Preventative techniques are being ignored by our governments, who are instead focused on political messaging around climate change. Climate change may indeed be worsening dry fuel loads, but there’s a lot in terms of forest management that simply isn’t being addressed and could go a long way in preventing wildfires.

As this article notes, controlled burns are an important tool, and based on personal observation they seem vastly underused today compared to the frequency with which we used to see them in the past. We also need responsible forest management to thin trees and clear brush. We also need proper management (or funding) of power utilities, which have been responsible for many wildfires on the West coast - and I don’t mean just PG&E in CA (see https://www.wsj.com/articles/pg-e-sparked-at-least-1-500-cal...), as some recent fires in WA were also sparked by power lines downed by trees that were too close and poorly managed. We also need relaxed regulations for private land owners - I know home owners in WA who were prevented from removing dangerous trees on their land and the difficult, expensive, time consuming process of getting permits caused them to give up and ignore the trees ultimately until they naturally fell. Unfortunately I had a tree fall on my house that my neighbor ignored for the same reasons.

It feels to me like basic common sense techniques to prevent wildfires have been abandoned, and rules intended to protect the environment have backfired in some cases.

Forestry management works: WaPo has noted that Finland does a lot better than its neighbors when it comes to wildfires due to controlled burns and compartmentalization of forests (https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2018/11/19/why-finland-...). That compartmentalizations comes in part from a dense forest road network that makes the forests accessible and has also subdivided them (https://www.is.fi/ulkomaat/art-2000005903733.html). Another interesting note is that Trump was widely ridiculed for his “raking” comment, but he was somewhat correct, although he misunderstood the term. Visit a clear cut of a timber stand in WA or OR and you’ll see a tangled mess left on the ground (brush, branches, stumps) that’ll dry up into a mass of fuel waiting for a spark. In Finland, they invest in clearing the land of what would otherwise be prime forest fire fuel in a process known as a “root rake” (see example video of machinery at https://youtu.be/o_EZeAiy3ew).

Voters need to draw more attention to preventative techniques and ask that funds be redirected accordingly. In Washington state, our Department of Natural Resources has been asking for increased investment in managing the fuel load and thinning forests for years (see https://www.dnr.wa.gov/StrategicFireProtection). The private forestry industry also has been asking for increased investment/assistance from the state in thinning and prescribed burns (http://www.wfpa.org/sustainable-forestry/reduce-wildfire-ris...). However these calls have been ignored, despite ever increasing state budgets, and our governor and legislature have done little to address the issue. Please contact your representatives and don’t let them get away with foregoing responsibility by blindly blaming just climate change for wildfires.