including 15 species of carnivores, such as foxes, martens, badgers and weasels. We asked Furnas to send us some of his favorite images from the camera traps. Please enjoy (above).\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}}],"link":"/science/1978094/see-california-wildlife-return-to-hidden-cameras-courtesy-of-hidden-cameras","authors":["11088"],"categories":["science_2874","science_40","science_4450","science_3730"],"tags":["science_2259","science_4414","science_959","science_804"],"featImg":"science_1978095","label":"science"},"science_1977037":{"type":"posts","id":"science_1977037","meta":{"index":"posts_1591205157","site":"science","id":"1977037","score":null,"sort":[1633460448000]},"guestAuthors":[],"slug":"wildfire-torched-the-sierra-all-summer-evading-containment-heres-how-tahoe-protected-itself","title":"Wildfire Torched the Sierra All Summer, Evading Containment. Here’s How Tahoe Protected Itself","publishDate":1633460448,"format":"image","headTitle":"Wildfire Torched the Sierra All Summer, Evading Containment. Here’s How Tahoe Protected Itself | KQED","labelTerm":{},"content":"\u003cp>Susie Kocher watched with increasing dread as the Caldor Fire roared across the western slope of the Sierra Nevada, churning toward her home near the base of Echo Summit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>From high along the granite ridge nearby, the view of Lake Tahoe is normally pristine — a cerulean ocean in the sky, dotted with boats and casinos lining the pine forest along the South Shore. But for two weeks at the end of August, smoke as brown as car exhaust clouded the basin’s air.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As Kocher well knows, having worked tirelessly for more than a decade to prepare this community for a wildfire as a UC Cooperative Extension forestry adviser, under almost every tree near South Lake Tahoe is a house.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She feared the fast approaching edge of the fire, with its flames licking beyond 100 feet in the air. But she worried most about showers of red hot embers, carried over a mile beyond the fire’s edge by wind gusts, stealing entrance into these homes through open vents or siding gaps, burning them from the inside out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A firefighter is not going to help your home if the ember goes in through the attic,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the fire approached, she cleared away needles and brush from around her house. With their truck, Kocher’s husband, Rick George, hauled their sailboat and other fire hazards to a vacant lot away from their home. She collected her “wedding dress, my husband’s silver and his mother’s wedding dress,” irreplaceable items to take with her when they evacuated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Aug. 30, officials ordered South Lake Tahoe to evacuate immediately. She joined thousands of others leaving en masse, her face obscured by a heavy blue and red respirator to protect her lungs from the hazardous smoke.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Behind her as she drove away, ash and a hazy amber glow floated around her home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://twitter.com/UCsierraforest/status/1432458308812619779\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>The ‘wake-up moment’\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>When the Valley Fire in Lake County destroyed 1,300 homes and killed four people in 2015, the wildfire community called it a “\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1976490/showing-climate-change-as-it-happens-a-veteran-photojournalist-on-capturing-californias-intensifying-wildfires\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">wake-up moment\u003c/a>” to an era of catastrophic wildfire in California, driven in part by climate change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Caldor, Dixie and other fires this summer make it crystal clear that California’s wildfire crisis is escalating. About 4.3 million acres burned in 2020, a record that could be surpassed by this year’s extreme fire season.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state is in a dangerous place. Scorching summers coupled with tinderbox dry forests render fire containment ineffective — especially when it’s hot, windy or a combination of the two.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When the Caldor Fire burned into the Tahoe Basin, it looked like this city, a center of gravity for culture in this part of the Sierra, could (and many thought would) burn.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But it did not, thanks to the 3,500 firefighters, a timely shift in the winds and years of fire preparations by a myriad of players.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Caldor Fire showed the danger California faces, but also a path forward, beginning with \u003ca href=\"https://www.capradio.org/articles/2021/09/09/interview-pyrogeographer-crystal-kolden-on-fighting-californias-modern-megafires/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">acceptance that wildfires are a part of our lives\u003c/a> and not inherently bad.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California Natural Resources Secretary Wade Crowfoot \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1976869/heres-whats-inside-newsoms-whopping-15-billion-climate-spending-plan\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">acknowledged\u003c/a> as much when he detailed about $1 billion in new spending for fire breaks, tree thinning and other measures meant to prevent catastrophic wildfire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are not going to respond our way out of this wildfire crisis,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A “confluence of all the right ingredients” coalesced to drive the Caldor Fire’s erratic fire behavior, accelerating the arrival of conditions expected to emerge over the next century, said \u003ca href=\"https://www.dri.edu/directory/benjamin-hatchett/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Benjamin Hatchett,\u003c/a> an atmospheric scientist with the Desert Research Institute in Reno.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I hope Tahoe is the wake-up call,” he said. “We all need to get together and figure out what we’re going to do so that it’s not Tahoe City next year or Truckee next year.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1977050\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1977050 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/DSCF2842.jpg\" alt=\"Fire crews manage a back fire while fighting the Caldor Fire. \" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/DSCF2842.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/DSCF2842-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/DSCF2842-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/DSCF2842-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/DSCF2842-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/DSCF2842-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/DSCF2842-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Fire crews manage a back fire in Sly Park, Calif., fighting the Caldor Fire on Monday, Aug, 23, 2021. \u003ccite>(Andrew Nixon/CapRadio)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>‘Hat’s off’ for forest thinning\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>The Caldor Fire ignited on Aug. 14 near Pollock Pines in El Dorado County, and quickly decimated Grizzly Flats, burning a school, church and the post office, leaving little left in the mountain hamlet. To date, the fire has burned more than 1,000 buildings and north of 220,000 acres. Officials lifted the last of the evacuation orders just \u003ca href=\"https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FA4qSO7VcAEVKRE.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">this week\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/pyrogeog/status/1435358566139904005\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">A few days earlier\u003c/a>, the Dixie Fire burned across Kettle Ridge, west of Susanville, and into the Great Basin, becoming the first known wildfire to run across the Sierra Nevada. The flames ripped through high elevation forests usually too saturated with heavy snow melt to burn.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1977051\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1977051\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/DSCF2208.jpg\" alt=\"A burned entrance sign at Walter Tyler Elementary school with charred playground equipment in the background. \" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/DSCF2208.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/DSCF2208-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/DSCF2208-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/DSCF2208-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/DSCF2208-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/DSCF2208-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/DSCF2208-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Walter Tyler Elementary in Grizzly Flats, Calif. Tuesday, August 17, 2021. \u003ccite>(Andrew Nixon/CapRadio)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“We don’t have any record of that happening before,” Cal Fire Chief Thom Porter said, adding the blaze — 32 times the size of San Francisco — “was exceedingly resistant to control.” The Dixie Fire is California’s largest single fire on record, having consumed nearly 1 million acres across five counties.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By the end of August, the Caldor Fire had burned into the Tahoe Basin, becoming the second recorded fire to cross the Sierra Nevada. Its erratic fire behavior \u003ca href=\"https://www.capradio.org/articles/2021/08/19/caldor-fires-explosive-growth-following-dixie-fires-playbook/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">mirrored the Dixie Fire\u003c/a> to the north, and residents watched with alarm as the embers ignited spot fires miles in front of the flames, like missiles shot from behind enemy lines, rendering firefighter containment lines — painstakingly hacked with hand tools and bulldozers — essentially useless.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For firefighters, this year has been a grueling slog, and the last two weeks of August were some of the worst.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Since we got here, our first time actually sleeping was yesterday,” said Micah Conant, nearly a week into a shift at the Caldor Fire with his Tahoe Douglas Fire Department crew.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The firefighters’ main objective: keep the blaze out of South Lake Tahoe, a dense mountain city of more than 21,000 people, and the surrounding communities, home of Kocher and thousands more.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As a first line of defense, crews with bulldozers scraped earth bare against homes in Meyers and Christmas Valley, where they expected to make a desperate stand, said Phil Heitzke, a fuels specialist with the U.S. Forest Service.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When the wildfire charged towards the fire line, “we were getting 100 or 150 foot flame lengths,” Heitzke said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1977052\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1977052\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/RS51740_IMG_1817-1-qut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/RS51740_IMG_1817-1-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/RS51740_IMG_1817-1-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/RS51740_IMG_1817-1-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/RS51740_IMG_1817-1-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/RS51740_IMG_1817-1-qut-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/RS51740_IMG_1817-1-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Cut stumps in the forest near South Lake Tahoe show where preventative forest thinning took place before the Caldor Fire burned the area. \u003ccite>(Danielle Venton/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But suddenly, the flames lowered to the forest floor. Firefighters crossed the dozer lines, safely able to work next to the flames, steering the wildfire away from the homes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The fire behavior dropped down as soon as it hit this unit,” Heitzke said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If crews hadn’t thinned small trees and brush here a few years ago, that wouldn’t have been possible.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The canopy is open, and that’s the key thing with these fires, having that open canopy so the [wildfire] can’t sustain a crown run” where the fire burns from treetop to treetop, Heitzke said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For the folks who have been working on these projects the last two decades my hat’s off to them.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>A built-in buffer\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Tens of thousands of acres have been treated in the Lake Tahoe Basin in the last 15 years, more than is typical for forested mountain communities. The work is not cheap. Paying crews with chain saws to thin overgrown forests can cost around $2,000 an acre.\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-1977041\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/KQED_Caldor-1.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"887\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Comparing that against the value of homes saved — recent home sales in the area have garnered a median price of $750,000 — it looks like a good investment. But here, Lake Tahoe is privileged. The city has a much larger population than most mountain towns and boasts a wealthy, largely white conservation community that can afford to pay for expertise needed to get good at winning competitive grants. “There’s a political pressure there,” Heitzke said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Residents and others have treated more than 40% of the Tahoe Basin since 2008 with mechanical thinning and “good fire,” the intentional burning of thick underbrush to slow down future wildfires. Additionally, hundreds of homeowners around the Tahoe Basin have prepared their houses and properties to withstand wildfire including cleaning needles, trees and debris around homes, and installing new roofs and vent covers to prevent embers from getting inside a house.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A \u003ca href=\"https://www.arcgis.com/home/webmap/viewer.html?url=https://services6.arcgis.com/1KtlSd2mklZMBKaz/ArcGIS/rest/services/Tahoe_Forest_Fuels_Tx_OFFICIAL_Public_View/FeatureServer&source=sd\">map\u003c/a> of treatments in the area shows an extensive, though patchy, jigsaw puzzle of mechanical thinning and pile burns on both sides of Highway 50. The Forest Service said in the past five years many of those fuel treatments in the Tahoe Basin included prescribed fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“South Lake Tahoe and that whole area has done an absolutely extraordinary job of doing a lot of work to reduce fuels,” said Crystal Kolden, a UC Merced fire scientist.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bob Larsen’s home is about a block away from where the Caldor Fire stopped. He credits the areas of treated forest with saving his and his neighbors homes and said the 2007 Angora Fire, which incinerated 240 homes southwest of South Lake Tahoe, galvanized the community around fire preparations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://projects.capradio.org/california-fire-history/#9.69/39.0438/-120.1474\" style=\"border: 0px #ffffff none;\" name=\"myiFrame\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" marginheight=\"0px\" marginwidth=\"0px\" height=\"500px\" width=\"100%\" allowfullscreen class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“[Angora] highlighted the importance of doing something about the overstocked forest and trying to make sure that homeowners are doing the work that they need to do to provide that defensible space,” Larsen said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Because of forest treatments, he said his neighborhood had a “buffer between sort of the very hot fire and fire that was more manageable, I think is a big part of why they were able to succeed and why we are so lucky.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1977053\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1977053\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/RS51741_IMG_1815-1-qut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/RS51741_IMG_1815-1-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/RS51741_IMG_1815-1-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/RS51741_IMG_1815-1-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/RS51741_IMG_1815-1-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/RS51741_IMG_1815-1-qut-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/RS51741_IMG_1815-1-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Bob Larsen stands in the forest near his home. \u003ccite>(Danielle Venton/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>Fire here is expected\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>For roughly four decades, California wildfires have advanced higher and higher into the backcountry, rising in elevation at a rate of 25 feet per year, with the largest growth in the Sierra Nevada, according to a \u003ca href=\"https://tahoe.ucdavis.edu/sites/g/files/dgvnsk4286/files/inline-files/Warming_Enabled_e2009717118.full_.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">new study\u003c/a> from researchers at UC Merced and elsewhere.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Researchers say the fire’s spread is driven by warmer and dryer conditions with snow melting earlier in the year. Warming temperatures have driven a fivefold increase in summertime forest fires across California, felt most dramatically in the Sierra Nevada, according to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1944993/study-climate-change-a-leading-driver-of-californias-wildfires\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">research published in 2019, a year before last summer’s record-torching fire season\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to the \u003ca href=\"https://tahoe.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/sites/257/2020/04/Integrated-Vulnerability-Assessment-of-Climate-Change-in-the-Lake-Tahoe-Basin_2020.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">California Tahoe Conservancy’s assessment of the Lake Tahoe Basin’s vulnerability to climate change\u003c/a>, the basin can expect to see higher temperatures, more extreme storms, less snow, more drought stress and larger areas burned by wildfires over the next century.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s something that’s happening today,” said South Lake Tahoe Mayor Pro Tem Devin Middlebrook. “[Preparing for big fires] isn’t something that we can put off for 20 or 30 years,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1977057\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1977057\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/RS51299_067_Meyers_CaldorFire_08312021-qut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/RS51299_067_Meyers_CaldorFire_08312021-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/RS51299_067_Meyers_CaldorFire_08312021-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/RS51299_067_Meyers_CaldorFire_08312021-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/RS51299_067_Meyers_CaldorFire_08312021-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/RS51299_067_Meyers_CaldorFire_08312021-qut-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/RS51299_067_Meyers_CaldorFire_08312021-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A CalFire truck drives on a smoke-filled Highway 50 between Pollock Pines and Strawberry, as the Caldor Fire burns nearby. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>Culture of suppression\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Fire experts say a policy of fire prevention has left forest stands across the state thick with overgrown brush and trees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After the Great Fire of 1910, which burned 20 million acres across the northwest and killed 86 people, California forest managers began actively suppressing wildfires. The majority of the tens of millions of acres of forest in California are controlled by the U.S. Forest Service.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 1935, that agency passed the 10 a.m. rule, a mandate dictating any fire must be controlled by the next day at 10 a.m. Although this policy was rescinded in 1974, this way of managing forests has led to more than 80 years of suppressing fires by federal firefighters and Cal Fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What experts say is often missing from this conversation is the \u003ca href=\"https://www.capradio.org/articles/2020/09/16/the-racist-removal-of-native-americans-in-california-is-often-missing-from-wildfire-discussions-experts-say/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">racist removal of Native American people\u003c/a> from California in the mid-19th century. More than \u003ca href=\"https://newsroom.ucla.edu/stories/revealing-the-history-of-genocide-against-californias-native-americans\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">16,000 were killed\u003c/a>, others were forced onto reservations and many were enslaved.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Along with their physical beings, the knowledge of taking care of the land through forest thinning and cultural burns was also removed. This action resulted in overgrown forests, said \u003ca href=\"https://www.csuchico.edu/geop/department/dhankins.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Don Hankins\u003c/a>, a Plains Miwok fire expert at Chico State.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If California was “still stewarded continuously with Indigenous fire, we would definitely not see the same level of fires that we’re seeing,” he said in 2020.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are indications that the state is changing its fire policies. Having spent \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/hub/california\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">$3.4 billion on wildfire suppression last year\u003c/a>, Gov. Gavin Newsom earmarked about \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1976869/heres-whats-inside-newsoms-whopping-15-billion-climate-spending-plan\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">$1 billion in new spending\u003c/a> for fire breaks, forest thinning, and other measures to stop megafires before they get out of control. Crowfoot, of the Natural Resources Agency, indicated the state is prepared to expand “upfront, proactive actions,” and the package includes $19 million for the state to work with tribes on prescribed burns, up from just $1 million last year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California lawmakers have also passed \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220SB332\">a\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220SB332\">bill\u003c/a> that wouldn’t hold prescribed burners liable if a fire escapes it’s containment lines, unless they are grossly negligent. Lastly, a federal Senate infrastructure bill could provide more than \u003ca href=\"https://docs.house.gov/meetings/AG/AG00/20210910/114025/BILLS-117SConRes14pp.pdf\">$16 \u003c/a>\u003ca href=\"https://docs.house.gov/meetings/AG/AG00/20210910/114025/BILLS-117SConRes14pp.pdf\">billion\u003c/a> over a decade for fuels management.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Megafires push forest communities to the brink\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>A trail of cars lined Highway 50 during South Lake Tahoe’s evacuation on Aug. 30, but Bill Schaeffer, wearing a T-shirt, the same moody gray color as the smoke-darkened sky, pushed his bike toward the fire. The scruffy man with long locks hurried to gather his belongings at home in time to catch a bus out of the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Just two weeks prior, Schaeffer, 68, was unhoused, like he had been on and off for almost two decades. He recently moved into a small, affordable home with the help of a local support group for unhoused people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If I lose my place to live, then I’m going to probably be forced back to being homeless again,” he said, noting that rents here, like elsewhere throughout California, have risen to be “sky high.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Known to the outside world as a sparkling tourist area, South Lake Tahoe is home to the resort staff, bartenders and thousands of others who live and work there, keeping the machinery of the place humming.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Construction workers Jose Mora and Henry Jose Mendoza fled South Lake Tahoe, too, taking shelter at an evacuation center in Carson City, Nevada. Mendoza only had the clothes on his body because they didn’t have time to pack before leaving. The friends were confused whether or not they needed to evacuate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1977058\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1977058\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/Image-from-iOS-copy-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/Image-from-iOS-copy-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/Image-from-iOS-copy-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/Image-from-iOS-copy-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/Image-from-iOS-copy-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/Image-from-iOS-copy-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/Image-from-iOS-copy-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/Image-from-iOS-copy-2048x1536.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/Image-from-iOS-copy-1920x1440.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jose Mora (right) and Henry Jose Mendoza, both construction workers, fled South Lake Tahoe during the Caldor Fire, taking shelter at an evacuation center in Carson City, Nevada. \u003ccite>(Ezra David Romero/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“We were looking at Facebook, and then the news,” said Mora. “We were just waiting. Then we received a call and we [saw] the map and we just started getting whatever we could.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On the eve of the evacuation, Donarae Reynolds and her husband bustled around their home in the \u003ca href=\"https://goldenbearha.org/current-conditions\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Golden Bear neighborhood just outside South Lake Tahoe\u003c/a>, packing medications, clothes and other essentials into their cars and camper trailer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They’d removed unrecoverable family photos from the walls, and stowed their passports, living trust and other important documents in a safety deposit box at the bank. Their neighborhood was ready when the evacuation order came in.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We all simply got in our cars and waved to each other and we took off,” Reynolds said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Reynolds’ neighborhood was uniquely prepared for this day to come. In 2019, Reynolds and her neighbors held an \u003ca href=\"https://www.capradio.org/news/tahoeland/2019/10/02/climate-change-is-increasing-tahoes-risk-of-wildfire-these-residents-want-to-be-ready/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">evacuation drill to prepare for disasters like the Caldor Fire. \u003c/a>They’ve also held clean-up days and got residents to sign up for emergency alerts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If it were a situation where you had no warning and everyone just had to scramble, I think that it would have been a totally different kind of an evacuation,” Reynolds said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The neighbors kept up with each other while they were evacuated, trading Ring doorbell camera footage and aerial views of the neighborhood to see if the fire had reached it. The fire spared their homes this time, and they’ve since returned to Golden Bear.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1977060\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1977060\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/RS51290_048_Meyers_CaldorFire_08312021-qut.jpg\" alt=\"Lake Tahoe Blvd in South Lake Tahoe is mostly empty, after evacuees waited hours to leave the area.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1278\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/RS51290_048_Meyers_CaldorFire_08312021-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/RS51290_048_Meyers_CaldorFire_08312021-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/RS51290_048_Meyers_CaldorFire_08312021-qut-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/RS51290_048_Meyers_CaldorFire_08312021-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/RS51290_048_Meyers_CaldorFire_08312021-qut-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/RS51290_048_Meyers_CaldorFire_08312021-qut-1536x1022.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lake Tahoe Blvd in South Lake Tahoe is mostly empty on Tuesday, Aug. 31, 2021, after evacuees waited hours to leave the area. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>A matter of survival\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Back in Tahoe with her home and its two decks still standing, Kocher said she feels fortunate to live in South Lake Tahoe with ample fire prevention and suppression assets, especially when nearby communities don’t have the same resources to stop the flames.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m concerned for those communities,” she said. “It’s a matter of survival unless we get our act together.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s easy to blame the fires all on a warming climate, but UC Berkeley fire science professor Scott Stephens said the lack of prevention efforts and the overgrown forests amount to the “vast majority” of the state’s current problem.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hatchett, with the Desert Research Institute, said that still-rising temperatures, increasingly arid conditions, and other impacts of climate change is like “pouring gas” on wildfires and why “we need climate action now.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But even climate action, he admits, won’t stop the sheer volume of dead brush and trees in forests from burning or prevent the amount of global warming already baked into the atmosphere. But, yet, he has hope.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re not going to stop that train,” he admitted, “but we might be able to divert it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":"About 3,500 firefighters and years of preventative fire preparations largely saved South Lake Tahoe from the Caldor Fire. ","status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1704846414,"stats":{"hasAudio":false,"hasVideo":false,"hasChartOrMap":true,"iframeSrcs":["https://projects.capradio.org/california-fire-history/#9.69/39.0438/-120.1474"],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":false,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":73,"wordCount":3056},"headData":{"title":"Wildfire Torched the Sierra All Summer, Evading Containment. Here’s How Tahoe Protected Itself | KQED","description":"About 3,500 firefighters and years of preventative fire preparations largely saved South Lake Tahoe from the Caldor Fire. ","ogTitle":"","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"","twDescription":"","twImgId":""},"source":"Wildfire","sticky":false,"nprByline":"Ezra David Romero, Danielle Venton, Emily Zentner, and Raquel Maria Dillon","path":"/science/1977037/wildfire-torched-the-sierra-all-summer-evading-containment-heres-how-tahoe-protected-itself","audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Susie Kocher watched with increasing dread as the Caldor Fire roared across the western slope of the Sierra Nevada, churning toward her home near the base of Echo Summit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>From high along the granite ridge nearby, the view of Lake Tahoe is normally pristine — a cerulean ocean in the sky, dotted with boats and casinos lining the pine forest along the South Shore. But for two weeks at the end of August, smoke as brown as car exhaust clouded the basin’s air.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As Kocher well knows, having worked tirelessly for more than a decade to prepare this community for a wildfire as a UC Cooperative Extension forestry adviser, under almost every tree near South Lake Tahoe is a house.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She feared the fast approaching edge of the fire, with its flames licking beyond 100 feet in the air. But she worried most about showers of red hot embers, carried over a mile beyond the fire’s edge by wind gusts, stealing entrance into these homes through open vents or siding gaps, burning them from the inside out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A firefighter is not going to help your home if the ember goes in through the attic,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"fullwidth"},"numeric":["fullwidth"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the fire approached, she cleared away needles and brush from around her house. With their truck, Kocher’s husband, Rick George, hauled their sailboat and other fire hazards to a vacant lot away from their home. She collected her “wedding dress, my husband’s silver and his mother’s wedding dress,” irreplaceable items to take with her when they evacuated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Aug. 30, officials ordered South Lake Tahoe to evacuate immediately. She joined thousands of others leaving en masse, her face obscured by a heavy blue and red respirator to protect her lungs from the hazardous smoke.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Behind her as she drove away, ash and a hazy amber glow floated around her home.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"singleTwitterStatus","attributes":{"named":{"id":"1432458308812619779"},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003ch3>The ‘wake-up moment’\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>When the Valley Fire in Lake County destroyed 1,300 homes and killed four people in 2015, the wildfire community called it a “\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1976490/showing-climate-change-as-it-happens-a-veteran-photojournalist-on-capturing-californias-intensifying-wildfires\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">wake-up moment\u003c/a>” to an era of catastrophic wildfire in California, driven in part by climate change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Caldor, Dixie and other fires this summer make it crystal clear that California’s wildfire crisis is escalating. About 4.3 million acres burned in 2020, a record that could be surpassed by this year’s extreme fire season.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state is in a dangerous place. Scorching summers coupled with tinderbox dry forests render fire containment ineffective — especially when it’s hot, windy or a combination of the two.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When the Caldor Fire burned into the Tahoe Basin, it looked like this city, a center of gravity for culture in this part of the Sierra, could (and many thought would) burn.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But it did not, thanks to the 3,500 firefighters, a timely shift in the winds and years of fire preparations by a myriad of players.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Caldor Fire showed the danger California faces, but also a path forward, beginning with \u003ca href=\"https://www.capradio.org/articles/2021/09/09/interview-pyrogeographer-crystal-kolden-on-fighting-californias-modern-megafires/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">acceptance that wildfires are a part of our lives\u003c/a> and not inherently bad.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California Natural Resources Secretary Wade Crowfoot \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1976869/heres-whats-inside-newsoms-whopping-15-billion-climate-spending-plan\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">acknowledged\u003c/a> as much when he detailed about $1 billion in new spending for fire breaks, tree thinning and other measures meant to prevent catastrophic wildfire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are not going to respond our way out of this wildfire crisis,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A “confluence of all the right ingredients” coalesced to drive the Caldor Fire’s erratic fire behavior, accelerating the arrival of conditions expected to emerge over the next century, said \u003ca href=\"https://www.dri.edu/directory/benjamin-hatchett/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Benjamin Hatchett,\u003c/a> an atmospheric scientist with the Desert Research Institute in Reno.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I hope Tahoe is the wake-up call,” he said. “We all need to get together and figure out what we’re going to do so that it’s not Tahoe City next year or Truckee next year.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1977050\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1977050 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/DSCF2842.jpg\" alt=\"Fire crews manage a back fire while fighting the Caldor Fire. \" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/DSCF2842.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/DSCF2842-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/DSCF2842-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/DSCF2842-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/DSCF2842-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/DSCF2842-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/DSCF2842-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Fire crews manage a back fire in Sly Park, Calif., fighting the Caldor Fire on Monday, Aug, 23, 2021. \u003ccite>(Andrew Nixon/CapRadio)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>‘Hat’s off’ for forest thinning\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>The Caldor Fire ignited on Aug. 14 near Pollock Pines in El Dorado County, and quickly decimated Grizzly Flats, burning a school, church and the post office, leaving little left in the mountain hamlet. To date, the fire has burned more than 1,000 buildings and north of 220,000 acres. Officials lifted the last of the evacuation orders just \u003ca href=\"https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FA4qSO7VcAEVKRE.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">this week\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/pyrogeog/status/1435358566139904005\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">A few days earlier\u003c/a>, the Dixie Fire burned across Kettle Ridge, west of Susanville, and into the Great Basin, becoming the first known wildfire to run across the Sierra Nevada. The flames ripped through high elevation forests usually too saturated with heavy snow melt to burn.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1977051\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1977051\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/DSCF2208.jpg\" alt=\"A burned entrance sign at Walter Tyler Elementary school with charred playground equipment in the background. \" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/DSCF2208.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/DSCF2208-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/DSCF2208-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/DSCF2208-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/DSCF2208-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/DSCF2208-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/DSCF2208-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Walter Tyler Elementary in Grizzly Flats, Calif. Tuesday, August 17, 2021. \u003ccite>(Andrew Nixon/CapRadio)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“We don’t have any record of that happening before,” Cal Fire Chief Thom Porter said, adding the blaze — 32 times the size of San Francisco — “was exceedingly resistant to control.” The Dixie Fire is California’s largest single fire on record, having consumed nearly 1 million acres across five counties.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By the end of August, the Caldor Fire had burned into the Tahoe Basin, becoming the second recorded fire to cross the Sierra Nevada. Its erratic fire behavior \u003ca href=\"https://www.capradio.org/articles/2021/08/19/caldor-fires-explosive-growth-following-dixie-fires-playbook/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">mirrored the Dixie Fire\u003c/a> to the north, and residents watched with alarm as the embers ignited spot fires miles in front of the flames, like missiles shot from behind enemy lines, rendering firefighter containment lines — painstakingly hacked with hand tools and bulldozers — essentially useless.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For firefighters, this year has been a grueling slog, and the last two weeks of August were some of the worst.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Since we got here, our first time actually sleeping was yesterday,” said Micah Conant, nearly a week into a shift at the Caldor Fire with his Tahoe Douglas Fire Department crew.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The firefighters’ main objective: keep the blaze out of South Lake Tahoe, a dense mountain city of more than 21,000 people, and the surrounding communities, home of Kocher and thousands more.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As a first line of defense, crews with bulldozers scraped earth bare against homes in Meyers and Christmas Valley, where they expected to make a desperate stand, said Phil Heitzke, a fuels specialist with the U.S. Forest Service.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When the wildfire charged towards the fire line, “we were getting 100 or 150 foot flame lengths,” Heitzke said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1977052\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1977052\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/RS51740_IMG_1817-1-qut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/RS51740_IMG_1817-1-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/RS51740_IMG_1817-1-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/RS51740_IMG_1817-1-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/RS51740_IMG_1817-1-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/RS51740_IMG_1817-1-qut-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/RS51740_IMG_1817-1-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Cut stumps in the forest near South Lake Tahoe show where preventative forest thinning took place before the Caldor Fire burned the area. \u003ccite>(Danielle Venton/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But suddenly, the flames lowered to the forest floor. Firefighters crossed the dozer lines, safely able to work next to the flames, steering the wildfire away from the homes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The fire behavior dropped down as soon as it hit this unit,” Heitzke said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If crews hadn’t thinned small trees and brush here a few years ago, that wouldn’t have been possible.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The canopy is open, and that’s the key thing with these fires, having that open canopy so the [wildfire] can’t sustain a crown run” where the fire burns from treetop to treetop, Heitzke said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For the folks who have been working on these projects the last two decades my hat’s off to them.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>A built-in buffer\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Tens of thousands of acres have been treated in the Lake Tahoe Basin in the last 15 years, more than is typical for forested mountain communities. The work is not cheap. Paying crews with chain saws to thin overgrown forests can cost around $2,000 an acre.\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-1977041\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/KQED_Caldor-1.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"887\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Comparing that against the value of homes saved — recent home sales in the area have garnered a median price of $750,000 — it looks like a good investment. But here, Lake Tahoe is privileged. The city has a much larger population than most mountain towns and boasts a wealthy, largely white conservation community that can afford to pay for expertise needed to get good at winning competitive grants. “There’s a political pressure there,” Heitzke said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Residents and others have treated more than 40% of the Tahoe Basin since 2008 with mechanical thinning and “good fire,” the intentional burning of thick underbrush to slow down future wildfires. Additionally, hundreds of homeowners around the Tahoe Basin have prepared their houses and properties to withstand wildfire including cleaning needles, trees and debris around homes, and installing new roofs and vent covers to prevent embers from getting inside a house.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A \u003ca href=\"https://www.arcgis.com/home/webmap/viewer.html?url=https://services6.arcgis.com/1KtlSd2mklZMBKaz/ArcGIS/rest/services/Tahoe_Forest_Fuels_Tx_OFFICIAL_Public_View/FeatureServer&source=sd\">map\u003c/a> of treatments in the area shows an extensive, though patchy, jigsaw puzzle of mechanical thinning and pile burns on both sides of Highway 50. The Forest Service said in the past five years many of those fuel treatments in the Tahoe Basin included prescribed fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“South Lake Tahoe and that whole area has done an absolutely extraordinary job of doing a lot of work to reduce fuels,” said Crystal Kolden, a UC Merced fire scientist.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bob Larsen’s home is about a block away from where the Caldor Fire stopped. He credits the areas of treated forest with saving his and his neighbors homes and said the 2007 Angora Fire, which incinerated 240 homes southwest of South Lake Tahoe, galvanized the community around fire preparations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://projects.capradio.org/california-fire-history/#9.69/39.0438/-120.1474\" style=\"border: 0px #ffffff none;\" name=\"myiFrame\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" marginheight=\"0px\" marginwidth=\"0px\" height=\"500px\" width=\"100%\" allowfullscreen class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“[Angora] highlighted the importance of doing something about the overstocked forest and trying to make sure that homeowners are doing the work that they need to do to provide that defensible space,” Larsen said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Because of forest treatments, he said his neighborhood had a “buffer between sort of the very hot fire and fire that was more manageable, I think is a big part of why they were able to succeed and why we are so lucky.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1977053\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1977053\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/RS51741_IMG_1815-1-qut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/RS51741_IMG_1815-1-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/RS51741_IMG_1815-1-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/RS51741_IMG_1815-1-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/RS51741_IMG_1815-1-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/RS51741_IMG_1815-1-qut-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/RS51741_IMG_1815-1-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Bob Larsen stands in the forest near his home. \u003ccite>(Danielle Venton/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>Fire here is expected\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>For roughly four decades, California wildfires have advanced higher and higher into the backcountry, rising in elevation at a rate of 25 feet per year, with the largest growth in the Sierra Nevada, according to a \u003ca href=\"https://tahoe.ucdavis.edu/sites/g/files/dgvnsk4286/files/inline-files/Warming_Enabled_e2009717118.full_.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">new study\u003c/a> from researchers at UC Merced and elsewhere.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Researchers say the fire’s spread is driven by warmer and dryer conditions with snow melting earlier in the year. Warming temperatures have driven a fivefold increase in summertime forest fires across California, felt most dramatically in the Sierra Nevada, according to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1944993/study-climate-change-a-leading-driver-of-californias-wildfires\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">research published in 2019, a year before last summer’s record-torching fire season\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to the \u003ca href=\"https://tahoe.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/sites/257/2020/04/Integrated-Vulnerability-Assessment-of-Climate-Change-in-the-Lake-Tahoe-Basin_2020.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">California Tahoe Conservancy’s assessment of the Lake Tahoe Basin’s vulnerability to climate change\u003c/a>, the basin can expect to see higher temperatures, more extreme storms, less snow, more drought stress and larger areas burned by wildfires over the next century.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s something that’s happening today,” said South Lake Tahoe Mayor Pro Tem Devin Middlebrook. “[Preparing for big fires] isn’t something that we can put off for 20 or 30 years,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1977057\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1977057\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/RS51299_067_Meyers_CaldorFire_08312021-qut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/RS51299_067_Meyers_CaldorFire_08312021-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/RS51299_067_Meyers_CaldorFire_08312021-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/RS51299_067_Meyers_CaldorFire_08312021-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/RS51299_067_Meyers_CaldorFire_08312021-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/RS51299_067_Meyers_CaldorFire_08312021-qut-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/RS51299_067_Meyers_CaldorFire_08312021-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A CalFire truck drives on a smoke-filled Highway 50 between Pollock Pines and Strawberry, as the Caldor Fire burns nearby. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>Culture of suppression\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Fire experts say a policy of fire prevention has left forest stands across the state thick with overgrown brush and trees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After the Great Fire of 1910, which burned 20 million acres across the northwest and killed 86 people, California forest managers began actively suppressing wildfires. The majority of the tens of millions of acres of forest in California are controlled by the U.S. Forest Service.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 1935, that agency passed the 10 a.m. rule, a mandate dictating any fire must be controlled by the next day at 10 a.m. Although this policy was rescinded in 1974, this way of managing forests has led to more than 80 years of suppressing fires by federal firefighters and Cal Fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What experts say is often missing from this conversation is the \u003ca href=\"https://www.capradio.org/articles/2020/09/16/the-racist-removal-of-native-americans-in-california-is-often-missing-from-wildfire-discussions-experts-say/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">racist removal of Native American people\u003c/a> from California in the mid-19th century. More than \u003ca href=\"https://newsroom.ucla.edu/stories/revealing-the-history-of-genocide-against-californias-native-americans\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">16,000 were killed\u003c/a>, others were forced onto reservations and many were enslaved.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Along with their physical beings, the knowledge of taking care of the land through forest thinning and cultural burns was also removed. This action resulted in overgrown forests, said \u003ca href=\"https://www.csuchico.edu/geop/department/dhankins.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Don Hankins\u003c/a>, a Plains Miwok fire expert at Chico State.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If California was “still stewarded continuously with Indigenous fire, we would definitely not see the same level of fires that we’re seeing,” he said in 2020.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are indications that the state is changing its fire policies. Having spent \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/hub/california\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">$3.4 billion on wildfire suppression last year\u003c/a>, Gov. Gavin Newsom earmarked about \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1976869/heres-whats-inside-newsoms-whopping-15-billion-climate-spending-plan\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">$1 billion in new spending\u003c/a> for fire breaks, forest thinning, and other measures to stop megafires before they get out of control. Crowfoot, of the Natural Resources Agency, indicated the state is prepared to expand “upfront, proactive actions,” and the package includes $19 million for the state to work with tribes on prescribed burns, up from just $1 million last year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California lawmakers have also passed \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220SB332\">a\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220SB332\">bill\u003c/a> that wouldn’t hold prescribed burners liable if a fire escapes it’s containment lines, unless they are grossly negligent. Lastly, a federal Senate infrastructure bill could provide more than \u003ca href=\"https://docs.house.gov/meetings/AG/AG00/20210910/114025/BILLS-117SConRes14pp.pdf\">$16 \u003c/a>\u003ca href=\"https://docs.house.gov/meetings/AG/AG00/20210910/114025/BILLS-117SConRes14pp.pdf\">billion\u003c/a> over a decade for fuels management.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Megafires push forest communities to the brink\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>A trail of cars lined Highway 50 during South Lake Tahoe’s evacuation on Aug. 30, but Bill Schaeffer, wearing a T-shirt, the same moody gray color as the smoke-darkened sky, pushed his bike toward the fire. The scruffy man with long locks hurried to gather his belongings at home in time to catch a bus out of the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Just two weeks prior, Schaeffer, 68, was unhoused, like he had been on and off for almost two decades. He recently moved into a small, affordable home with the help of a local support group for unhoused people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If I lose my place to live, then I’m going to probably be forced back to being homeless again,” he said, noting that rents here, like elsewhere throughout California, have risen to be “sky high.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Known to the outside world as a sparkling tourist area, South Lake Tahoe is home to the resort staff, bartenders and thousands of others who live and work there, keeping the machinery of the place humming.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Construction workers Jose Mora and Henry Jose Mendoza fled South Lake Tahoe, too, taking shelter at an evacuation center in Carson City, Nevada. Mendoza only had the clothes on his body because they didn’t have time to pack before leaving. The friends were confused whether or not they needed to evacuate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1977058\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1977058\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/Image-from-iOS-copy-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/Image-from-iOS-copy-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/Image-from-iOS-copy-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/Image-from-iOS-copy-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/Image-from-iOS-copy-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/Image-from-iOS-copy-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/Image-from-iOS-copy-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/Image-from-iOS-copy-2048x1536.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/Image-from-iOS-copy-1920x1440.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jose Mora (right) and Henry Jose Mendoza, both construction workers, fled South Lake Tahoe during the Caldor Fire, taking shelter at an evacuation center in Carson City, Nevada. \u003ccite>(Ezra David Romero/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“We were looking at Facebook, and then the news,” said Mora. “We were just waiting. Then we received a call and we [saw] the map and we just started getting whatever we could.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On the eve of the evacuation, Donarae Reynolds and her husband bustled around their home in the \u003ca href=\"https://goldenbearha.org/current-conditions\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Golden Bear neighborhood just outside South Lake Tahoe\u003c/a>, packing medications, clothes and other essentials into their cars and camper trailer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They’d removed unrecoverable family photos from the walls, and stowed their passports, living trust and other important documents in a safety deposit box at the bank. Their neighborhood was ready when the evacuation order came in.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We all simply got in our cars and waved to each other and we took off,” Reynolds said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Reynolds’ neighborhood was uniquely prepared for this day to come. In 2019, Reynolds and her neighbors held an \u003ca href=\"https://www.capradio.org/news/tahoeland/2019/10/02/climate-change-is-increasing-tahoes-risk-of-wildfire-these-residents-want-to-be-ready/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">evacuation drill to prepare for disasters like the Caldor Fire. \u003c/a>They’ve also held clean-up days and got residents to sign up for emergency alerts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If it were a situation where you had no warning and everyone just had to scramble, I think that it would have been a totally different kind of an evacuation,” Reynolds said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The neighbors kept up with each other while they were evacuated, trading Ring doorbell camera footage and aerial views of the neighborhood to see if the fire had reached it. The fire spared their homes this time, and they’ve since returned to Golden Bear.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1977060\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1977060\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/RS51290_048_Meyers_CaldorFire_08312021-qut.jpg\" alt=\"Lake Tahoe Blvd in South Lake Tahoe is mostly empty, after evacuees waited hours to leave the area.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1278\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/RS51290_048_Meyers_CaldorFire_08312021-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/RS51290_048_Meyers_CaldorFire_08312021-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/RS51290_048_Meyers_CaldorFire_08312021-qut-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/RS51290_048_Meyers_CaldorFire_08312021-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/RS51290_048_Meyers_CaldorFire_08312021-qut-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/10/RS51290_048_Meyers_CaldorFire_08312021-qut-1536x1022.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lake Tahoe Blvd in South Lake Tahoe is mostly empty on Tuesday, Aug. 31, 2021, after evacuees waited hours to leave the area. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>A matter of survival\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Back in Tahoe with her home and its two decks still standing, Kocher said she feels fortunate to live in South Lake Tahoe with ample fire prevention and suppression assets, especially when nearby communities don’t have the same resources to stop the flames.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m concerned for those communities,” she said. “It’s a matter of survival unless we get our act together.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s easy to blame the fires all on a warming climate, but UC Berkeley fire science professor Scott Stephens said the lack of prevention efforts and the overgrown forests amount to the “vast majority” of the state’s current problem.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hatchett, with the Desert Research Institute, said that still-rising temperatures, increasingly arid conditions, and other impacts of climate change is like “pouring gas” on wildfires and why “we need climate action now.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But even climate action, he admits, won’t stop the sheer volume of dead brush and trees in forests from burning or prevent the amount of global warming already baked into the atmosphere. But, yet, he has hope.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re not going to stop that train,” he admitted, “but we might be able to divert it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"floatright"},"numeric":["floatright"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}}],"link":"/science/1977037/wildfire-torched-the-sierra-all-summer-evading-containment-heres-how-tahoe-protected-itself","authors":["byline_science_1977037"],"categories":["science_31","science_35","science_40","science_4450","science_3730"],"tags":["science_194","science_4414","science_959","science_113"],"featImg":"science_1977047","label":"source_science_1977037"},"science_1973069":{"type":"posts","id":"science_1973069","meta":{"index":"posts_1591205157","site":"science","id":"1973069","score":null,"sort":[1614907359000]},"guestAuthors":[],"slug":"just-one-day-of-bad-air-can-impact-kids-health-one-solution-more-prescribed-burning","title":"Just One Day of Bad Air Can Impact Kids' Health. One Solution? More Prescribed Burning","publishDate":1614907359,"format":"audio","headTitle":"Just One Day of Bad Air Can Impact Kids’ Health. One Solution? More Prescribed Burning | KQED","labelTerm":{},"content":"\u003cp>No doubt you remember the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1969409/no-you-didnt-wake-up-to-the-apocalypse-wildfire-smoke-turns-bay-area-sky-orange-and-dark\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">day of the orange night\u003c/a> last fall, when wildfire smoke filled the sky over the Bay Area. A \u003ca href=\"https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-83577-3\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">recent study\u003c/a> out of Stanford University suggests that exposure to that kind of smoke or air pollution can harm children’s immune and cardiovascular systems.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dr. Mary Prunicki\u003c/strong> is the lead author of that study, as well as the director of air pollution and health research at Stanford’s Sean N. Parker Center for Allergy & Asthma Research. \u003cstrong>Danielle Venton\u003c/strong> is a science reporter for KQED. They both spoke with KQED’s Brian Watt recently about children and smoke.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The following has been edited for length and clarity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What did your study find? \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Mary Prunicki:\u003c/em> Our study looked at over 200 children that live in the Central Valley. These kids were 6-8 years old, living in Fresno, which is consistently one of the top four cities for poor air quality in the nation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We looked at the blood and the levels of pollution these children were exposed to at different points in time. We found that the immune system showed signs of being dysregulated, with different balances of immune cells than we typically would see in a healthy individual.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We also found that blood pressure was associated with exposure to pollution, specifically diastolic blood pressure, which is the bottom number. While this is interesting, we’ll need to replicate it with future studies, because the few studies that have come out about children and blood pressure have been relatively inconsistent. But we’ll certainly be anxious to see where this goes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>How long do kids need to be exposed to bad pollution or wildfire smoke to be affected?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>MP: \u003c/em>Unfortunately, the impact can occur in as short as a day. We know that chronic exposure certainly impacts health, but we found associations with even one day of pollution exposure. That is certainly startling, especially for this age group.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What can we do to protect children? \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>MP:\u003c/em> When we’re talking about wildfire smoke, unfortunately we need to keep them indoors as much as possible. If the kids need to go outside and burn off some energy, it’s always good to check the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1930023/map-heres-your-daily-air-quality-report-for-the-bay-area\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">AQI level\u003c/a> and try to pick a time of day when it seems to be the lowest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When they do go outside, try to get them to not be as physically active as they normally would. If they have respiratory conditions like asthma, make sure that their inhalers are refilled and ready to go. Talk to their school about how they are planning to handle the exposure to the smoke.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And finally, support prescribed burning, which will reduce overall our exposure to wildfire smoke in the future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>In California, we talk a lot about ways to make wildfires less smoky. Does that mean doing more prescribed burns?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Danielle Venton: \u003c/em>It does. In California, there’s about 15 million acres of land that are overgrown and at risk for wildfires. Those 15 million acres need some sort of management to be brought back into balance and to become more fire resilient.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The best, the least expensive, the most scalable tool for that is managed fire. That’s how Native American tribes managed their lands for many thousands of years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>But more prescribed fires would mean more smoke, right?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>DV:\u003c/em> That’s right, but we are going to have smoke either way. We can choose how bad it will be. We should think of prescribed fire as a good trade-off.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Out of control, catastrophic wildfires bring us days or weeks of really toxic smoke. When fires get out of control, they’re burning buildings and cars, putting really bad stuff in the air.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Prescribed fires are only burning vegetation — ideally only grasses, brush and small trees. The smoke is not as toxic. It’s not as thick. And burns can be timed for when the smoke will clear out of an area relatively quickly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And we should remember that every controlled burn reduces the risk of a future catastrophic, out-of-control fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dr. Prunicki, you’ve recently studied the impact of prescribed fire smoke versus wildfire smoke on kids, right?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>MP:\u003c/em> That’s correct. We actually looked at a subset of the children that I just mentioned. Some had been exposed to a prescribed fire in Yosemite at least 90 days prior to the blood draw we did, where other kids had been exposed to a wildfire in Yosemite 90 days prior to their blood draw. These kids were at least 60 miles away from where the smoke is coming from.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What we found is that the prescribed burn had less of an impact on immune systems than the wildfire smoke. And that makes sense from what we know from other wildfire studies and from air pollution studies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>How should Californians be thinking about this? How should we be changing our behavior as we are exposed to what seems to be increasing wildfire smoke?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>DV: \u003c/em>I think it’s useful to keep in mind that air quality managers are very sensitive to people who call and complain about prescribed fire smoke. Just the worry that seeing some smoke in the air will upset people has canceled some burns that otherwise would have gone ahead.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One thing we can do is encourage our local and regional officials to enable more good fire, more prescribed fire, knowing that it helps prevent future bad fires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":"A recent study out of Stanford suggests that exposure to wildfire smoke or air pollution can harm children’s immune and cardiovascular systems. But smoke from prescribed burns, which help prevent out-of-control wildfires, is less harmful. ","status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1704846730,"stats":{"hasAudio":false,"hasVideo":false,"hasChartOrMap":false,"iframeSrcs":[],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":false,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":29,"wordCount":930},"headData":{"title":"Just One Day of Bad Air Can Impact Kids' Health. One Solution? More Prescribed Burning | KQED","description":"A recent study out of Stanford suggests that exposure to wildfire smoke or air pollution can harm children’s immune and cardiovascular systems. But smoke from prescribed burns, which help prevent out-of-control wildfires, is less harmful. ","ogTitle":"","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"","twDescription":"","twImgId":""},"source":"Air Quality","audioUrl":"https://traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/0af137ef-751e-4b19-a055-aaef00d2d578/ffca7e9f-6831-4[…]f-aaef00f5a073/ef25a9e2-625d-48c3-951e-acde012ca15f/audio.mp3","sticky":false,"path":"/science/1973069/just-one-day-of-bad-air-can-impact-kids-health-one-solution-more-prescribed-burning","audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>No doubt you remember the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1969409/no-you-didnt-wake-up-to-the-apocalypse-wildfire-smoke-turns-bay-area-sky-orange-and-dark\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">day of the orange night\u003c/a> last fall, when wildfire smoke filled the sky over the Bay Area. A \u003ca href=\"https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-83577-3\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">recent study\u003c/a> out of Stanford University suggests that exposure to that kind of smoke or air pollution can harm children’s immune and cardiovascular systems.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dr. Mary Prunicki\u003c/strong> is the lead author of that study, as well as the director of air pollution and health research at Stanford’s Sean N. Parker Center for Allergy & Asthma Research. \u003cstrong>Danielle Venton\u003c/strong> is a science reporter for KQED. They both spoke with KQED’s Brian Watt recently about children and smoke.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The following has been edited for length and clarity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What did your study find? \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Mary Prunicki:\u003c/em> Our study looked at over 200 children that live in the Central Valley. These kids were 6-8 years old, living in Fresno, which is consistently one of the top four cities for poor air quality in the nation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We looked at the blood and the levels of pollution these children were exposed to at different points in time. We found that the immune system showed signs of being dysregulated, with different balances of immune cells than we typically would see in a healthy individual.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We also found that blood pressure was associated with exposure to pollution, specifically diastolic blood pressure, which is the bottom number. While this is interesting, we’ll need to replicate it with future studies, because the few studies that have come out about children and blood pressure have been relatively inconsistent. But we’ll certainly be anxious to see where this goes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>How long do kids need to be exposed to bad pollution or wildfire smoke to be affected?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>MP: \u003c/em>Unfortunately, the impact can occur in as short as a day. We know that chronic exposure certainly impacts health, but we found associations with even one day of pollution exposure. That is certainly startling, especially for this age group.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What can we do to protect children? \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>MP:\u003c/em> When we’re talking about wildfire smoke, unfortunately we need to keep them indoors as much as possible. If the kids need to go outside and burn off some energy, it’s always good to check the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1930023/map-heres-your-daily-air-quality-report-for-the-bay-area\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">AQI level\u003c/a> and try to pick a time of day when it seems to be the lowest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When they do go outside, try to get them to not be as physically active as they normally would. If they have respiratory conditions like asthma, make sure that their inhalers are refilled and ready to go. Talk to their school about how they are planning to handle the exposure to the smoke.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And finally, support prescribed burning, which will reduce overall our exposure to wildfire smoke in the future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>In California, we talk a lot about ways to make wildfires less smoky. Does that mean doing more prescribed burns?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Danielle Venton: \u003c/em>It does. In California, there’s about 15 million acres of land that are overgrown and at risk for wildfires. Those 15 million acres need some sort of management to be brought back into balance and to become more fire resilient.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The best, the least expensive, the most scalable tool for that is managed fire. That’s how Native American tribes managed their lands for many thousands of years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>But more prescribed fires would mean more smoke, right?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>DV:\u003c/em> That’s right, but we are going to have smoke either way. We can choose how bad it will be. We should think of prescribed fire as a good trade-off.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Out of control, catastrophic wildfires bring us days or weeks of really toxic smoke. When fires get out of control, they’re burning buildings and cars, putting really bad stuff in the air.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Prescribed fires are only burning vegetation — ideally only grasses, brush and small trees. The smoke is not as toxic. It’s not as thick. And burns can be timed for when the smoke will clear out of an area relatively quickly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And we should remember that every controlled burn reduces the risk of a future catastrophic, out-of-control fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dr. Prunicki, you’ve recently studied the impact of prescribed fire smoke versus wildfire smoke on kids, right?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>MP:\u003c/em> That’s correct. We actually looked at a subset of the children that I just mentioned. Some had been exposed to a prescribed fire in Yosemite at least 90 days prior to the blood draw we did, where other kids had been exposed to a wildfire in Yosemite 90 days prior to their blood draw. These kids were at least 60 miles away from where the smoke is coming from.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What we found is that the prescribed burn had less of an impact on immune systems than the wildfire smoke. And that makes sense from what we know from other wildfire studies and from air pollution studies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>How should Californians be thinking about this? How should we be changing our behavior as we are exposed to what seems to be increasing wildfire smoke?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>DV: \u003c/em>I think it’s useful to keep in mind that air quality managers are very sensitive to people who call and complain about prescribed fire smoke. Just the worry that seeing some smoke in the air will upset people has canceled some burns that otherwise would have gone ahead.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One thing we can do is encourage our local and regional officials to enable more good fire, more prescribed fire, knowing that it helps prevent future bad fires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"fullwidth"},"numeric":["fullwidth"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}}],"link":"/science/1973069/just-one-day-of-bad-air-can-impact-kids-health-one-solution-more-prescribed-burning","authors":["6387"],"categories":["science_35","science_39","science_4450","science_3730"],"tags":["science_4414","science_959"],"featImg":"science_1969740","label":"source_science_1973069"},"science_16415":{"type":"posts","id":"science_16415","meta":{"index":"posts_1591205157","site":"science","id":"16415","score":null,"sort":[1397254179000]},"guestAuthors":[],"slug":"california-wildfire-study-spend-on-prevention-to-save-on-disasters","title":"California Wildfire Study: Spend on Prevention to Save on Disasters","publishDate":1397254179,"format":"aside","headTitle":"California Wildfire Study: Spend on Prevention to Save on Disasters | KQED","labelTerm":{"site":"science"},"content":"\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_16457\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-16457\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/04/6501scr_74e0f2dda29239a.jpg\" alt=\"Flames from the Rim Fire consume trees on August 25, 2013 near Groveland, California. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Flames from the Rim Fire consume trees on August 25, 2013 near Groveland, California. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>A \u003ca href=\"http://www.sierranevada.ca.gov/our-work/mokelumne-watershed-analysis/macafullreport\">new study\u003c/a> from the U. S. Forest Service and two environmental groups finds that investing in forest management could shrink the size of wildfires and save California hundreds of millions of dollars.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a classic case of pay me now, or pay me a lot more later when the big fires occur,” says David Edelson, the Sierra Nevada Project Director at The Nature Conservancy and a primary author on the report.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">‘We are in a negative feedback loop, and we’ve gotta stop doing that.’\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Scientists from The Nature Conservancy, the Sierra Nevada Conservancy and the Forest Service concluded that forest management can save two to three times what it costs to fight and clean up after fires, and shrink the size and intensity of fires up to 75 percent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The report recommends two steps to manage forests: Thin the undergrowth by cutting down smaller trees so they won’t be able to carry the fire up into the canopy; and conduct prescribed burns to clear the underbrush.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“By having frequent low-severity fires the underbrush and small trees cleared out, and the risk of these kinds of destructive megafires was much lower,” says Edelson. “Currently, we’re robbing Peter to pay Paul. When there’s a huge fire, we take the money away from the pots that are used to reduce wildfire risk. We are in a negative feedback loop, and we’ve gotta stop doing that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The biggest costs of a wildfire come from damage to homes and buildings, clean-up after the fire and the massive amount of carbon dioxide released during the fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdl id=\"attachment_16433\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"width: 898px\">\n\u003cdd class=\"wp-caption-dd\">Total Costs and Benefits for Fuel Treatment Scenarios\u003c/dd>\n\u003c/dl>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_16433\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 888px\">\u003ca style=\"background-color: #f3f3f3;text-align: center\" href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/04/firechartbig.png\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-16433\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/04/firechartbig.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"888\" height=\"385\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">This chart, taken from the report, compares the cost of a fuel treatment program with the money saved by preventing large wildfires, over a 30-year period. The “low” and “high” columns reflect the range of savings.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The study drew on 30 years of fire data from the Mokelumne River watershed, an area researchers said is representative of watersheds across the Sierra Nevada. Based on that history, they forecasted the rate and intensity of fires over the next 30 years under two scenarios: with forest management and without it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The current drought is drying out soils and leaving trees weakened, conditions that are conducive to megafires, say scientists.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“An event such as the Rim Fire would be more likely in these drought condition years because they are more conducive to intense burning,” says Phil Bowden, the Regional Fuels Program Manager for the U. S. Forest Service Pacific Southwest Region.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/audio/can-california-burn-its-way-out-of-its-wildfire-problem/\">Fire scientists say\u003c/a> a lack of funding combined with a century of fire suppression has left a massive load of undergrowth in the state’s forests. Right now, the U.S. Forest Service takes fire prevention measures on about 150,000 acres of national park land in California each year; its goal is to raise that to 500,000 acres.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The issue has long been on the agenda at the national level, as well. On April 10, the Obama administration released the \u003ca href=\"http://www.doi.gov/news/loader.cfm?csModule=security/getfile&pageid=526008\">National Cohesive Wildland Fire Management Strategy\u003c/a>, which focuses on fire prevention. For a quick breakdown of its recommendations, check out this Grist \u003ca href=\"http://grist.org/news/climate-change-just-reshaped-americas-wildfire-strategy/\">article\u003c/a> by John Upton.\u003c/p>\n\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":"A new study finds that investing in forest management could shrink the size of wildfires and save California hundreds of millions of dollars.","status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1704933844,"stats":{"hasAudio":false,"hasVideo":false,"hasChartOrMap":false,"iframeSrcs":[],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":false,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":13,"wordCount":582},"headData":{"title":"California Wildfire Study: Spend on Prevention to Save on Disasters | KQED","description":"A new study finds that investing in forest management could shrink the size of wildfires and save California hundreds of millions of dollars.","ogTitle":"","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"","twDescription":"","twImgId":""},"sticky":false,"path":"/science/16415/california-wildfire-study-spend-on-prevention-to-save-on-disasters","audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_16457\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-16457\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/04/6501scr_74e0f2dda29239a.jpg\" alt=\"Flames from the Rim Fire consume trees on August 25, 2013 near Groveland, California. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Flames from the Rim Fire consume trees on August 25, 2013 near Groveland, California. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>A \u003ca href=\"http://www.sierranevada.ca.gov/our-work/mokelumne-watershed-analysis/macafullreport\">new study\u003c/a> from the U. S. Forest Service and two environmental groups finds that investing in forest management could shrink the size of wildfires and save California hundreds of millions of dollars.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a classic case of pay me now, or pay me a lot more later when the big fires occur,” says David Edelson, the Sierra Nevada Project Director at The Nature Conservancy and a primary author on the report.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">‘We are in a negative feedback loop, and we’ve gotta stop doing that.’\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Scientists from The Nature Conservancy, the Sierra Nevada Conservancy and the Forest Service concluded that forest management can save two to three times what it costs to fight and clean up after fires, and shrink the size and intensity of fires up to 75 percent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The report recommends two steps to manage forests: Thin the undergrowth by cutting down smaller trees so they won’t be able to carry the fire up into the canopy; and conduct prescribed burns to clear the underbrush.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“By having frequent low-severity fires the underbrush and small trees cleared out, and the risk of these kinds of destructive megafires was much lower,” says Edelson. “Currently, we’re robbing Peter to pay Paul. When there’s a huge fire, we take the money away from the pots that are used to reduce wildfire risk. We are in a negative feedback loop, and we’ve gotta stop doing that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"fullwidth"},"numeric":["fullwidth"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The biggest costs of a wildfire come from damage to homes and buildings, clean-up after the fire and the massive amount of carbon dioxide released during the fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdl id=\"attachment_16433\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"width: 898px\">\n\u003cdd class=\"wp-caption-dd\">Total Costs and Benefits for Fuel Treatment Scenarios\u003c/dd>\n\u003c/dl>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_16433\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 888px\">\u003ca style=\"background-color: #f3f3f3;text-align: center\" href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/04/firechartbig.png\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-16433\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/04/firechartbig.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"888\" height=\"385\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">This chart, taken from the report, compares the cost of a fuel treatment program with the money saved by preventing large wildfires, over a 30-year period. The “low” and “high” columns reflect the range of savings.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The study drew on 30 years of fire data from the Mokelumne River watershed, an area researchers said is representative of watersheds across the Sierra Nevada. Based on that history, they forecasted the rate and intensity of fires over the next 30 years under two scenarios: with forest management and without it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The current drought is drying out soils and leaving trees weakened, conditions that are conducive to megafires, say scientists.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“An event such as the Rim Fire would be more likely in these drought condition years because they are more conducive to intense burning,” says Phil Bowden, the Regional Fuels Program Manager for the U. S. Forest Service Pacific Southwest Region.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/audio/can-california-burn-its-way-out-of-its-wildfire-problem/\">Fire scientists say\u003c/a> a lack of funding combined with a century of fire suppression has left a massive load of undergrowth in the state’s forests. Right now, the U.S. Forest Service takes fire prevention measures on about 150,000 acres of national park land in California each year; its goal is to raise that to 500,000 acres.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The issue has long been on the agenda at the national level, as well. On April 10, the Obama administration released the \u003ca href=\"http://www.doi.gov/news/loader.cfm?csModule=security/getfile&pageid=526008\">National Cohesive Wildland Fire Management Strategy\u003c/a>, which focuses on fire prevention. For a quick breakdown of its recommendations, check out this Grist \u003ca href=\"http://grist.org/news/climate-change-just-reshaped-americas-wildfire-strategy/\">article\u003c/a> by John Upton.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}}],"link":"/science/16415/california-wildfire-study-spend-on-prevention-to-save-on-disasters","authors":["6538"],"categories":["science_31","science_35","science_40"],"tags":["science_959","science_607","science_113"],"featImg":"science_16457","label":"science"},"science_10944":{"type":"posts","id":"science_10944","meta":{"index":"posts_1591205157","site":"science","id":"10944","score":null,"sort":[1384571245000]},"guestAuthors":[],"slug":"can-california-burn-its-way-out-of-its-wildfire-problem","title":"Can California Burn its Way Out of its Wildfire Problem?","publishDate":1384571245,"format":"aside","headTitle":"Can California Burn its Way Out of its Wildfire Problem? | KQED","labelTerm":{"site":"science"},"content":"\u003cdiv class=\"audio-wrap\">\n\u003ch2>Listen:\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>http://www.kqed.org/.stream/anon/radio/science/2013/11/20131118science.mp3\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11068\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1280px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/11/nightburn-large.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11068\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/11/nightburn-large.jpg\" alt=\"A nighttime prescribed burn in the Stanislaus National Forest in California's Sierra Nevada. (Eric Knapp/U.S. Forest Service)\" width=\"1280\" height=\"720\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A nighttime prescribed burn in the Stanislaus National Forest in California’s Sierra Nevada. (Eric Knapp/U.S. Forest Service)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The Rim Fire, which consumed more than 250,000 acres in and around Yosemite National Park this summer, is a prime example of America’s dangerous legacy of putting out too many wildfires. After a century of suppressing the flames, firefighting agencies have let the brush and small trees get so thick, that when a fire does get going, it can turn into a monster.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>People who fight and study fire generally agree that one of the best tools for preventing massive wildfires is prescribed burning: intentionally setting smaller fires before the big ones hit. But there are major challenges to fighting fire with fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Setting the Forest on Fire\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On a sunny day earlier this fall, about 50 Forest Service firefighters, mostly men, all wearing the Forest Service uniform of fire-resistant bright yellow shirts and fire-resistant dark green pants, are working a prescribed burn in the Shasta National Forest, near Redding, California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http://www.kqed.org/assets/slideshow/fightfirewithfire/_files/iframe.html?noscale=640x400\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Setting fire to a forest actually requires many of the same tactics as putting one out. The crews are planning today to burn a slope near Shasta Lake, bordered on three sides by fire lines, and on the fourth by the lake itself.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They had earlier cleared fire lines, strips without brush and leaves, that will contain the flames. As they begin their work this morning, they burn what they call “the black,” an area ahead of and along the edges of the area to be burned that creates a safety zone for them and helps keep the fire from spreading. Then, beginning at the top of the ridge and working their way down (fire travels uphill, so this helps keep it in check), the crews set flame to dead leaves, and let the fire do its work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11079\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1280px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/11/settingfire.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11079\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/11/settingfire.jpg\" alt=\"A firefighter works a prescribed burn at the Shasta National Forest.(Molly Samuel/KQED)\" width=\"1280\" height=\"720\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A firefighter works a prescribed burn at the Shasta National Forest.(Molly Samuel/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>This is not a scene from \u003cem>“Bambi,”\u003c/em> with flames raging and animals fleeing. For the most part, the fire barely reaches a foot high. It kills bushes and smaller trees and clears out leaves and brush. But most of the bigger, older trees survive. Fires like this have, on occasion, gotten out of control and turned into wildfires in their own right. But this one is well under control. It’s the end of the wildfire season, and the firefighters — many of whom are on the elite hotshot teams that fight the biggest fires — are relaxed while monitoring the flames, talking about their kids and their dogs. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I always like seeing fire on the ground,” says Eric Knapp, an ecologist with the Forest Service. He says prescribed burns are good for the environment, for animals, for preventing massive wildfires and for keeping firefighters and the public safe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But getting them done is tricky.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11081\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1280px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/11/fireline.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11081 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/11/fireline.jpg\" alt=\"A fire line marks the left-hand side of the burn. (It looks like a hiking trail.) The area to the left of the line burned previously. (Molly Samuel/KQED)\" width=\"1280\" height=\"720\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A fire line marks the left-hand side of the burn. (It looks like a hiking trail.) The area to the left of the line burned previously. (Molly Samuel/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>It’s Not Easy to Fight Fire with Fire\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The window for conducting prescribed burns is narrow: when it’s dry enough that a fire will start, but not so dry that it will rage. “We have a limited opportunity to burn, maybe a week or two every year,” says Knapp. “And (we have) a limited number of resources to get a lot of acres done.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Often the people conducting the burns are seasonal firefighters, who are only budgeted for six months. “A lot of their seasons are spent dealing with wildfire during the hotter, drier times,” says Knapp. In fact, at the Shasta burn, some of the firefighters are on the second-to-last day of their contracts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then there’s the smoke. “It’s a carcinogen,” Knapp acknowledges. “And there are people who are legitimately strongly affected.” Because of that, regional air quality districts tightly regulate prescribed burns. Another burn, scheduled to take place near Redding on the same day we went to Shasta, was cancelled because of smoke.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11083\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1280px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/11/smoke.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11083\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/11/smoke.jpg\" alt=\"Smoke rises from the prescribed burn at the Shasta National Forest. (Molly Samuel/KQED)\" width=\"1280\" height=\"720\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Smoke rises from the prescribed burn at the Shasta National Forest. (Molly Samuel/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>And sometimes it just comes down to a public relations issue. Not everyone sees the benefit of starting fires. “There’s a consensus among the scientists and the land managers,” Knapp says. “I don’t believe there’s a consensus in the public.”\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">It’s like we’re losing the race, we’re just not losing it quite as fast.\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>It all adds up to mean that not enough acres burn. “Every year we fall further behind and the fuel continues to build up,” says Knapp. “If it weren’t for prescribed burning, we’d fall behind even more. But it’s like we’re losing the race, we’re just not losing it quite as fast.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>The Backlog\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In California alone, about 15 million acres of forest are in need of some kind of treatment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re in a huge deficit,” says Scott Stephens, a fire scientist at University of California, Berkeley. Before the year 1800, he says, 4.5 million acres burned in California every year. Fires started either by Native Americans or by lightning were generally smaller and less intense, but much more frequent. Many areas burned every ten years or so.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11089\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1280px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/11/firefighters.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11089\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/11/firefighters.jpg\" alt=\"Firefighters monitor the flames and keep the burn on the right side of the fire line. (Molly Samuel/KQED)\" width=\"1280\" height=\"720\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Firefighters monitor the flames and keep the burn on the right side of the fire line. (Molly Samuel/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But because of aggressive fire suppression policies that managers followed for decades, many places haven’t burned in a century or more. Some forests are so overgrown, they have ten times the number of trees as they had historically. That’s the difference between running through the trees, arms outstretched, maybe with a couple of friends by your side, and not being able to crawl through. Forests like these are more susceptible to giant wildfires, because there’s more fuel to burn and it burns hotter.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">We’re carrying these forests that are incredibly vulnerable forward into climate change. It’s a disaster really.\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>“We’re carrying these forests that are incredibly vulnerable forward into climate change,” says Stephens. “It’s a disaster really.” Because, he explains, California’s changing climate will make the fire season longer, and the prescribed-burn season shorter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Caught in the middle are the firefighting agencies, each with different approaches and priorities. The National Park Service and the Forest Service both have prescribed burn programs, but while the parks are concerned with conservation, the Forest Service must also take into account logging, and other land uses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state agency, CalFire, has its own constraints, fighting many wildfires close to development in the “wildland-urban interface.” This mingling of forest and residential areas makes prescribed burns still more difficult.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11092\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1280px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/11/burning.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11092\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/11/burning.jpg\" alt=\"The firefighters set the fire in spots then let it spread uphill. (Molly Samuel/KQED)\" width=\"1280\" height=\"720\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The firefighters set the fire in spots then let it spread uphill. (Molly Samuel/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>A Success and a Nightmare Scenario\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If this summer’s Rim Fire — the largest known fire in the Sierra Nevada and the third-largest in California history — is a lesson in the dangers of fire suppression, it also offers glimmers of hope about the benefits of prescribed burns.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Where I started my division assignment on the Rim Fire, was in areas where the Forest Service had recently completed some prescribed burns,” says Tom Garcia, the fire manager at Whiskeytown National Recreation Area. “And we were able to stall that fire out in that particular area and buy some decision space and some time.” With that extra time, Garcia says, they were able to get ahead of the fire, and save some nearby homes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11098\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 308px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/11/ericknapp.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-11098 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/11/ericknapp.jpg\" alt=\"Eric Knapp, an ecologist with the Forest Service, says we're going to have to accept more frequent fires. (Molly Samuel/KQED)\" width=\"308\" height=\"431\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Eric Knapp, an ecologist with the Forest Service, says we’re going to have to accept more frequent fires. (Molly Samuel/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“My real nightmare scenario is current conditions going forward,” says Stephens. He says he hopes the Rim Fire will serve as a turning point: a glimpse of the path we’re on, and an opportunity to choose a different path that includes more thinning, more prescribed burns and more ability to manage and take advantage of fires that start naturally. A few of the National Forests in California are currently reviewing their management plans, and Stephens says he sees that as an opportunity to bring in more fire, too. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If we don’t do it now we’re going to set people up in the future for less decision space. They’re going to have less options. It’s going to be warmer. It’s going to have longer drier periods,” he says. “50 years from now, 80 years from now, they will just wish that we would have moved.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Knapp, the Forest Service ecologist, says he’s optimistic about the future. But major wildfires will be a part of it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re going to have to accept the fact that we live in an environment with occasional fire and that fire is more intense,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Because after a century of admonishments from Smokey Bear, even with the best efforts of firefighters, even with prescribed burns and logging and managed wildland fire, the era of catastrophic fires is upon us.\u003c/p>\n\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":"People who fight and study fire generally agree that one of the best tools for preventing massive wildfires is prescribed burning: intentionally setting smaller fires before the big ones hit. But there are major challenges to fighting fire with fire.","status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1704934684,"stats":{"hasAudio":true,"hasVideo":false,"hasChartOrMap":true,"iframeSrcs":["http://www.kqed.org/assets/slideshow/fightfirewithfire/_files/iframe.html"],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":false,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":33,"wordCount":1636},"headData":{"title":"Can California Burn its Way Out of its Wildfire Problem? | KQED","description":"People who fight and study fire generally agree that one of the best tools for preventing massive wildfires is prescribed burning: intentionally setting smaller fires before the big ones hit. But there are major challenges to fighting fire with fire.","ogTitle":"","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"","twDescription":"","twImgId":""},"audioUrl":"http://www.kqed.org/.stream/anon/radio/science/2013/11/20131118science.mp3","sticky":false,"path":"/science/10944/can-california-burn-its-way-out-of-its-wildfire-problem","audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cdiv class=\"audio-wrap\">\n\u003ch2>Listen:\u003c/h2>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"audioLink","attributes":{"named":{"src":"http://www.kqed.org/.stream/anon/radio/science/2013/11/20131118science.mp3"},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/div>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11068\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1280px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/11/nightburn-large.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11068\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/11/nightburn-large.jpg\" alt=\"A nighttime prescribed burn in the Stanislaus National Forest in California's Sierra Nevada. (Eric Knapp/U.S. Forest Service)\" width=\"1280\" height=\"720\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A nighttime prescribed burn in the Stanislaus National Forest in California’s Sierra Nevada. (Eric Knapp/U.S. Forest Service)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The Rim Fire, which consumed more than 250,000 acres in and around Yosemite National Park this summer, is a prime example of America’s dangerous legacy of putting out too many wildfires. After a century of suppressing the flames, firefighting agencies have let the brush and small trees get so thick, that when a fire does get going, it can turn into a monster.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>People who fight and study fire generally agree that one of the best tools for preventing massive wildfires is prescribed burning: intentionally setting smaller fires before the big ones hit. But there are major challenges to fighting fire with fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Setting the Forest on Fire\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On a sunny day earlier this fall, about 50 Forest Service firefighters, mostly men, all wearing the Forest Service uniform of fire-resistant bright yellow shirts and fire-resistant dark green pants, are working a prescribed burn in the Shasta National Forest, near Redding, California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http://www.kqed.org/assets/slideshow/fightfirewithfire/_files/iframe.html?noscale=640x400\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"fullwidth"},"numeric":["fullwidth"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Setting fire to a forest actually requires many of the same tactics as putting one out. The crews are planning today to burn a slope near Shasta Lake, bordered on three sides by fire lines, and on the fourth by the lake itself.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They had earlier cleared fire lines, strips without brush and leaves, that will contain the flames. As they begin their work this morning, they burn what they call “the black,” an area ahead of and along the edges of the area to be burned that creates a safety zone for them and helps keep the fire from spreading. Then, beginning at the top of the ridge and working their way down (fire travels uphill, so this helps keep it in check), the crews set flame to dead leaves, and let the fire do its work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11079\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1280px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/11/settingfire.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11079\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/11/settingfire.jpg\" alt=\"A firefighter works a prescribed burn at the Shasta National Forest.(Molly Samuel/KQED)\" width=\"1280\" height=\"720\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A firefighter works a prescribed burn at the Shasta National Forest.(Molly Samuel/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>This is not a scene from \u003cem>“Bambi,”\u003c/em> with flames raging and animals fleeing. For the most part, the fire barely reaches a foot high. It kills bushes and smaller trees and clears out leaves and brush. But most of the bigger, older trees survive. Fires like this have, on occasion, gotten out of control and turned into wildfires in their own right. But this one is well under control. It’s the end of the wildfire season, and the firefighters — many of whom are on the elite hotshot teams that fight the biggest fires — are relaxed while monitoring the flames, talking about their kids and their dogs. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I always like seeing fire on the ground,” says Eric Knapp, an ecologist with the Forest Service. He says prescribed burns are good for the environment, for animals, for preventing massive wildfires and for keeping firefighters and the public safe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But getting them done is tricky.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11081\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1280px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/11/fireline.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11081 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/11/fireline.jpg\" alt=\"A fire line marks the left-hand side of the burn. (It looks like a hiking trail.) The area to the left of the line burned previously. (Molly Samuel/KQED)\" width=\"1280\" height=\"720\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A fire line marks the left-hand side of the burn. (It looks like a hiking trail.) The area to the left of the line burned previously. (Molly Samuel/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>It’s Not Easy to Fight Fire with Fire\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The window for conducting prescribed burns is narrow: when it’s dry enough that a fire will start, but not so dry that it will rage. “We have a limited opportunity to burn, maybe a week or two every year,” says Knapp. “And (we have) a limited number of resources to get a lot of acres done.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Often the people conducting the burns are seasonal firefighters, who are only budgeted for six months. “A lot of their seasons are spent dealing with wildfire during the hotter, drier times,” says Knapp. In fact, at the Shasta burn, some of the firefighters are on the second-to-last day of their contracts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then there’s the smoke. “It’s a carcinogen,” Knapp acknowledges. “And there are people who are legitimately strongly affected.” Because of that, regional air quality districts tightly regulate prescribed burns. Another burn, scheduled to take place near Redding on the same day we went to Shasta, was cancelled because of smoke.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11083\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1280px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/11/smoke.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11083\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/11/smoke.jpg\" alt=\"Smoke rises from the prescribed burn at the Shasta National Forest. (Molly Samuel/KQED)\" width=\"1280\" height=\"720\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Smoke rises from the prescribed burn at the Shasta National Forest. (Molly Samuel/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>And sometimes it just comes down to a public relations issue. Not everyone sees the benefit of starting fires. “There’s a consensus among the scientists and the land managers,” Knapp says. “I don’t believe there’s a consensus in the public.”\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">It’s like we’re losing the race, we’re just not losing it quite as fast.\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>It all adds up to mean that not enough acres burn. “Every year we fall further behind and the fuel continues to build up,” says Knapp. “If it weren’t for prescribed burning, we’d fall behind even more. But it’s like we’re losing the race, we’re just not losing it quite as fast.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>The Backlog\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In California alone, about 15 million acres of forest are in need of some kind of treatment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re in a huge deficit,” says Scott Stephens, a fire scientist at University of California, Berkeley. Before the year 1800, he says, 4.5 million acres burned in California every year. Fires started either by Native Americans or by lightning were generally smaller and less intense, but much more frequent. Many areas burned every ten years or so.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11089\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1280px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/11/firefighters.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11089\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/11/firefighters.jpg\" alt=\"Firefighters monitor the flames and keep the burn on the right side of the fire line. (Molly Samuel/KQED)\" width=\"1280\" height=\"720\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Firefighters monitor the flames and keep the burn on the right side of the fire line. (Molly Samuel/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But because of aggressive fire suppression policies that managers followed for decades, many places haven’t burned in a century or more. Some forests are so overgrown, they have ten times the number of trees as they had historically. That’s the difference between running through the trees, arms outstretched, maybe with a couple of friends by your side, and not being able to crawl through. Forests like these are more susceptible to giant wildfires, because there’s more fuel to burn and it burns hotter.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">We’re carrying these forests that are incredibly vulnerable forward into climate change. It’s a disaster really.\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>“We’re carrying these forests that are incredibly vulnerable forward into climate change,” says Stephens. “It’s a disaster really.” Because, he explains, California’s changing climate will make the fire season longer, and the prescribed-burn season shorter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Caught in the middle are the firefighting agencies, each with different approaches and priorities. The National Park Service and the Forest Service both have prescribed burn programs, but while the parks are concerned with conservation, the Forest Service must also take into account logging, and other land uses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state agency, CalFire, has its own constraints, fighting many wildfires close to development in the “wildland-urban interface.” This mingling of forest and residential areas makes prescribed burns still more difficult.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11092\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1280px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/11/burning.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11092\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/11/burning.jpg\" alt=\"The firefighters set the fire in spots then let it spread uphill. (Molly Samuel/KQED)\" width=\"1280\" height=\"720\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The firefighters set the fire in spots then let it spread uphill. (Molly Samuel/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>A Success and a Nightmare Scenario\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If this summer’s Rim Fire — the largest known fire in the Sierra Nevada and the third-largest in California history — is a lesson in the dangers of fire suppression, it also offers glimmers of hope about the benefits of prescribed burns.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Where I started my division assignment on the Rim Fire, was in areas where the Forest Service had recently completed some prescribed burns,” says Tom Garcia, the fire manager at Whiskeytown National Recreation Area. “And we were able to stall that fire out in that particular area and buy some decision space and some time.” With that extra time, Garcia says, they were able to get ahead of the fire, and save some nearby homes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11098\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 308px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/11/ericknapp.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-11098 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/11/ericknapp.jpg\" alt=\"Eric Knapp, an ecologist with the Forest Service, says we're going to have to accept more frequent fires. (Molly Samuel/KQED)\" width=\"308\" height=\"431\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Eric Knapp, an ecologist with the Forest Service, says we’re going to have to accept more frequent fires. (Molly Samuel/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“My real nightmare scenario is current conditions going forward,” says Stephens. He says he hopes the Rim Fire will serve as a turning point: a glimpse of the path we’re on, and an opportunity to choose a different path that includes more thinning, more prescribed burns and more ability to manage and take advantage of fires that start naturally. A few of the National Forests in California are currently reviewing their management plans, and Stephens says he sees that as an opportunity to bring in more fire, too. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If we don’t do it now we’re going to set people up in the future for less decision space. They’re going to have less options. It’s going to be warmer. It’s going to have longer drier periods,” he says. “50 years from now, 80 years from now, they will just wish that we would have moved.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Knapp, the Forest Service ecologist, says he’s optimistic about the future. But major wildfires will be a part of it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re going to have to accept the fact that we live in an environment with occasional fire and that fire is more intense,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"floatright"},"numeric":["floatright"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Because after a century of admonishments from Smokey Bear, even with the best efforts of firefighters, even with prescribed burns and logging and managed wildland fire, the era of catastrophic fires is upon us.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}}],"link":"/science/10944/can-california-burn-its-way-out-of-its-wildfire-problem","authors":["200"],"categories":["science_46","science_30","science_31","science_35","science_40","science_43"],"tags":["science_5178","science_112","science_763","science_956","science_448","science_959","science_607","science_113"],"featImg":"science_11066","label":"science"}},"programsReducer":{"possible":{"id":"possible","title":"Possible","info":"Possible is hosted by entrepreneur Reid Hoffman and writer Aria Finger. Together in Possible, Hoffman and Finger lead enlightening discussions about building a brighter collective future. The show features interviews with visionary guests like Trevor Noah, Sam Altman and Janette Sadik-Khan. Possible paints an optimistic portrait of the world we can create through science, policy, business, art and our shared humanity. It asks: What if everything goes right for once? How can we get there? Each episode also includes a short fiction story generated by advanced AI GPT-4, serving as a thought-provoking springboard to speculate how humanity could leverage technology for good.","airtime":"SUN 2pm","imageSrc":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Possible-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg","officialWebsiteLink":"https://www.possible.fm/","meta":{"site":"news","source":"Possible"},"link":"/radio/program/possible","subscribe":{"apple":"https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/possible/id1677184070","spotify":"https://open.spotify.com/show/730YpdUSNlMyPQwNnyjp4k"}},"1a":{"id":"1a","title":"1A","info":"1A is home to the national conversation. 1A brings on great guests and frames the best debate in ways that make you think, share and engage.","airtime":"MON-THU 11pm-12am","imageSrc":"https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/1a.jpg","officialWebsiteLink":"https://the1a.org/","meta":{"site":"news","source":"npr"},"link":"/radio/program/1a","subscribe":{"npr":"https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/RBrW","apple":"https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=1188724250&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory","tuneIn":"https://tunein.com/radio/1A-p947376/","rss":"https://feeds.npr.org/510316/podcast.xml"}},"all-things-considered":{"id":"all-things-considered","title":"All Things Considered","info":"Every weekday, \u003cem>All Things Considered\u003c/em> hosts Robert Siegel, Audie Cornish, Ari Shapiro, and Kelly McEvers present the program's trademark mix of news, interviews, commentaries, reviews, and offbeat features. Michel Martin hosts on the weekends.","airtime":"MON-FRI 1pm-2pm, 4:30pm-6:30pm\u003cbr />SAT-SUN 5pm-6pm","imageSrc":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/All-Things-Considered-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg","officialWebsiteLink":"https://www.npr.org/programs/all-things-considered/","meta":{"site":"news","source":"npr"},"link":"/radio/program/all-things-considered"},"american-suburb-podcast":{"id":"american-suburb-podcast","title":"American Suburb: The Podcast","tagline":"The flip side of gentrification, told through one town","info":"Gentrification is changing cities across America, forcing people from neighborhoods they have long called home. Call them the displaced. Now those priced out of the Bay Area are looking for a better life in an unlikely place. American Suburb follows this migration to one California town along the Delta, 45 miles from San Francisco. But is this once sleepy suburb ready for them?","imageSrc":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/American-Suburb-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg","officialWebsiteLink":"/news/series/american-suburb-podcast","meta":{"site":"news","source":"kqed","order":"13"},"link":"/news/series/american-suburb-podcast/","subscribe":{"npr":"https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/RBrW","apple":"https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?mt=2&id=1287748328","tuneIn":"https://tunein.com/radio/American-Suburb-p1086805/","rss":"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/series/american-suburb-podcast/feed/podcast","google":"https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkMzMDExODgxNjA5"}},"baycurious":{"id":"baycurious","title":"Bay Curious","tagline":"Exploring the Bay Area, one question at a time","info":"KQED’s new podcast, Bay Curious, gets to the bottom of the mysteries — both profound and peculiar — that give the Bay Area its unique identity. And we’ll do it with your help! You ask the questions. You decide what Bay Curious investigates. And you join us on the journey to find the answers.","imageSrc":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Bay-Curious-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg","imageAlt":"\"KQED Bay Curious","officialWebsiteLink":"/news/series/baycurious","meta":{"site":"news","source":"kqed","order":"4"},"link":"/podcasts/baycurious","subscribe":{"apple":"https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/bay-curious/id1172473406","npr":"https://www.npr.org/podcasts/500557090/bay-curious","rss":"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/category/bay-curious-podcast/feed/podcast","google":"https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93dzIua3FlZC5vcmcvbmV3cy9jYXRlZ29yeS9iYXktY3VyaW91cy1wb2RjYXN0L2ZlZWQvcG9kY2FzdA","stitcher":"https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/kqed/bay-curious","spotify":"https://open.spotify.com/show/6O76IdmhixfijmhTZLIJ8k"}},"bbc-world-service":{"id":"bbc-world-service","title":"BBC World Service","info":"The day's top stories from BBC News compiled twice daily in the week, once at weekends.","airtime":"MON-FRI 9pm-10pm, TUE-FRI 1am-2am","imageSrc":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/BBC-World-Service-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg","officialWebsiteLink":"https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/live:bbc_world_service","meta":{"site":"news","source":"BBC World Service"},"link":"/radio/program/bbc-world-service","subscribe":{"apple":"https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/global-news-podcast/id135067274?mt=2","tuneIn":"https://tunein.com/radio/BBC-World-Service-p455581/","rss":"https://podcasts.files.bbci.co.uk/p02nq0gn.rss"}},"code-switch-life-kit":{"id":"code-switch-life-kit","title":"Code Switch / Life Kit","info":"\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em>, which listeners will hear in the first part of the hour, has fearless and much-needed conversations about race. Hosted by journalists of color, the show tackles the subject of race head-on, exploring how it impacts every part of society — from politics and pop culture to history, sports and more.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em>, which will be in the second part of the hour, guides you through spaces and feelings no one prepares you for — from finances to mental health, from workplace microaggressions to imposter syndrome, from relationships to parenting. The show features experts with real world experience and shares their knowledge. Because everyone needs a little help being human.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510312/codeswitch\">\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/lifekit\">\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />","airtime":"SUN 9pm-10pm","imageSrc":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Code-Switch-Life-Kit-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg","meta":{"site":"radio","source":"npr"},"link":"/radio/program/code-switch-life-kit","subscribe":{"apple":"https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/1112190608?mt=2&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory","google":"https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cubnByLm9yZy9yc3MvcG9kY2FzdC5waHA_aWQ9NTEwMzEy","spotify":"https://open.spotify.com/show/3bExJ9JQpkwNhoHvaIIuyV","rss":"https://feeds.npr.org/510312/podcast.xml"}},"commonwealth-club":{"id":"commonwealth-club","title":"Commonwealth Club of California Podcast","info":"The Commonwealth Club of California is the nation's oldest and largest public affairs forum. As a non-partisan forum, The Club brings to the public airwaves diverse viewpoints on important topics. The Club's weekly radio broadcast - the oldest in the U.S., dating back to 1924 - is carried across the nation on public radio stations and is now podcasting. Our website archive features audio of our recent programs, as well as selected speeches from our long and distinguished history. 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Plus, KQED’s Bianca Taylor brings you the local KQED news you need to know.","imageSrc":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Consider-This-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg","imageAlt":"Consider This from NPR and KQED","officialWebsiteLink":"/podcasts/considerthis","meta":{"site":"news","source":"kqed","order":"7"},"link":"/podcasts/considerthis","subscribe":{"apple":"https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1503226625?mt=2&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory","npr":"https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/coronavirusdaily","google":"https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5ucHIub3JnLzUxMDM1NS9wb2RjYXN0LnhtbA","spotify":"https://open.spotify.com/show/3Z6JdCS2d0eFEpXHKI6WqH"}},"forum":{"id":"forum","title":"Forum","tagline":"The conversation starts here","info":"KQED’s live call-in program discussing local, state, national and international issues, as well as in-depth interviews.","airtime":"MON-FRI 9am-11am, 10pm-11pm","imageSrc":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Forum-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg","imageAlt":"KQED Forum with Mina Kim and Alexis Madrigal","officialWebsiteLink":"/forum","meta":{"site":"news","source":"kqed","order":"8"},"link":"/forum","subscribe":{"apple":"https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/kqeds-forum/id73329719","google":"https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM5NTU3MzgxNjMz","npr":"https://www.npr.org/podcasts/432307980/forum","stitcher":"https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/kqedfm-kqeds-forum-podcast","rss":"https://feeds.megaphone.fm/KQINC9557381633"}},"freakonomics-radio":{"id":"freakonomics-radio","title":"Freakonomics Radio","info":"Freakonomics Radio is a one-hour award-winning podcast and public-radio project hosted by Stephen Dubner, with co-author Steve Levitt as a regular guest. 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