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In the line of fire Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/science/DailyNews/homesfires000811.htmlhttp://abcnews.go.com/sections/science/DailyNews/homesfires000811.html
In the Line of Fire
Homeowners’ Desire for Wilderness Setting Helps Fuel Wildfires
By Amanda Onion
Aug. 11 — On Wednesday, Clem Work and his family made a list of things they couldn’t stand to lose. Then they packed up their photographs, financial records and paintings and moved them to Clem’s office — away from their home near Missoula, Mont., and away from the reach of wildfires raging less than 35 miles south.
“It catches you up short to realize that fire could ruin your home,” said Work, a journalism professor at the University of Montana in Missoula. “There’s no immediate danger, but you never know.”
Seeking Out Rustic Settings
Like about 40 million other Americans, the Work family lives in a sparsely populated area near wild land vegetation. For many, these locations offer a rustic home setting. But as University of Montana forestry professor Ron Wakimoto points out, a house in a tree-filled setting is usually much more vulnerable to wildfire. And protecting these properties from wildfire can mean suppressing a natural cycle of smaller wildfires that are critical for burning up forest fuels and preventing uncontrollable infernos.
“People are seeking out of the way places to live where historic fire occurrences were pretty common,” he says. “That reinforces fire suppression quickly, and now when we have a year like this one, even more homes are in jeopardy.”
According to the National Interagency Fire Center, there are now 20 large fires burning in the state of Montana. So far those wildfires have scorched 300,000 acres and burned down 52 homes in the state. Nationwide, 65 large wildfires are now burning across nearly 100,000 acres.
Ecologists say nature has something to do with this year’s unusually busy fire season. In states like Oregon, Montana and Utah snowpack in the mountains was lower than normal. That meant there was less water runoff when the snow melted. And in many regions snow and ice melted so quickly under a warm spring that soils did not absorb as much water as they might otherwise.
“That led to a very dry season,” says William Ripple, a forestry professor at Oregon State University. “And then we had lightning.”
Officials estimate that about 90 percent of the 65 large wildfires now burning in the West were started as lightning struck parched land. But while nature may have started most of the fires, scientists say that a history of human development and fire suppression is what’s making these fires burn bigger and longer.
The CCC and Smokey
Just under a century ago, the first professional foresters started to believe that putting out natural wildfires might preserve land that could otherwise be logged or inhabited. Then in the 1930s, the Civilian Conservation Corps, created under President Franklin D. Roosevelt, provided the human power to begin putting out large numbers of small fires in the west.
“Then we brought Smokey the Bear into the picture and foresters had a very successful campaign to stop wildfires,” says Wakimoto. “And now we’re paying for it.” Fire ecologists also point out that past logging practices have made U.S. forests more vulnerable to fire as foresters took out large trees and left smaller, more volatile trees and brush behind. Although most foresters have revised those practices, it takes decades for forests to recover.
“By leaving the small trees, we’ve created forests that look like tinder boxes,” says Andy Stahl, director of the Association of Forest Service Employees for Environmental Awareness.
Ecologists have long argued that natural, smaller-sized wildfires are the best tool for taking out underbrush, small trees and dead wood on a regular basis. If small fires are suppressed and fuel is allowed to thicken, wildfires can build to colossal proportions, like the one that charred more than 1 million acres in Yellowstone National Park in 1988.
That growing danger is evident in statistics that show the number of wildfires destroying 1,000 acres or more in the United States has increased from 25 a year in 1984 to about 80 a year. And as more people move into more wooded settings, more homes have become vulnerable to wildfire. Officials estimate that across the United States the number of homes damaged by wildfires this past decade is six times higher than in the 1980s.
Aesthetics Can Invite Fires
In many cases, Wakimoto points out, the same aesthetic that draws people to wilderness setting also leads them to choose structural designs that make a home even more vulnerable to fire. Natural wood sidings, wooden decks and a stack of firewood nearby can make a home a veritable tinderbox.
Many homeowners also choose to let small trees and brush grow around their homes since they provide privacy and attract wildlife. But when wildfire approaches, those smaller trees also act as ladders that allow fires to climb up and reach the volatile crowns of larger trees.
Stahl argues it’s possible to build a fire-safe home in a wooded setting. He suggests homeowners install double panes in their windows to prevent the high winds of wildfires from breaking them and shooting burning embers inside. The right siding, he says, and keeping all brush and small trees cleared within 100 feet of a home can keep wildfires at bay.
He also says that attitudes need to change about the use of prescribed fire to prevent larger fires. Many homeowners have turned against the idea of prescribed burns since one set in Los Alamos, New Mexico, flared out of control in May and scorched hundreds of homes. Stahl points out that Native Americans and early settlers commonly set wildfires to clear land and to prevent larger fires from burning. And in the 1800s, the West was known as a smoky place in the summer when smaller wildfires were common.
“People don’t like the idea of regularly setting small managed fires because they produce smoke and because once in a while, they get out of control,” says Stahl. “But it’s the only way to return these forests to a more natural fire regime.”
Work, meanwhile, has done his best to keep fire from approaching his home in Pattee Canyon, Montana. He clears dry grass and keeps the meadow in front of his home mowed down.
“I don’t think we are in quite as much danger as the houses around us,” he says. “Still, you have to be careful.”
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