By Russ Lawrence
Author, photographer, and professional student of fire ecology George Wuerthner will speak in Hamilton on Monday, October 26 on with the goal of dispelling some of the myths that currently surround forest fire management policy, while bringing the most current scientific findings to light.
Bitterrooters for Planning is sponsoring Wuerthner’s presentation, in the Community Room at City Hall, 223 S. Bedford at 7 p.m. The free event “speaks to our mission,” said BFP President Jim Rokosch.
“How do we be proactive, in terms of planning for infrastructure and services?” said Rokosch. “The main concern is protecting homes, lives, and property, and BFP’s part of that is not only how to protect the people who are already there, but making good decisions, and not putting people in harm’s way in the first place.”
The discussion will be a timely exploration of wildfire’s potential impacts on forest ecosystems and human values, according to Bitterrooters for Planning.
Wuerthner is the Ecological Projects Director at the Institute for Deep Ecology, and lives in Bend, OR. Part of his job is to keep abreast of the scientific literature on topics including fire ecology, and to synthesize that information for the public, for interest groups, and for professionals in the field. Another part of his job is to travel the West and examine the aftermath of large fires.
“I’ve seen more of the larger fires you hear about in the news than anyone else,” he claimed, giving him a broader perspective than researchers who may only study fire behavior in one region or one habitat type. He has drawn from his experience to write numerous books on fire ecology, and on fire management policy.
He’s hopeful that the audience will be balanced among policy makers (including elected officials), on-the-ground managers, and citizen activists. He feels that much of today’s fire management policy discussion is based on out-of-date research and discredited paradigms.
His talk will be based on an ecological perspective, and will focus on three themes. The first is that large, unmanageable wildfires are not the problem, but rather the symptoms of a larger problem.
“What I would tell politicians is that if you’re really serious about doing something about fires, you’ve got to address climate change,” Wuerthner said. He noted the current political emphasis is on logging to prevent large fires, but cited “a growing body of evidence that climate and weather control more than fuels.”
“We are creating a climate that is leading to large fires,” he said. “That changes your whole paradigm about fires.”
Under the extreme fire weather conditions of recent years, large fires are simply unstoppable, no matter how many resources we throw at them.
“I have a certain sympathy for managers,” said Wuerthner, who face a choice between aggressive suppression and letting fires burn. Chances are good that under benign conditions, a fire will go out on its own, but the consequences of a major fire escaping are disastrous.
That leads to his second theme, that current fire policy simply needs to adapt to the new data, citing in particular the research of Jack Cohen, of the USFS Fire Sciences Laboratory in Missoula. Logging and thinning far from structures and important infrastructure has little or no value, while aggressive treatment near structures and communities is highly effective, both from an economic as well as a resource protection perspective.
“We can’t predict where a fire will start,” Wuerthner said, “but we can predict what we don’t want to burn up.”
Much of fire science is counter-intuitive, he claimed, pointing out recent findings that the presence of beetle-killed timber doesn’t necessarily increase the likelihood of large fires, while intensive forest management may have little or no effect on the behavior of large fires under extreme conditions.
His third theme is potentially the most controversial. Even if we could stop large wildfires, he claims, there are many ecological benefits to them, and trying to control them is “a fool’s game.”
The policy is to be aggressive in fighting large fires, ignoring the fact that periodic wildfires are important for ecosystem health, he said. The aftermath of an intense fire may appear tragic, but many plant and animal species depend on fire, and severely burned forests are, in fact, surprisingly biodiverse habitats.
Wuerthner bases his conclusions on a wide reading of current material. “I may not agree, but you have to read it all,” he said.
His presentation will include graphics illustrating his points, and Wuerthner will accept questions from the audience following his presentation.
“We want to bring a broad perspective on wildfire and fire science, how it relates to our local valley,” Rokosch said, “and to inspire a balanced discussion on what the science tells us.”
Bitterrooters for Planning is a non-profit community organization, advocating for protection and stewardship of our living landscape. For more information, visit Bitterrooters for Planning on Facebook.