My vision for the future is a world where the air quality is clean for everyone, the climate stabilizes, and regenerative fire cycles can occur in a more healthy way.
Values associated with this vision would be the willingness to learn, become educated, and passion to support practices that help mitigate the volatility of forest fires.
Fires are now qualitatively different with massive ecological, social, and economic implications which are the three pillars of sustainability. It is a complex system that we are seeing at unprecedented scales and intensities due to the intricate combination of our inputs creating optimal conditions for these superfires.
The better management of our forests can help decrease the volatility of wildfires. The removal of thinning trees can mitigate fire volatility because they lack the moisture that help cool the fire temperatures. Further interventions could include the greater implementation of controlled/prescribed burns which are the most effective way humans can regenerate and replenish lands with fire resistant species that are beneficial to the landscape to reduce dangerous and intense wildfires. These prescribed burns done are performed under very controlled circumstances and generally not done during hottest times of the year that would permit fires to become volatile.
Barriers that hinder the more widespread adoption of these practices include economic incentive and the lack of education towards prescribed burns and how they affect people and infrastructure.
I enjoyed reading your interventions regarding the prescribed burns and removal of thinning trees. However, in BC, an area that is so densely packed with trees it may not be feasible to remove trees before a wildfire occurs because we dont know where one will break out or where it will spread to.
I concur that non-ecological factors also need to be taken into consideration when it comes to dealing with fires. Though it is imperative to preserve the ecosystem around us, if people did not also know the social and economic consequences, then these intense fires likely would continue to exist given that people would not care as much.
Econmic incentive is a real problem that isnt talked about enough, for sure
Hi Ravleen! That's quite a vision and a well-thought-out perspective on forest management and sustainability! You mentioned values like the willingness to learn and passion. How would you propose these values in communities, especially in regions that are heavily impacted by fires?
I agree with you. I think reducing human-caused fire sources is more realistic and achievable than controlling the climate environment. In order to protect the forest better and prevent mountain fires, I think the government can introduce some protection policies or provide some fire-fighting measures in the mountains, such as providing fire extinguishers in some fixed positions or providing timely equipment to control the trend of fire. Vancouver has had very bad air quality recently and for a long time, which is inextricably linked to wildfires, and it's really important to prevent wildfires.
I think the same as you, Ravleen; we urgently need more policies to protect our forests from wildfires. At the same time, we can control the amount of vegetation and plant some fire-resistant plants to reduce the impact of fires.
Wow I had never heard of prescribed burns before or that wild fires have an innately different quality today. Interesting stuff! Thanks for sharing.
Hello! I agree on your point of how actions needs to be taken to educate more people. I read a post before of someone that is new to Vancouver barely having encountered forest fires, which was unexpected to me as someone who has been living among forest fires for a while, and were unaware of the consequences.
Hi Ravleen!
Great post! I liked that you touched on the intervention topic of controlled/prescribed burns - prior to the class I didn't know that we can literally fight fire with fire! And yes! Totally agree with the additional factors we need to consider for reducing forest fire volatility such as the lack of education surrounding this topic. We need more awareness raised!
I love the title :)
It sounds counterintuitive but prescribed fires have so many potential benefits!