Paradise Lost in California - Drought and Development adjacent to the Wild Land Urban Interface

SAN DIEGO - Aug. 23, 2013 - PRLog --  

As California continues to endure drought conditions, this year we have seen an explosion in severe, destructive wild land fires.  I visited the Cal Fire website and counted 116 wild land fires to date with approximately 30 active fires in the state at the time of this press release.  The Rim fire, adjacent to Yosemite National Park has already burned over 105,000 acres with only 2% containment and even with over 1,000 firefighters; the blaze continues it's exponential growth. 

Why are our wild land fires increasing in size, intensity and duration?  There is no one reason, but many suspected causes.  California has had major droughts in 2002-3, followed by three dry years 2007-2009 and recently February of 2013 was the driest February for rainfall on record.  Even though 2013 was not classified as a drought, it was a very dry winter.  Global warming and climate change seem to be intensifying our temperatures and rainfall.  We are having earlier spring, trees in the Sierra are retreating to higher elevation, insects and other species are appearing earlier and the Sierra snowpack continues to shrink and retreat.  

Coupled with drought and climatic conditions is the ever encroaching commercial and residential development abutting or adjacent to the wild land urban interface.  When a wild fire ignites, Santa Ana winds carry distant fires toward the west, almost always into encroaching development.  People love to get away from the urban centers; many decide to take the risk of building homes in the middle of forests. This is often equivalent to building in the middle of a gasoline field.  While this is a calculated risk, the public ultimately pays for it because of the Cal Fire mandate to suppress fires and protect structures.  85% of the Cal Fire budget goes for fire suppression, only 15% is allocated to research and developing improved fire management plans.

A recent Los Angeles Times article addressed the growing debate about how outdated fire management techniques have failed to adequately address the increasing wild land fire threat.  The Times article is discussed in a blog by Rappoport Development Consulting Services bringing additional information about chaparral and coastal sage scrub plant communities and the need for new fire management strategies.

"There is increasing debate about how the state prevents fires on over 38 million acres of land, comprising more than a third of the state of California. The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection relies on techniques including controlled burns and mechanical brush clearing, but there is increasing debate by researchers and academics versus firefighters on the ground. Our firefighters face one of the most explosive, flammable fuels in the world, that being the chaparral and coastal sage scrub plant habitat."

Click here to read the full article http://landscapeexpertwitness.com/2013/08/23/paradise-lost/