CA Wildfires: What Works for Forests Won’t Work for Shrubs
Monday, November 5, 2007
Los Angeles, CA - The Southern California wildfires have many asking how wild lands can be better managed to prevent more fires. Jon Keeley with the U.S. Geological Survey says what works in other parts of the state won't work in Southern California, where most of the region is covered with a dense thicket of shrubbery and bushes known as chaparral.
Keeley, an adjunct professor at the University of California, explains setting prescribed fires to keep the vegetation young has been effective in many forested areas, but not on the chaparral because of the Santa Ana winds.
"Scientific data is very clear, we do not have an excess of fuels on these landscapes and therefore you can't blame these catastrophic fires on past fire suppression. The primary blame has to do with the extreme weather conditions."
Keeley says the strong Santa Ana winds can move a fire through new-growth chaparral and points to the fact that 65,000 acres that had burned in the 2003 Cedar Fire, blazed again this time. Keeley believes fires are inevitable, and that we should plan for and treat them much like earthquakes.
"We need to recognize they're natural and they are going to happen, under Santa Ana wind conditions, at least. We're not going to stop them until the wind changes, but we can design infrastructure to make us less vulnerable."
Keeley argues that fire is a natural phenomenon; that communities need to be developed with better land use planning, and homes need to be built with better fire-resistant materials in response to the potential threats.
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