I didn’t realize that the Voice of America did in-depth stories on wildfires in the United States, but this video and article fairly accurately describe the state of wildfire management in our country. It was put together by reporter Mark Snowiss who usually focuses on East Asia and the Middle East but he has also written and edited for various media outlets including NPR affiliates in Los Angeles. It is titled High-Intensity ‘Megafires’ a New Global Danger.
Below is an excerpt from the article which features interviews of Bill Kaage of the National Park Service, author Stephen Pyne of Arizona State University, and Oregon forester Marc Barnes.
…Florida, in the southeastern U.S., and Western Australia state offer more examples where – despite severe drought – firefighting costs and damages have been greatly reduced. The U.N. report cited “prescribed burn projects” and “other community-based fire management initiatives” as key factors.
Calls also are increasing for communities in fire-prone areas to retrofit buildings with fire-resistant materials, impose fire taxes and zoning reforms, and for insurance companies to either charge more to protect homes in vulnerable landscapes or abandon them entirely.
U.S. government priorities – and funding – need to shift away from suppression and into such preventive measures, including fuel reduction, Marc Barnes said.
“Otherwise, we’re going to see increasingly bigger fires, spend more money and get a lot less done because so much of [the federal wildland fire] budgets are eclipsed by the money for suppression,” he said.
Bill Kaage acknowledged the federal deficit has forced agencies like his to cut their relatively small hazardous fuel reduction budgets – despite recent policy reforms that recognize the essential role fire plays in sustaining natural ecosystems.
“That’s a choice we’ve had to make to ensure we have the engines and the crews available to us for a response. But that doesn’t mean we can’t be smart about where we treat the fuels and how we treat them to prepare for the arrival of fire,” he said.
Interesting report, except the inevitable conclusion ” problem that seems to worsen year by year” didn’t get worse this year, in part because of aggressive initial attack efforts that put fires out when they were still small…
Also, in part, due to the fact that the weather was more moderate this year.