From the piece that Steve W. posted earlier from the NY Times “the ponderosas are all gonna die” op-ed.
The government should treat this situation as deeply threatening to the habitability of the West. But as heat and drought battered the region this spring, the federal government, utterly dismissive of climate change, was shredding an astonishing number of forest-related conservation efforts. At the end of March, the Trump administration introduced a reckless plan to restructure the Forest Service, gutting much of the scientific research into how we might mitigate the effects of climate change on public forests. The threatened (or in some cases, abandoned) studies looked at climate-related insect and tree disease and wildfire behavior essential to public safety.
Again, watch for elision, in this case restructuring (not necessarily affecting research programs) vs. zeroing it out (which would obviously have a substantial impact on all kinds of research). Plus, think about this, neither D nor R states are doing anything too differently about something “deeply threatening to the habitability of the west” which, to me, would draw into question whether they agree with Mr. Ferguson. And yes, states have responsibilities both in wildfire, in forest health, and in reforestation. You’d think an organization like the Western Governors might be interested in a situation “deeply threatening to the habitability of the West.” But hey, I know, it’s only an op-ed.
Efforts to make prescribed burns more effective in the face of climate change have also been slashed.
What does this even mean? I’d think targets of prescribed fire projects (reducing fuels, not killing lots of big trees, not escaping) are somewhat invariant to the predictions of climate models. Maybe not?
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Given the ponderosa’s striking reputation for resilience, it’s possible that in a century or two some of these lost forests might make a comeback. But that depends on whether we humans can muster some resilience of our own. It will mean keeping alive our commitment to find more sustainable ways of living: increasing solar and wind power, retrofitting commercial buildings to make them more energy efficient and transitioning to electric vehicles.
Hmm. It seems like this individual has overlooked some other alternatives to dealing more directly with the issue, e.g. mechanical treatment, prescribed fire, and planting trees.
“It’s awful, all our cars are breaking down!”
“Why don’t you increase the number of mechanics available?
“the only solution is to move everyone closer to where they want to go”
Another way I look at these stories is “I don’t know what’s going to happen, but I (Sharon) also know you don’t know what’s going to happen either, so why are you spouting off with such (unreasonable) assurance?
On my way to a volunteer gig this morning I stopped to take the above photo. I thought it would be interesting if people could send in their own photos of ponderosa regeneration from around the West.
To do this, or to load other photos in comments, here is the process I use to put a photo in a comment. It is very kludgy and maybe a more technologically adept TSW reader can suggest another approach.
- Get a free account on WordPress.com
- In your account, start a fake post. You will see a tab for “add media” somewhere (I use the classic editor of WordPress but you should see something like that even with the other version.)
- Add your photo or photos.
- You should have tabs that say “visual” and “code.”
- Go to the code tab.
- Copy the weird writing (it’s called html) and put it in your comment.
- Voila, your photo should show up!
Please let me know if you have trouble with this approach, and certainly if there’s an easier way.
Pondos are doing fine in Oregon, biggest threats are Fire and Environmentalists, not necessarily in that order!
Hey Doug., maybe you could embellish your intelligent comment with some supporting data. But maybe your just a philosopher, who doesn’t use data to back up your positions.
perhaps attach some photos of regen and where you took them?
Thanks Sharon for telling us how to add a photo, think you told me this before… I will try it on my submissions to you.
I wondered how to add a photo; I don’t have one handy but might post a picture of my moose, or Smokey and the Bandit (my two dogs)…..🤣
Doug, I like your analysis and synthesis….👍🤣
Somewhere, I have an old picture from near Lake Arrowhead, on the San Bernardino NF. I the 2003 picture, every single ponderosa pine tree was dead. Since most of the area in the picture is private land, I’m sure that all those snags had to be cut down.
Here’s the aerial view. https://www.google.com/maps/@34.2558695,-117.3048491,485m/data=!3m1!1e3?authuser=0&entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI2MDUxMC4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D
Some imaginary war with the bark beetle on the Black Hills National Forest is really more a fight for clean water because after all dead trees don’t suck aquifers dry. Until forest managers and South Dakota’s congressional delegation get that they are being preyed upon by the Neimans to take legacy trees and leave the doghair for someone else to deal with because they aren’t focused on hardwood release, prescribed fire and restoring the Hills bioregion to what it was 150 years ago.
Former US Forest Service Chief Randy Moore told a congressional committee that before widespread settlement in the West populations of ponderosa pine were about forty per acre but are as high as 600 per acre today so every incident like the Calf Canyon and Hermits Peak Fire is a teaching moment. These are episodes where humans are humbled by climate disruptions created by our own failures. But sitting around waiting for a few lightning-caused wildfires to fix a century of human mistakes on the Santa Fe National Forest will burn thousands more houses in the wildland-urban interface or WUI.
Dense stands of water-sucking, heat island-creating ponderosa pine concentrate volatile organic compounds or VOCs that become explosive under hot and dry conditions. The aerosols are like charcoal starter fumes just waiting for a spark. Ponderosa pine sucks billions of gallons from aquifer recharges, needles absorb heat and accelerate snow melt while aspen leaves reflect sunlight in the summer months and hold snowpacks in winter. Insects like the mountain pine beetle and spruce bud worm can help promote drought resistant and fire tolerant species like aspen.