Wildfire Expert – Time to Brainstorm to Prevent Future Firestorms
Monday, August 20, 2007
A wildfire expert is calling for some creative thinking to prevent repeat fire seasons like the one California is seeing this year. Global Forest Science president Dr. Reese Halter says warming temperatures, prolonged drought, and decades of putting out all fires have ushered in a fire cycle that won't stop naturally for a long time, if ever.
"Since 1986, the number of fires across the West has quadrupled, the acreage has grown six-fold. More than half the Forest Service budget is going to fighting fires."
Halter says reducing forest fire risk will be expensive, although he thinks costs can be reduced with creative economics.
"In my opinion, get prison inmates out there and helping on the land, bringing these trees down."
Halter says clearing out small diameter trees and beetle-killed trees has to be a priority. And he says the old way of thinking that logging will lead to fire risk reduction is wrong, since logging takes the naturally fire-resistant trees. He says there have been some good plans to reduce fire risk in California, but the money to get the project done hasn't arrived.
More info on Global Forest Science at www.globalforestscience.org/about_us.html.
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