The hurricane-force winds fueling fast-moving Southern California wildfires have exasperated firefighters in western states for over a century. They quickly turn small wildfires into raging infernos and eviscerate everything in their paths.
Their intensity and frequency increased over the last decade, much as happened over a century ago. However, when they torch population centers, such as Palisades, it is an urgent call to action. Curtailing the Santa Ana winds is impossible; however, taking away the megafires’ fuels is not.
In September 1902, Washington’s Yacolt Burn engulfed more than a half million acres and killed 56 people in the Columbia River Gorge and around Mt. St. Helens. The choking smoke was so thick that ships on the Columbia River were forced to navigate by compass, and the streetlights in Seattle, 160 miles to the north, glowed at noon.
Yacolt was our state’s largest forest fire and blew up on Sept. 11. It scorched a 36-mile swath in just 36 hours. It destroyed more than 370 square miles on its westerly path from Stevenson to Longview. Easterly gale-force winds fanned the flames.
Yacolt prompted timberland owners to form the Washington Forest Fire Association (WFFA) — now Washington Forest Protection Association — in 1908 to focus on fire-prevention and firefighting.
Then in 1910, came the “Big Burn!” For two terrifying days and nights (Aug. 20-21, 1910), a gargantuan fire raced across three million acres of mature forests in northern Idaho and western Montana. Many thought the world would end, and for 86 fire victims, it did. Most of what was destroyed fell to hurricane magnitude winds that turned parched forests into tinderboxes. The fire quickly became a natural blowtorch.
Congress and state legislatures started appropriating billions to build forest fire suppression. Over the years, governments funded road construction, trained and equipped armies of firefighters, and aggressively attacked fires.
Just as important has been the focus on wildfire prevention.
For example, in 2003, President George W. Bush introduced the Healthy Forests Initiative (HFI) after wildfires blackened 7.1 million acres in 2002.
If enacted, HFI would reduce wildfire risk by thinning overstocked stands, clearing away vegetation and trees to create fuel breaks, providing funding and guidance to reduce or eliminate hazardous fuels.
However, HFI hit a wall of resistance from environmental organizations such as the Sierra Club, the Natural Resources Defense Council and The Wilderness Society — and died. A primary objection was HFI allowed selective logging. However, it is a starting point for future discussion.
Cutting diseased, dead and fire damaged trees is not new. In intermountain forests (eastern Washington, Idaho, Montana, and British Columbia), loggers once salvaged beetle-killed trees and sent them to rural sawmills to be cut into 2x4s. That practice was severely curtailed 30 years ago,
Knowing that mature trees are most susceptible to insects and disease, public forest managers once designed timber sales on small tracts as fire breaks. That practice has been virtually stopped in recent years and wildfire fuels are allowed to accumulate.
Harvesting helped fund replanting and fire access road construction. Environmental mitigation techniques have dramatically improved resulting in clean water and unencumbered access for fish returning to natural spawning grounds.
As we face more austere financial times, we must revise management practices in state and federal forests. We can no longer allow nature to just take its course and spend billions to clean up the resulting mess. There needs to be a more balanced approach which substantially reduces the risk and damage of wildfire.
Megafires are invading our cities and suburbs and gutting our neighborhoods and downtowns as we are witnessing in LA. They are polluting our air, endangering our health and safety, and burning a bigger hole in our pocketbooks — something we can no longer afford as our federal debt soars by trillions of dollars each year.
Don C. Brunell is a business analyst, writer and columnist. He is a former president of the Association of Washington Business, the state’s oldest and largest business organization, and lives in Vancouver. Contact thebrunells@msn.com.
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