You'll notice it has been declining since 2005; after being above 80,000 for many decades with many decades of advertising from Smokey the bear.
But something changed about 1999-2005. Smokey the bear was retired and we changed the forest management plan to what the indigenous were doing for thousands of years.
Suddenly now that we arent mismanaging the forests and arresting the indigenous who were managing them correctly. Forestfires are in decline.
The other reality is that: >85% of wildfires are man made; typically arson or negligence.
You dont get to mismanagement the forests and then claim it was climate change.
allears · 1d ago
You don't seem very informed about wildfires. Indigenous people have indeed helped the Forest Service understand about forest maintenance, but those practices aren't always applicable due to the enormous buildup of fuel from decades of fire suppression, and the greatly increased drought, high temperatures, and wind due to the effects of climate change. It's true that many fires are triggered by power lines that have been poorly maintained, as well as human negligence and arson too, but once ignited, the ample dry fuel, the high temperatures, and the winds, have created a wildfire problem that's unprecedented. It's not the number of reported fires, it's the acreage that's consumed (along with structures and even entire towns).
chiefalchemist · 1d ago
> the ample dry fuel,
Of the contributors, this is the most significant. Remove the excess fuel and the fires are mitigated. Winds are irrelevant if there’s nothing to burn.
Bottom line, the best that can be said about the contribution of climate change is that there’s correlation. The decades of mismanagement were significant. That is, even without climate change these forests would be danger waiting to happen.
incomingpain · 1d ago
>You don't seem very informed about wildfires. Indigenous people have indeed helped the Forest Service understand about forest maintenance,
Between the 1930s and 1960s a ton of people who set fires were arrested. The vast majority of which were indigenous people. There were protests about the government using fake justification to round them up. That suppressing all fires is an idiotic plan that will cause lots of trouble. Which in hindsight, they wrongfully arrested all of those people. The indigenous were 100% correct.
>but those practices aren't always applicable due to the enormous buildup of fuel from decades of fire suppression, and the greatly increased drought, high temperatures, and wind due to the effects of climate change.
Because they mismanaged the forests for decades.
How can something be a climate change indicator when root cause is government mismanagement and the practical cause is 85% of the time man made.
But something changed about 1999-2005. Smokey the bear was retired and we changed the forest management plan to what the indigenous were doing for thousands of years.
Suddenly now that we arent mismanaging the forests and arresting the indigenous who were managing them correctly. Forestfires are in decline.
The other reality is that: >85% of wildfires are man made; typically arson or negligence.
You dont get to mismanagement the forests and then claim it was climate change.
Of the contributors, this is the most significant. Remove the excess fuel and the fires are mitigated. Winds are irrelevant if there’s nothing to burn.
Bottom line, the best that can be said about the contribution of climate change is that there’s correlation. The decades of mismanagement were significant. That is, even without climate change these forests would be danger waiting to happen.
Between the 1930s and 1960s a ton of people who set fires were arrested. The vast majority of which were indigenous people. There were protests about the government using fake justification to round them up. That suppressing all fires is an idiotic plan that will cause lots of trouble. Which in hindsight, they wrongfully arrested all of those people. The indigenous were 100% correct.
>but those practices aren't always applicable due to the enormous buildup of fuel from decades of fire suppression, and the greatly increased drought, high temperatures, and wind due to the effects of climate change.
Because they mismanaged the forests for decades.
How can something be a climate change indicator when root cause is government mismanagement and the practical cause is 85% of the time man made.