Fires and global climate change?
Food for thought.
I'm not entirely sold, oddly enough.
I think this is a wait and see and keep doing research.
What we do know:
Southern California is not an edenic paradise. It's a dry country. Even the hills running down to the beach tend to be scrubby oak woodland, grassland, or chaparral. We are subject to regular drought. It's part of our region, drought is. The southern California mountains are piney and rocky and often dry and dusty in the summer and fall. In a wet winter, the snowpack is good; in a dry winter, not so good.
Recently snowpack in the south has not been good because of drought.
The years that we have had rain and not much snow, we get overgrowth of vegetation, fuel for the next fall's fires.
The Native Americans of the region called the LA Basin "Valley of Smoke" because of the regular hillside fires that burned. Chaparral burns. My eternal refrain: it's fire-adapted vegetation.
For over a century we've suppressed these small fires. The forestry agencies now know this has not been the best strategy. In the intervening years between then and now - we've filled the fire country hillsides with homes, towns, and cities. We're essentially screwed. We have to find a way to change our fire management strategies so that people and their natural surroundings can coexist.
What gives me pause is that this is the "driest year in California history." I know it's the driest year since I've been in California (26 years) but I need to find the documentation for this being the driest year in our history. Who has the data? What years?
Drought increases the activity of bark beetles in those pine forests which are overcrowded with trees (we've done the overcrowding with our mistaken forest management policies). Bark beetles kill the trees and turn them into flash fuel for fires.
Climate change models do show increased drought; they just don't know for certain where the increased drought will be. Maybe right here. So maybe they're spot on.
CO2 increases in the atmosphere may increase lightening strikes - one source of ignition in our southern California wildfires. The article talks about less snowfall and more rainfall in the Lake Tahoe region contributing to more severe forest fires due to drier fuel. I will confirm that just from my own observations of the San Gabriel Mountains over the last decade or so. If it's true for the SGs on the west side of this valley, I'm pretty sure it's true for the currently burning San Bernardino Mts on the east end of the valley.
Much of the fuel for wildfires comes from invasive plant species, like Brome grasses. These plants get a foothold whenever we disturb the ground (road building, small and large scale development, etc.). The invasive Brome grasses dry out and provide massive fuel to any fire.
The part about the Santa Ana winds is compelling as well. The Santa Anas are coming earlier in the year, that's also true.
Here in the high desert, we expect winds. I have not kept records. Maybe I should. Maybe I should set up a frickin' weather station here. What I have noticed is that over the last five or so year - particularly over the last two - the winds in this part of the desert have increased in velocity and duration. I've wanted to tie that in with climate change, but feel it might be premature.
I still place the blame on public policy and planning. That doesn't eliminate climate change, not by a long shot.
The fires put more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, perhaps contributing to more climate warming. However, some research shows that such warming is temporary and that recovering ecosystems themselves may balance the effect of climate warming. Has to do with the albedo effect of the bare ground vs conifer forests, snow-covered bare ground vs conifers, and new growth trees like aspen (and here, other poplars, I suppose) vs conifers which take about 80-100 years to reestablish.
I am so glad people positioned to do so are studying this.
I'm not entirely sold, oddly enough.
I think this is a wait and see and keep doing research.
What we do know:
Southern California is not an edenic paradise. It's a dry country. Even the hills running down to the beach tend to be scrubby oak woodland, grassland, or chaparral. We are subject to regular drought. It's part of our region, drought is. The southern California mountains are piney and rocky and often dry and dusty in the summer and fall. In a wet winter, the snowpack is good; in a dry winter, not so good.
Recently snowpack in the south has not been good because of drought.
The years that we have had rain and not much snow, we get overgrowth of vegetation, fuel for the next fall's fires.
The Native Americans of the region called the LA Basin "Valley of Smoke" because of the regular hillside fires that burned. Chaparral burns. My eternal refrain: it's fire-adapted vegetation.
For over a century we've suppressed these small fires. The forestry agencies now know this has not been the best strategy. In the intervening years between then and now - we've filled the fire country hillsides with homes, towns, and cities. We're essentially screwed. We have to find a way to change our fire management strategies so that people and their natural surroundings can coexist.
What gives me pause is that this is the "driest year in California history." I know it's the driest year since I've been in California (26 years) but I need to find the documentation for this being the driest year in our history. Who has the data? What years?
Drought increases the activity of bark beetles in those pine forests which are overcrowded with trees (we've done the overcrowding with our mistaken forest management policies). Bark beetles kill the trees and turn them into flash fuel for fires.
Climate change models do show increased drought; they just don't know for certain where the increased drought will be. Maybe right here. So maybe they're spot on.
CO2 increases in the atmosphere may increase lightening strikes - one source of ignition in our southern California wildfires. The article talks about less snowfall and more rainfall in the Lake Tahoe region contributing to more severe forest fires due to drier fuel. I will confirm that just from my own observations of the San Gabriel Mountains over the last decade or so. If it's true for the SGs on the west side of this valley, I'm pretty sure it's true for the currently burning San Bernardino Mts on the east end of the valley.
Much of the fuel for wildfires comes from invasive plant species, like Brome grasses. These plants get a foothold whenever we disturb the ground (road building, small and large scale development, etc.). The invasive Brome grasses dry out and provide massive fuel to any fire.
The part about the Santa Ana winds is compelling as well. The Santa Anas are coming earlier in the year, that's also true.
Here in the high desert, we expect winds. I have not kept records. Maybe I should. Maybe I should set up a frickin' weather station here. What I have noticed is that over the last five or so year - particularly over the last two - the winds in this part of the desert have increased in velocity and duration. I've wanted to tie that in with climate change, but feel it might be premature.
I still place the blame on public policy and planning. That doesn't eliminate climate change, not by a long shot.
The fires put more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, perhaps contributing to more climate warming. However, some research shows that such warming is temporary and that recovering ecosystems themselves may balance the effect of climate warming. Has to do with the albedo effect of the bare ground vs conifer forests, snow-covered bare ground vs conifers, and new growth trees like aspen (and here, other poplars, I suppose) vs conifers which take about 80-100 years to reestablish.
I am so glad people positioned to do so are studying this.