7 ms·
"Being better at fighting fires, though, is not enough." Yeah, it's nowhere near enough. We need to seriously revamp how we manage forests. They must be regula
by world2vec 2mo ago
"Being better at fighting fires, though, is not enough."
Yeah, it's nowhere near enough. We need to seriously revamp how we manage forests. They must be regularly cleaned, huge fire breaks between fenced areas and roads must be created and maintained. Prescribed burns on a regular schedule. Houses cannot be too close to the trees, no matter how pretty it looks. A huge clean radius must be maintained between houses and trees and between properties. All this work must be done in the winter and everything must be prepared for the summer. Every year. Everywhere.
I see none of this happening at a proper scale in my country (Portugal). So of course every summer we se huge forest fires. Lives lost, ecosystems destroyed. Next year it happens again...
It's only going to get worse.
- Carrok 2mo ago> All this work must be done in the winter and everything must be prepared for the summer. Every year. Everywhere. Good luck doing any work in the winter in places like, oh say, the Rocky Mountains.
- bluGill 2mo agoEvery forest has different needs. OP is in Portugal, I don't know much about forest there, but the plan seems reasonable for there. The Rocky Mountains need a different plan, but it isn't much different.
- Carrok 2mo agoPortugal is 35k square miles. The Rockies are 300k square miles, much of it, notably, is mountainous. I do not think “cleaning” it is going to work, so I’m curious what this “not much different” plan looks like.
- bluGill 2mo agoSee a forester. I would not assume the entire Rockies need the same plan. In general I would say start fires near towns, and let fires that start elsewhere burn.
- mrspuratic 2mo agoPortugal has about 10% forested land, of which an estimated 25% is non-native eucalyptus (an active pyrophyte), and over 50% in some areas. I've seen the aftermath of eucalyptus forest fires while travelling through Alentejo.
- s_dev 2mo ago>They must be regularly cleaned People keep reiterating this probably because Trump keeps reiterating but it just sounds ridiculous. How do you clean forests? The debris is part of the forest, not all areas of a forest are easily accessible or feasible to transport debis out of there. A dead tree is actually an ecosystem of fungi and insects. Cleaning it may make it more fire prone as broken sticks and leaves shield the ground from the sun allowing the soil to hold on to moisture a little longer. There is plenty of room for nuance here. I would need to listen to actual experts on this, the correct solution is probably something akin to resorting wetlands and beavers which act as fantastic self maintaining fire breaks. However when you suggest things like this you see the actual issues pop up, local farmers protest and others using NIMBY laws to block so they get payouts.
- BurningFrog 2mo agoPrescribed burns are a good way to clean forests! Burn the debris every 10-20 years rather than let it accumulate and become unstoppable disaster fires once a century. This tends to be very hard hard to do in a democratic system though. People really don't like their forests burning.
- czinck 2mo agoPrescribed burns are a good tool, but they're not a silver bullet. Because of the decades without fires, there's so much debris that fires burn incredibly hot, so you either need people to go in and thin the debris (this is actually a thing they do, as ridiculous as "cleaning the forest" sounds), or deal with the extra damage and risk of a very hot fire. Then you need a decent amount of personnel to make sure the fire doesn't get out of hand (and they regularly do), and do it when the weather is right (wet season, low winds). A prescribed burn is still a forest fire, with all the risks, it's just one that's started at a time and place we control.
- illiac786 2mo agoI find it ironic to discuss how burning forests is going to help fight the consequences of… too much CO2?
- raffael_de 2mo agobeing good at fighting fires is part of the problem as that allows people to keep natural limited area fires from happen regularly and then eventually you get one huge fire.
- lofaszvanitt 2mo agoI think most of the fires are in manmade forests, where puffer space is nonexistent.
- Arodex 2mo agoAnd what is you suggestion for the lack of rain everywhere? https://www.rts.ch/info/regions/fribourg/2026/article/secheresse-en-suisse-des-eleveurs-obliges-de-redescendre-les-troupeaux-29316753.html https://www.rts.ch/info/regions/fribourg/2026/article/secher... Making your forests "fireproof" isn't going to save you from desertification.