[82 Card]

An article on SFGate gets into the causes for the fires in the last several years. A particularly depressing passage:

Q: But shouldn't there be a very tiny silver lining here? Things can't burn twice.

A: One of the interesting things we saw, especially in the LNU complex fire in Napa, Solano and Lake counties, is a lot of the areas that burned have already burned in the past couple of years-in some cases twice. There are some places where this is the third time they've burned in six years. Usually you would expect burn scars to last for a few years and reduce, if not prevent, fires. Most folks would think we'd have at least five or seven years of reduced risk in some of these areas. But there was just enough time for the vegetation to grow back and support a fire. The warming and drying effect has been so profound that stuff that had regrown was actually dry enough to burn pretty intensely.

I'm not convinced turning logging companies loose in our forests would do any more good than having had a recent fire. Having seen some logged sites, it's not like the loggers leave the place free of debris.

[82 Card]

An article on SFGate gets into the causes for the fires in the last several years. A particularly depressing passage:

Q: But shouldn't there be a very tiny silver lining here? Things can't burn twice.

A: One of the interesting things we saw, especially in the LNU complex fire in Napa, Solano and Lake counties, is a lot of the areas that burned have already burned in the past couple of years-in some cases twice. There are some places where this is the third time they've burned in six years. Usually you would expect burn scars to last for a few years and reduce, if not prevent, fires. Most folks would think we'd have at least five or seven years of reduced risk in some of these areas. But there was just enough time for the vegetation to grow back and support a fire. The warming and drying effect has been so profound that stuff that had regrown was actually dry enough to burn pretty intensely.

I'm not convinced turning logging companies loose in our forests would do any more good than having had a recent fire. Having seen some logged sites, it's not like the loggers leave the place free of debris.