Burned Out: US Forest Service Is Destroying Our Western Towns

[This Post includes two JPEG Tables. Any one who can help correct, fill, and/or map this data would be very much appreciated.]

About 15 years ago, forester Bruce Courtwright became very concerned about increasing wildfires and wildfire risks to the communities of northern California, so he helped gather a number of other wildfire experts to collectively address the problem. This group eventually became known as the National Wildfire Institute (NWI) and was in the process of becoming more formal a few years ago, when Bruce became ill and died. Without a leader or formal organization, members have remained active, mostly via informal email discussions, local meetings, phone calls, and proposals. Promotions of Michael Rain’s “Call to Action” and Jim Petersen’s “First, Put Out the Fire!” have been key group efforts to effect needed change as to how the USFS can better manage its wildfires and forestlands — and including immediate snag salvage and site preparation moving forward, followed by better reforestation planning and forest maintenance strategies for future generations.

These efforts continue, and were recently expanded with Rob DeHarpport’s concern over the increasing number of rural towns being damaged or destroyed in forest fires. That insight has led to me, Petersen, Lake Tahoe writer Dana Tibbitts, and NWI members such as Roger Jaegel, Bill Derr, and Bill Dennison,  to begin assembling a list of affected communities in order to develop a baseline for further analysis. An Excel file was established for this purpose and our initial findings — summarized in the following two tables — were startling. So far, more than 70 communities are listed, beginning in 1905, most such fires have occurred in the past 10 years, and almost all of them were started on National Forests, and most of those are in the legal range of spotted owls and subjected to the NWFP.

Initially the listing started with the Peshtigo and Great Michigan forest fires of 1871, but from the outset the focus has been on towns most recently burned and rebuilding, and on towns currently threatened by wildfire risks on adjacent and nearby forestlands. There was no attempt to list towns or named communities that were subjected to grass or shrubland fires, or included rural subdivisions  or mobile home or RV parks — just forest fires, and an arbitrary division of at least 30 structures burned; or 50% of a community’s structures if it had less than 60 buildings. We were pretty shocked at how recent most of the fires were, and also that  they were almost entirely related to USFS lands, so we made 1905 the logical starting point. All indications are that the September 2020 Fires were at least as destructive, if not as deadly, as the historic 1871 and 1910 Fires.

Table 1 is a listing of the burned communities arranged by state and county. We fully expect these numbers to increase with midwest and south histories, as well as the 1963 Pine Barren Fires in New Jersey. The “x-” States are those showing towns that were burned and never rebuilt — the 1910 Railroad towns are most of these. The “?” Towns are those that may have escaped damage or weren’t related to a forest fire and may need to be removed. Any help with blanks, corrections, or additions appreciated!

We now know which counties to contact for elected officials, media, and long-time businesses and residents. The purpose would be for further study and public outreach for this unrecognized emergency of deadly town fires directly related to USFS forest and wildfire management policies.
The reason these numbers should be recognized as a national emergency is because of the massive increase in these events in the past 10 years, as shown on Table 2. From 1905-1995 — 90 years — we only have forest fires burning into towns in five counties (although this number is likely to grow with more research); from 1995 to 2005, towns burned in four more counties; from 2005-2015, four more counties; and from 2015-2024 — only 9 years — forest fires in 20 counties had burned at least 46 towns! Mostly in California and Oregon.

The folks that survived these fires and have returned to rebuild their homes and towns are the experts on these events. Research funding is being sought to interview as many key people as possible from these communities with five basic questions: 1) How did the fire start and how could it have been prevented; 2) Why did you decide to return: 3) What organizations, agencies, neighbors, or others were most helpful and/or most troublesome in rebuilding; 4) Did you make the right decision, or not; and 5) What can be done in the way of forest management and community protection to avoid a reoccurrence?
Hurricane Helene is getting major political and media attention at this time for obvious reasons and immediate needs, but many of these communities — think Paradise or the Labor Day Fires — have been equally as devastated and in need of assistance. Hopefully the mayors and elected county officials in these communities are working directly with USFS officials and national representatives regarding these predictable and mostly preventable tragedies.
Other thoughts?

 

34 thoughts on “Burned Out: US Forest Service Is Destroying Our Western Towns”

  1. Interesting.. Thanks, Bob and everyone!
    Question: what does the yellow highlighter mean?
    I am no expert, but I have some idea of the geography. Given that ID, NM, AZ and MT are not in the NWFP, and the Sierra is not (it does have CASPO, but that’s not the same), I have trouble thinking that “most” are within NWFP territory. Maybe it you had a separate table for the last 10 or 20 years, that would be helpful?
    Not to harp on this, but it would be good to know how many were human caused versus natural ignition. When I think of NWFP and CASPO terrain, I think of good growing conditions, and dense vegetation, which could lead in and of itself to high fuel loading, under the fire suppression policies of the past century or so.
    I think the idea of interviewing communities with those five questions is good. Maybe someone knows if this kind of research has been done? I wonder whether it would fit JFSP (Joint Fire Sciences Program)?

    Reply
    • Thanks Sharon:

      The highlights show the separate counties and states on Table 1, and the individual years and fires on Table 2.

      These are meant to include the entire US to put these events in context — the NWFP entries emerged from that whole. More than 1/2 of the fires listed since 1994 are in the NWFP. There was no effort to focus on that result, it just developed.

      I have never had too much interest in determining whether a human smoker, electricity user, or arsonist started a fire — or whether it was lightning or volcano — only how the fuels responded under the existing conditions after ignition. People are almost as hard to control as the weather, but fuels are usually manageable. I don’t think this is a “fire suppression” result so much as abandonment.

      Reply
      • Nice work with gathering and compiling this data, Bob. I think the human vs natural cause ignitions would be important to know if there are conclusions being drawn about changes in forest management because of the probable increase in the number of humans in the forest over time. Additionally, humans have a habit of starting fires during dry/windy periods whereas natural ignitions often start with more humid/wet conditions. This adds a potential confounding factor to viewing this as a forest management issue. Another possible factor, of course, is the expansion and increasing density of human developments.

        Reply
        • Thanks Mike: Some of the other NWI folks, working with Roger Jaegel, Bill Derr, and others, are also compiling databases of communities in which their watershed has been impacted by forest fires, and communities which have not yet been burned in a wildfire but are under immediate threat due to management of adjacent and nearby forestlands. The focus on local and county media, elected officials, and long-term residents is a key strategy with all three compilations.

          We agree on what is “important to know,” and hopefully these proposed studies can develop that information in addition to charting safer and more pleasant futures for these families and communities — and for the forests and wildlife they share.

          My experience is that humans start fires everyday everywhere, no matter the weather conditions. If they do it in a ship at sea, no problem; but if the environment is loaded with highly flammable fuels, perhaps stretching for miles, then the weather is a lot more important. Western Oregon is the location of some the most catastrophic wildfires in history, and the Klamath-Siskiyous and western Cascades get thousands of dry lightning strikes causing wildfires every fire season; but the Coast Range gets very little lightning ever — and then mostly accompanied by heavy rains — so nearly 100% of wildfires are human caused — so it is more a regional problem, and the national scale of this inquiry could produce some very useful information for specific locations.

          Reply
  2. I am not sure how the Montana fires fit into all of this. If I recall correctly, the “Big Burn” communities listed in Montana were mostly camp towns associated with railroad construction, not permanent communities. Also, the 2021 fire that affected Denton, Montana was not a forest fire. Denton is surrounded by agricultural fields and the nearest FS land is 25 miles away. Hard to blame that one on the FS.

    Reply
    • Thanks Anonymous: The railroad towns have an “x-” next to them for that reason — explained in the text. Appreciate the insight on Denton — that verifies the “x-” on its entry as well and will remove from database. This is a work in progress, so feedback is helpful.

      Reply
  3. 1. Markleyville was not burned down. In fact, the efforts of USFS/CAL FIRE firefighters saved the town.
    2. Berry Creek was impacted by fire that ran through industrial timberland that is heavily managed, in less than 12 hours, catastrophically.
    3. Concow in the 2018 Camp Fire was rife with properties where the owners refused to take any kind of defensible space/fuel reduction work, namely due to the proliferance of illegal pot farms in the area (where they wanted the brush and trees to hide them).
    4. San Diego is a rural community?
    5. Bonny Doon, and the CZU Complex, was 100% non-federal land. The fault of poor firefighting, if that is the argument, is 100% on CAL FIRE, and in an area rife with heavily managed forests.
    6. Old Shasta, Redding, Whiskeytown, and Keswick are not in commerical coniferous forest. Redding is a CITY of >90k. The others are suburbs of it. The fuel from the Carr fire was driven by manzanita, non-commercial trees like grey pines, and a lack of effort of the landowners to ever do anything related to defensible space. Further, the fire originated from NPS lands, went to BLM lands, then went to private lands where it wreaked havoc, all during an exceptional heat wave. The USFS land, and subsequent industrial timberland, impacts were afterthought effects of the fire.
    7. Santa Rosa is a far, far, far cry from a small rural town. It is a large city. Further, This lists does not even have the Atlas Fire, which was actually driven in part by fire within confier forests, but mainly impacted million dollar mansions.
    8. Ojai, Santa Paula, and Ventura had little to do with USFS and, and in fact were driven by manzanita burning, and further, are large cities with exceptional wealth, home to thriving yoga communities and Hollywood actors.
    9. Kettenpom and Ruth Lake had few to any year round residents. They are glorified hunting cabins.
    10. 1951, Forks – go read The Final Forest and learn some history.
    11. Pateros and Malden were burned by grass, coming from non-USFS land.

    ….is this list to point out an agenda, or facts from a scientist?

    Reply
    • You could actually do this scientifically with Census data, fire perimeters, vegetation types, and more data in GIS, but this looks more like a “Back in my day” kind of list.

      Reply
    • Hi Anon: Thank you very much for this information. I would guess that is a rhetorical question from you at the end, and intended to be insulting. Very brave for a coward hiding behind a fake identity. Lots of the “Anonymous” posters are civil, respectful, ask good questions, and offer useful information. I suggest having enough huevos to use your real name when being snarky or publicly questioning someone’s credibility.

      You do offer useful information, though, and I’d like to follow up. Here are my responses:

      1. Thanks. We’ll remove it from this list and consider adding it to the others.

      2. That’s interesting. Can you name the industrial landowner(s)? Was NF land involved? We could answer those questions easy enough, but with 60+ communities and proposals just being developed, more specific information would be very helpful at this juncture.

      3. And?

      4. Neither is Redding, so they are outliers. “Rural” is a generality, but the criteria was forest fires that enter a named community and burn at least 30 structures. No size limit, except minimum 50% burn requirement for communities with less than 60 structures.

      5. More specific details?

      6. So NPS origin? Redding is answered above.

      7. So we should add the Atlas Fire? Year and affected town(s)?

      8. We’re not tracking wealth, yoga, Hollywood, or personal values, so more information on your “little to do” assessment would be helpful.

      9. Are they named communities?

      10. Go read it yourself. I planted trees out of Forks as a contractor in the early 1980s and may know its history — and certainly older people and historical taverns — better than you. You seem to have an attitude — is that why you operate in secret?

      11. I will put a “?” next to their names until better information develops.

      Thanks for this help. Answer to your questions: 1) No, it is to look for solutions; and 2) scientists don’t do “facts” — we ask questions and look for possible answers. You’re welcome. Now grow up, get out of the basement, and seek some meaningful employment is my advice. And have enough spine to sign your real name when you publicly state your biases and opinions regarding real people and communities.

      Reply
      • Pateros was not burned down because of “grass”. This from a Californian more than likely who has no clue about what happens in WA and probably has never been here. DNR is to blame for the Carlton Fire. First of all while Goldmark was the DNR Commissioner he neglected all of the DNR lands and did zero fire prevention, mitigation and did not work with other agencies. We had 4 to 5 fires from a lightning storm both on DNR and private land that they did not put out. They lied to locals and land owners that were there putting the fires out that they need to leave as they have it under control. Land owners came back the next day… no trucks and no crews and fire growing larger. Several days later a wind event carried the fires and eventually combined them. Various fuels. All crews were told to stand down. No one was fighting the fires. Local landowners were getting arrested for bulldozing in an attempt to make firelines and save properties. The agencies were sitting around a round table in Twisp trying to figure out what to do. THAT is why Pateros burned down. INACTION!!! Fire was in Pateros while they were meeting 50 miles away. All crews standing down!! No one doing structure protection!! We lost our home we had just bought and know exactly why!! INACTION!! Gebbers finally got sick and tired of what was going on and got their crews and dozers out and fought the fire for them more than likely saving the town of Brewster! Everyone here knows what happened and how it happened. Now… we have a different set of rules for the area. Joel Kretz worked hard in Olympia working alongside of Hilary Franz and we have not only the Samaritan Law set up to where ANYONE CAN PUT OUT A FIRE ANYWHERE but also UNIFIED COMMAND between the USFS, DNR and local districts!! And Hilary has been doing mitigation for years now on DNR lands trying to undo the Goldmark reign neglect for decades!!

        Reply
        • Thanks Dagmar: I am sorry about your loss and experience, but these are the exact types of stories that we are trying to learn: what could have been done to prevent the fire, and what has been done to prevent a reoccurrence. A lesson for other communities and forest managers to consider.

          I added “DNR” to the “Forest Owner” column for Pateros, and it joins the 2020 Babb Road Fire as the lone entries in that category (and yes, I know that citizens technically own these properties and not government agencies).

          Reply
          • It is amazing how important the DNR Commissioner position really is. Our forest are a lot healthier because of the proactive work they have done under Hilary’s leadership. The FS also has joined in and now we also have Trex teams that are mostly native and they teach about wildfire while doing prescribed burning. The Colville’s, Selkirk’s and other tribes are joining in the prescribed burning each fall to spring. The USFS uses fires implementing prescribed burning in the plans around the areas of said fires under that gov contract. While prescribed burning can go awry as on the Pioneer Fire this year above Lake Chelan and they brought the fire down to Stehekin at the head of the lake… some of the area will benefit and may not be so prone to catching fire from lightning strikes. They have also been doing road improvements under the the fire contract. These past 2 months there is no fire anymore… however they have been doing all the roads on the Sawtooth within the Pioneer Fire jurisdiction and improving them. Leaving them open incl. the old opened dozer lines abandoning the “endless forest” concept. At least in this area and our mntns. here. So now we will have good access to the Sawtooth where there are roads and some off roads for future fires.

            Reply
        • I am actually extremely well versed in WA geography, ecology, and leadership (or lack thereof). I lived and worked there for a long time.

          There is very little “forest land”, or publicly state managed land, around Pateros.
          https://www.google.com/maps/place/Pateros,+WA/@48.0568442,-119.9356643,9541m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m6!3m5!1s0x549c81c37fa85a6f:0xe72cc9ef38510ed5!8m2!3d48.0509756!4d-119.9034008!16zL20vMDEwc2t2?hl=en&authuser=0&entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI0MTAwOC4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D
          WA DNR owned land is minimal around the town as well.
          https://caltopo.com/map.html#ll=48.05998,-119.93722&z=12&b=mbt&a=sma

          Goldmark was Commissioner for less time than Hilary, and far less politically-upward motivated.
          https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_State_Department_of_Natural_Resources

          Perhaps you should talk with Bob about her moves to cancel approved timber harvests in communities that need the tax revenue over what birds he would likely call “genetic losers” or some such thing (Marbeled Murullet, NSO).

          What did the private landowners do to fireproof their homes and property?

          Reply
          • I don’t need to present links to anything to prove my point. I lived it here! We lived it here! We know exactly why and how and what happened. The fires were all tree strikes which should have been taken care of immediately like they are now! DNR lied to everyone incl. Gebber’s crews and told them to leave and it will be taken care of and they were not. They festered and exploded when the wind event came in. They combined and caused a huge conflagration. DNR told everyone to stand down. No one fought the fire nor did structure protection except for home owners and civilians. Local districts tried but there were not enough of them as this fire turned into a monster. Everyone at the table was fighting! All agencies fought against each other. Both Joel Kretz and Hilary have done the leg work and worked hard at changing things here. Now under Unified Command… it does not matter who or where the fire is. Everyone shows up and fights it in their way. For example the Gold Creek Fire earlier this year started on private land from a mower. DNR, BLM, USFS and Local Districts all showed up and fought the fire. Pioneer Fire jurisdiction on the other side of the Sawtooth… sent their helicopters and called AA in. Sent dozers and ground crews. The AA was spectacular. It was non existent here in 2014 and 2015 as local district ICs were not able to call in AA. This is not CalFire that can whistle in AA immediately. They could not do that here but that has changed also. Our friend and lawyer is the Fire Commissioner here now and he told me that a gentleman that worked for the USFS lost his home also in the Carlton Fire, thought that DNR was idiotic and incompetant! So he worked himself out of the FS and joined DNR and works with our Local Fire District and does not hesitate to pick up the phone and call in AA. That is why things are much better now. One of the reason’s. The other is Hilary and local Districts incl. reservations have become very proactive in mitigation, pile burning and prescribed RXs. Goldmark did nothing but concentrate his attention on wetlands on the west side of the mountains while letting our lands here build up with downed trees and litter shoulder high! He was very much monetarily motivated and we called him on that in the meetings but he hemmed and hawed and had no answer for us. And would leave the meetings soon after they started as he is a coward and would not give any of us any answers! You were not here and have no clue what went down during and after the Carlton Fire. Gebber’s finally had enough of him and the DNR and told them to get out of the way and fought the fire themselves. They built Brewster and they were not going to allow it to burn like Pateros did. They also billed the DNR 2 million dollars and were awarded the money because DNR WAS IN THE WRONG!! And yes… now we have mostly grass in the area because the Carlton Fire decimated our forests. Personnel mitigation would not have mattered with this fire as the whole Golf Coarse burned down where we are. Our yard was rock and concrete. It still caught fire. We were here when the fire got here at 1 AM. Embers 2 inches long and winds into the 70s. Could not breathe for the thick smoke. All of our neighbors homes were on fire but we ran out of water. 7 engines sitting by the Methow River below our community and when we left we drove through the flames and when we saw them begged for them to save our home but they told us that all crews had been told to stand down.

            Reply
      • Very brave for someone with an “advanced degree” to publicly publish something as fact, with a highly inflammatory title and claims, as “science” and “fact”.
        1) Research. It is needed.
        2) Sierra Pacific. If you are so clued in on these things in your email list, it would be known. Putting something like this out there in public with such an inflammatory title and words, you would think the research would already be done.
        3) You want to live in the woods, and make dumb choices, you win dumb prizes.
        4) So you admit to pulling a Hanson and manipulating data and interpretations, in order to meet an agenda? Neither had anything to do with the USFS, the enemy in your inflammatory title and words.
        5) For the purveyor of a Map Co, it’s a map. CZU had nothing to do with federal land. 100% private. Research is needed, clearly.
        6) Again, you have an axe to grind with the USFS, or government in general clearly, but you can’t even get the facts straight. As others noted, you listed several communities in the Carr Fire that do not actually exist let alone have residences or inhabitants. Similar to the claims that older mining towns fulfill that the idea that the USFS is burning down towns in the West.
        7) If you had done proper research, you would understand the impacts of the Atlas Fire, versus what happened in Santa Rosa. Same area, same year (2017), much different settings. You have a PhD, but clearly don’t understand the way to do research, differentiate between ownerships, rural/urban divides, vegetation types, and why the peer review process is important before making stark public claims.
        8) Well, you may not be tracking those things, but they are indicative of anything but a “rural” area “burned down” by the “USFS” in “timber”. As you wrote, “…concern over the increasing number of rural towns being damaged or destroyed in forest fires”, does not apply there.
        9)They are on a map. I guess no different than naming an activity center for a northern Spotted Owl. No people exist in either one?
        10) Don’t assume you know my background and where I came from. I am anonymous, because early in my career I learned what happens when you speak out publicly, and your agency, or employer, decides not to back you up. Last time I checked, Forks nearly burned down due to historic drought and winds, from a human caused fire – despite at the time ,intensive human forest management.
        11) See another comment, or just look them up on Google Earth and CalTopo for surrounding ownership. Or do a GIS exercise.

        You throw around your name and degree with abandon as a matter of fact, while making outlandish claims. You clearly have an axe to grind with….almost everyone. Scientists do work in the realm of facts. If they didn’t, then it means that I can easily say everything you have ever written or said is just an opinion and worth as much.
        The problem is, you made a highly inflammatory post, title, statement, words, amongst many others in the past. So from one scientist to another, I feel compelled to respond.
        https://www.sierraforestlegacy.org/Resources/Conservation/FireForestEcology/IndustrialForestlands/Levine%20et%20al%202022%20Industrial%20forests.pdf

        Reply
        • Hi Anon: I’m through with your cowardly counter-productive b.s. If you want to continue to publicly attack real people while hiding behind a fake name, I’m through taking your stupid bait. Your feeble claim of being an irritating fake “because early in my career I learned what happens when you speak out publicly, and your agency, or employer, decides not to back you up.” Says it all. When you reveal your ignorance publicly as a real person, you are held accountable, so you spew crap from hiding. What a phony. Even your fake email address reveals you as a phony: [email protected]

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  4. Not sure the source of this data, but as a resident of Shasta County the town of Whiskeytown has not existed since it was inundated by the construction of Whiskeytown resoivoir in 1964. It definatly did not burn in the Carr Fire, as it did not exist in 2018. Did someone pull these town locations from historic USGS maps?

    Reply
    • Thanks Big Pondo: This is a “first cut” at developing a list that was compiled by several individuals from numerous sources and a key reason I posted here — for review and updating with corrections and additions. Like it says in the text.

      According to the National Park Service: “Three firefighters died, four civilians died, and over 1,000 homes and buildings were destroyed. With over 97 percent of Whiskeytown burned and over 100 structures (buildings, boats, etc.) within the park destroyed, the Carr Fire was the most destructive fire in the history of the National Park System.”

      Apparently, “Whiskeytown” is now short-hand for the “Whiskeytown National Recreation Area”: https://www.nps.gov/whis/learn/news/carrfire.htm

      Reply
      • Yep, the Carr fire was felt by all in Shasta county. Like another poster above mentioned the run into Redding occurred mainly on NPS and BLM land above French Gulch. It also jumped the Sacramento River, which illustrates that this was a fire driven more by extreme weather than just fuels alone.

        I’ll all for giving the FS their lumps, but we can’t really hang this one on them.

        Reply
        • Hi Big Pondo: My family moved to Redding in the 1960s before relocating to Texas, but I still have a niece and grand nephew who live there, and I think had to evacuate for that fire. It is amazing how far a fire can spot in advance — the 1902 Yacolt Fire and the 2017 Eagle Creek Fire both crossed the Columbia River where it is more than a mile wide. Pitchy snags left as “critical habitat” can operate as giant Roman candles during a wildfire and cast hundreds of flaming embers more than a mile in advance and are able to blow burning limbs thousands of feet into the air. The fact is that major wildfires often create their own “extreme weather,” including hurricane-force winds and thunderstorms with rain.

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  5. Thanks to all who have contributed to this discussion and to Bob for starting it. I’d like to think that this is a learning journey and we can all learn from each other without questioning motives, etc.

    In fact it reminds me of “joint fact-finding” an environmental conflict resolution technique
    https://www.pon.harvard.edu/daily/conflict-resolution/dispute-resolution-through-joint-fact-finding/

    It also reminds me of the power of truly listening to others and their experiences.

    “Perhaps one of the most precious and powerful gifts we can give another person is to really listen to them, to listen with quiet, fascinated attention, with our whole being, fully present. ”
    https://cac.org/daily-meditations/the-gift-of-deep-listening-2022-07-27/

    Reply
    • Thanks Sharon: This has been an excellent forum through the years for meaningful discussions, article reviews, and “joint fact-finding” in regards to forest management in general, and US Forest Service in particular.

      One of the surprising things for me with this post has been the lack of potential feedback regarding southern, northeastern, and midwestern towns that have burned in forest fires in the past 120 years. I’m personally unfamiliar with the forests and their histories for those regions, but I figured other readers and commenters might be helpful in those regards — I know there are a lot of mill towns and tree farms east of the Rockies, but I’m unaware of any major forest fires that have burned towns since Peshtigo, and possibly excepting the 1963 Pine Barren Fires in New Jersey.

      It is hard to imagine that this pattern will remain this prominent, but if it does then it is really remarkable how recently these events seemed to multiply, and how such a significant percentage are associated with National Forest wildfires.

      If this is actually a fairly

      Reply
        • Thanks Andy: This link also led to the Maine “Great Fires” of 1947, which apparently began in towns and spread to forests and then affected other towns. The Tennessee fires seem to be NPS-related, and so far I’m assuming the Maine fires were on private lands. Until more is learned, it still seems remarkable that such a series of USFS forest fires have been entering towns in the past 10 years — and mostly in communities directly affected by the NWFP.

          Reply
        • One of them started by 2 boys playing with fire at the Chimney tops. Watched that fire evolve on my computer. So may one way in roads where fire cut off and overtook people. Also not very much warning. One families husband took his son with him to town to see if he could get some information on the fire and meanwhile his wife and daughters were running from it and took cover in someone’s home but that burned also. I think one daughter was found on the road. I will never forget that!

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  6. When communities embrace the Firewise concept, they are making the effort to establish defensible space and work collectively with local, state and federal resources to prevent devastating fires in their areas. Too often smaller communities without any zoning or building codes/enforcement ignore the red flags until it is too late and then quickly turn and blame the nearest federal agency as they typically have the deepest pockets. Placing blame on the USFS (your title ‘The US Forest Service is destroying our western towns’) is disingenuous at best and horribly misleading at worst. Human caused climate change is the primary driver of the increased intensity, spread, and frequency of wildland fire across the globe and is not a unique problem found only in the United States. With the increase in fires, drought, extreme weather, and an increased population living in the wildland urban interface, you are bound to have more damage done to cities and towns, particularly those that do not take seriously the likelihood of wildfire. Many communities and organizations actively protest, and file lawsuits to prevent thinning, grazing, timber programs and prescribed fire in their areas and then complain when wildfire comes to their doorstep. The USFS has had its own issues having ‘lost’ a number of prescribed fires that went into the 10’s and 100’s of thousands of acres, destroying infrastructure, homes and businesses. It also doesn’t help that all the federal land management agencies are having difficulty recruiting and retaining firefighters; poor pay and benefits, no housing, longer seasons, no work/life balance. Your article starts an interesting and limited conversation, but your premise goes nowhere.

    https://www.nfpa.org/education-and-research/wildfire/firewise-usa

    Reply
    • Brian, I don’t agree that “Human caused climate change is the primary driver of the increased intensity, spread, and frequency of wildland fire across the globe and is not a unique problem found only in the United States.”

      I’m a fan of Firewise and it’s up to all of us, residents, communities, Tribes, States and Feds to work together.

      “Too often smaller communities without any zoning or building codes/enforcement ignore the red flags until it is too late and then quickly turn and blame the nearest federal agency as they typically have the deepest pockets.”

      That’s an interesting question about folks blaming the feds, although I think to get money from the feds they’d have to go against DOJ and prove negligence. Lawyers?

      In some cases, as you point out in New Mexico, towns are right to blame the feds, but I don’t think that they get any more $.

      You can disagree with Bob and here at TSW you don’t need to label his thoughts as “disingenuous” or “horribly misleading.”

      Reply
      • Thanks Sharon: But at least Brian has enough character to sign his own name to his opinions. I am in full agreement with you that his belief that “human caused climate change” is responsible for these fires is probably inaccurate. I would have him consider the actual evidence of when these fires started, where they are taking place, and who is managing the forests where these occur. The Forest Service was formed in large part to protect homes and communities from forest fires — we shouldn’t have to be in a position of having to protect ourselves from the Forest Service. I do agree about Firewise, though, and particularly given current conditions. It didn’t exist in the 1900s, though, because it wasn’t needed until the USFS abruptly changed direction.

        Reply
      • Sharon, Per Brian’s point: “Human caused climate change is the primary driver of the increased intensity, spread, and frequency of wildland fire across the globe and is not a unique problem found only in the United States.”

        That seems plausible to me. It doesn’t mean forest management and fire suppression hasn’t led to increased fuel loads which also have an impact. Fire seasons are longer, thus the potential for increased number of fires and longer burning fires before weather puts them out. Fuels are drier and weather is more severe, two factors for increased fire intensity.

        This is an interesting article about worsening forest fires globally. https://www.wri.org/insights/global-trends-forest-fires

        Reply
  7. Here is an interesting article I read in the Hotshot Substack I subscribe to…
    As multiple wildfires continue to burn across Montana and Idaho, leaders of those states have questioned the Forest Service about what a full suppression fire actually is and asked Chief Moore for clarification on the matter.

    Idaho Governor Brad Little spoke at the Land Board meeting, saying the Forest Service needed to increase containment on these fires and expressed frustration about the dead standing timber in Idaho’s Forests. “You need to be nice to the Forest Service… I don’t.”

    He brought up timber management, saying the Lava Fire took off because it got into Federal ground where the Tussock moths had killed off the Douglas Fir trees. In contrast, he continued that Idaho had mitigated that problem on its State ground. He also brought up the Wapiti fire in Stanley, saying the dead standing Lodge Pole Pine in the Forest led to increased fire growth.

    Montana Senator Steve Daines wrote to Forest Service Chief Randy Moore this week to clarify what a full suppression fire is and whether the Forest Service is standing by that definition. He also called for increased transparency about what actions happen on Fed fires and for building a clear wildfire management strategy with state and local firefighting partners.

    He was sympathetic to the ever present reality of reduced resources available to fight these fires as we move into mid-October with a National Preparedness Level of 5. Still, he pushed the Chief on his comments, saying, “The most effective strategies are collaboratively carried out at the local level.”

    But overall, Senator Daines reiterates that the transparency of what a full suppression fire is needs to be clarified.

    Reply

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