“Why Wildfires Have Gotten Worse — And What We Can Do About It – Paul Hessburg”

Before you watch:

1. What do you know about wildfires?

I don't really have much knowledge about wildfires, but if I know that apart from
destroying nature, death of animals or people, it also affects the environment in general.

About the video:

2. What is Paul Hessburg’s reason for this discussion?

The reason why Paul Hessburg’s is discussing this important topic is because much of
this destruction could have been avoided. And he said if we don’t change a few of our
fire-management habits, were going to lose many more of our beloved forest.

3. According to Paul, what were the “forces” that worked together to shape forests
in 1930s?

There were other forces at work, too, shaping this historical patchwork: for example,
topography, whether a place faces north or south or it's on a ridge top
or in a valley bottom; elevation, how far up the mountain it is; and weather, whether a
place gets a lot of snow and rain, sunlight and warmth. These things all worked together
to shape the way the forest grew. And the way the forest grew shaped the way fire
behaved on the landscape.

4. What are the ways mentioned in the video that humans have created the
“epidemic of trees” and why is it bad?

After World War II, timber harvesting got going in the west, and the logging removed the
large and the old trees. These were survivors of centuries of wildfires. And the forest
filled in. Thin-barked, fire-sensitive small trees filled in the gaps, and our forests became
dense, with trees so layered and close together that they were touching each other. So,
fires were unintentionally blocked by roads and railroads, the cattle and sheep ate the
grass, then along comes fire suppression and logging, removing the big trees, and you
know what happened? All these factors worked together to allow the forest to fill in,
creating what I call the current epidemic of trees. Because trees are growing so close
together, and because tree species, tree sizes and ages are so similar across large
areas, fires not only move easily from acre to acre, but now, so do diseases and insect
outbreaks, which are killing or reducing the vitality of really large sections of forest now.
 And after a century without fire, dead branches and downed trees on the forest floor,
they're at powder-keg levels.

5. What are “the tools” we can use to control wildfires?

We can use prescribed burning to intentionally thin out trees and burn up dead fuels.
We do this to systematically reduce them and keep them reduced. And what is that
going to do? It's going to create already-burned patches on the landscape that will resist
the flow of future fires. We can combine mechanical thinning with some of these
treatments where it's appropriate to do so and capture some commercial value and
perhaps underwrite some of these treatments, especially around urban areas. And the
best news of all is that prescribed burning produces so much less smoke than wildfires
do.

After you watch:

6. How could you get more people aware of a natural phenomenon like wildfires
and involved them in helping with the current situation?

Taking recycling initiative, use social networks to raise awareness about the
consequences after fires and how it affects us.