https://news.stanford.edu/2021/03/23/wildfire-solutions/One environmental issue that has dominated news outlets over the past few years, particularly along the West Coast, has been wildfires. And it’s not just over-publicization; this problem has increased exponentially in recent history, partially as a result of climate change and partially due to fire suppression efforts. From the 1970s to the 2010s, wildfire frequency has increased by 1,200%, and their severity is only getting more prominent. Climate change has resulted in increased droughts, severe winds, longer-lasting dry vegetation, and heat, all of which create hazardous conditions for these events.
Historically, the U.S. sought to prevent fires entirely, funding fire suppression programs that worked to completely quash any and all naturally- or artificially-caused wildfires. However, these programs actually caused more damage than ever; wildfires are meant to naturally occur in dry ecosystems, and the lack of periodic fires resulted in an increase in densely-packed vegetation near forest floors. During modern wildfires, this landscape change has actually increased the severity and spreading speed, putting more people at risk than ever before. In 2021, there were an estimated 58,733 wildfires total, including the Middle Fork and Marshall Fires in Colorado that burned 6,080 acres and destroyed 1,233 homes. In 2022, the Colorado Fire in California burned 687 acres, driven by high winds; as of February 4th, over 40,000 acres are estimated to have been damaged by wildfires. This issue is clearly ongoing, and it’s not just a problem of heat– it’s also a threat to personal health.
Wildfire smoke contains soot and other particles known as PM2.5 particulates, due to their small size– their diameter is only 2.5 micrometers. These tiny particles can taint drinking water, but can also do severe damage to people’s internal organs, particularly their lungs and heart; PM2.5 particles are associated with a dramatic increase of the risk of lung/heart disease. The AQI, or Air Quality Index, measures the levels of pollutants in air and determines the safety of individuals in different areas. Any AQI above 150 is considered unsafe, even for healthy individuals; wildfires in 2020 resulted in the AQI of Portland, Oregon reaching a record high of 500. It is currently estimated that at least 500 elderly people die each year due to wildfire smoke-related issues.
What can be done about this wildfire problem? Several solutions have been proposed, but often come with their own opposition or funding problems.
Some suggest that more federal funding should be funneled into emission reduction and drought mitigation efforts, attempting to slow the ever-increasing effects of climate change. Though this could result in a decrease in hazardous conditions, it would be fairly costly, and would be affected by the continuing debate over national climate change protocol in the U.S.
Wildfires are often caused by an overaccumulation of wood and plant fuels. Prescribed burns, or deliberately-started wildfires in mild areas, would reduce the amount of flammable vegetation and therefore prevent later incidents of severe wildfires. However, this does not address the problem of soot pollution, particularly in areas with denser populations. Others have suggested mechanical treatment of fuel pileup, which includes mowing and forest thinning– not only is this expensive, but it is the subject of controversy due to some comparisons to potentially harmful practices like logging.
Many wildfires are caused by electricity problems, such as faulty utilities or exposed powerlines. Because of this, many proposed fire prevention methods revolve around the management of electric companies and their equipment. Removing hazardous fuel near powerlines could help to prevent wildfires from starting, as well as improved monitoring of different utilities and equipment that are located near wildfire hotspots. In some places, electric companies have opted to shut off utilities entirely during times of extreme risk; however, this has resulted in great controversy. Shutting off utilities entirely is immensely costly, and also forces businesses and schools to close down for the duration of the event– it also causes problems with food preservation and medical equipment, which can be actively dangerous.
Fire prevention is an incredibly important subject, but is not infallible. Because of this, one major avenue of wildfire support systems involves federal investment in firefighting departments across the nation. Volunteer fire departments in particular are historically underfunded and lack the appropriate resources to safely deal with major wildfires. They also often lack healthcare and benefits due to not being recognized as federal employees. Providing these benefits, more funding and resources, and focusing on stationing fire service groups near high-risk regions could help prevent wildfires from doing major damage to highly-populated areas.
One of the major problems with landscape protection services is that land is both a state and a local issue, and therefore requires cooperation between both landowners and state agencies, as well as (on a larger scale) federal organizations. Preventing development in high-risk areas is one proposed solution to the dangerousness of wildfires, but a shortage in affordable housing makes this nearly impossible. However, the passing of regulations to ensure that construction materials are safer and more fire resistant could help improve existing developments; as an example, requiring the use of defensible space (leaving a region around the home bare of any vegetation or flammable materials) ensures a buffer against potential wildfires. Placing more regulations on insurance companies could also help prevent the increasing costs of wildfire insurance, which have become a real problem for many in the West and South. In general, encouraging different levels of government and organizations to fund various fire-prevention efforts allows for further development of new strategies to keep people safe and protect against landscape destruction.
It is clear that wildfire safety is a multi-pronged issue, particularly when it comes to proposed solutions and their potential drawbacks. However, the risk of wildfires has increased drastically over recent history, and the danger it poses to both landscapes and individual health is too great to ignore. It is clear that more funding is required to properly address this issue; the government currently spends under 500 million a year on fire safety and landscape treatment, but it is proposed that an effective and overall treatment plan could cost 5-6 billion over the next 10 years. But where exactly should this money go? Even providing funds doesn’t prevent the various legal problems, permit requirements, and political controversies that come with many of these proposed solutions. As a whole, wildfire prevention is a subject that as yet has no one answer– but the U.S. must start finding one soon, before more people are put at risk.
https://www.resources.org/archives/trends-and-solutions-in-wildfire-management/
https://www.rff.org/publications/explainers/wildfires-in-the-united-states-102-policy-and-solutions/
https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/fire/202113
Center for Disaster Philanthropy, 2022 North American Wildfires
https://www.edf.org/climate/4-ways-right-policies-can-help-us-confront-wildfires
https://www.epa.gov/wildfire-smoke-course/why-wildfire-smoke-health-concern
https://www.epa.gov/indoor-air-quality-iaq/wildfires-and-indoor-air-quality-iaq
https://www.airnow.gov/fires/
https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2022/jan/26/wsu-study-finds-air-pollution-brought-on-by-heat-a/
https://www.upi.com/Health_News/2022/01/13/wildfires-heat-West-difficulty-breathing/3351642017198/
Your Central Valley.com, Local cities claim 5 of top 10 worsened U.S. cities for air pollution…
Stanford, Wildfire solutions
I’ve always found it strange that BLM (which used to stand for the Bureau of Land Management) oversees so much of the firefighting work that goes on in the American West. Although the resources of the federal government are much greater than that of any individual state, perhaps entrusting public lands to the states which they are in will result in a more individualized approach to quashing fires in forestlands. Better yet, the sale of those lands to logging and mining companies will help avoid the “tragedy of the commons” situation that makes the oversight of these blazes so lax in the first place- if trees on a logging company’s land are burning down, that’s revenue literally going up in flames. Although market side regulations may appear like a good idea here, I fear that placing a price ceiling on wildfire insurance will result in less insurance companies offering it, and American forests simply going unprotected as a result.