The fire burned 221,000 acres near South Lake Tahoe, California
10:46 a.m. PDT Oct. 21, 2021
Image from USFS video about fuel treatments and the Caldor Fire.
The U.S. Forest Service has released a four-minute video featuring the Forest Supervisors of the Eldorado National Forest and the Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit discussing fuel treatments that occurred in the years before the Caldor Fire burned nearly a quarter of a million acres southwest of South Lake Tahoe, California.
Typos, let us know HERE, and specify which article. Please read the commenting rules before you post a comment.
After working full time in wildland fire for 33 years, he continues to learn, and strives to be a Student of Fire.
View all posts by Bill Gabbert
6 thoughts on “Forest Service video about fuel treatments and the Caldor Fire”
My thought is that this video reminds me of having fossil fuel companies make recommendations for increasing fossil fuel use or tobacco companies opining on the link between lung cancer and nicotine use.
0
0
I thnk we have to remember that the Forest Service relies on politicians for their budgets and politicians create logging mandates. Fire fighters also rely on the Forest Service for their budget. Forest Service must log or lose funding. This is budget driven, anecdotal information.
0
0
It is too bad videos like this are even needed.
This video must be a response to the idiotic nonsense spouted by science – ignoramus chad hansen that spouts his garbage about thinning and fuels treatments not only do not work, they make fires worse. It is also too bad the media gives that clown all the press ink he wants. So the Forest Service and other fire agencies are forced to make videos like this as a rebuttal.
0
0
Hanson has gone off the deep end with his arguments on high rates of severe fires at mid elevations, historically. He doesn’t know what he’s talking about. We were in PhD programs at the same time at UC Davis, and he later contacted me about getting hold of some historical data I had regarding historic forest/veg conditions that he wanted to use to bolster his arguments. He is aligned with a small group of others who have almost criminally misinterpeted such types of data in order to support their arguments, such as William Baker at the University of Wyoming. The evidence in favor of a predominantly surface-fire regime at Sierran mid-elevation mixed conifer and ponderosa pine forests is overwhelming, and it comes from disparate sources, including an enormous number of historic vegetation plots as well as many fire history studies.
0
0
Jim –
I am currently reading Hanson’s manifesto “Smokesreen”. To his credit, he provides a lot of references to the technical literature; to his discredit, not all of these references support the arguments he is trying to make.
“The evidence in favor of a predominantly surface-fire regime…comes from disparate sources, including…many fire history studies.”
Can you suggest a couple of articles/reviews to this point? Thanks.
Pat C
0
0
We need more videos like this one that had the right message, the right people talking, and the right example of good work.ce
Suggestion: 1) There is no such thing as “Forest Service land.” It’s properly referred to as “National Forest land.” The reason for this is to send the proper message that “these lands are your lands;” not that of any one agency.
2) Having a property owner who was spared a burn-over due to the fuels treatment would have been a good inclusion for the video.
My thought is that this video reminds me of having fossil fuel companies make recommendations for increasing fossil fuel use or tobacco companies opining on the link between lung cancer and nicotine use.
I thnk we have to remember that the Forest Service relies on politicians for their budgets and politicians create logging mandates. Fire fighters also rely on the Forest Service for their budget. Forest Service must log or lose funding. This is budget driven, anecdotal information.
It is too bad videos like this are even needed.
This video must be a response to the idiotic nonsense spouted by science – ignoramus chad hansen that spouts his garbage about thinning and fuels treatments not only do not work, they make fires worse. It is also too bad the media gives that clown all the press ink he wants. So the Forest Service and other fire agencies are forced to make videos like this as a rebuttal.
Hanson has gone off the deep end with his arguments on high rates of severe fires at mid elevations, historically. He doesn’t know what he’s talking about. We were in PhD programs at the same time at UC Davis, and he later contacted me about getting hold of some historical data I had regarding historic forest/veg conditions that he wanted to use to bolster his arguments. He is aligned with a small group of others who have almost criminally misinterpeted such types of data in order to support their arguments, such as William Baker at the University of Wyoming. The evidence in favor of a predominantly surface-fire regime at Sierran mid-elevation mixed conifer and ponderosa pine forests is overwhelming, and it comes from disparate sources, including an enormous number of historic vegetation plots as well as many fire history studies.
Jim –
I am currently reading Hanson’s manifesto “Smokesreen”. To his credit, he provides a lot of references to the technical literature; to his discredit, not all of these references support the arguments he is trying to make.
“The evidence in favor of a predominantly surface-fire regime…comes from disparate sources, including…many fire history studies.”
Can you suggest a couple of articles/reviews to this point? Thanks.
Pat C
We need more videos like this one that had the right message, the right people talking, and the right example of good work.ce
Suggestion: 1) There is no such thing as “Forest Service land.” It’s properly referred to as “National Forest land.” The reason for this is to send the proper message that “these lands are your lands;” not that of any one agency.
2) Having a property owner who was spared a burn-over due to the fuels treatment would have been a good inclusion for the video.