Why You Can't Rake America Great Again
Suddenly, everyone on the Internet purports to be an expert in forest management. Various memes, rants, and ill-advised presidential opinions are seeking a bogeyman to blame for the deadly wildfires in California. This is my attempt to bring something rational to that conversation.
The Theory: Controlled Burns Could Have Prevented the Fires
As far as crackpot conspiracy theories go, this one actually holds water. In forests, it’s not big, mature trees that contribute to wildfire, it’s brush and debris—and yes, sometimes even dry leaves. Controlled burns are an effective tool for reducing these fuel loads.
The Reality: You Can’t Burn Everything
There are a couple of big, obvious problems with using controlled burns for fire prevention:
1. They’re expensive;
2. They’re vastly limited in area.
The U.S. Forest Service is going broke trying to fight fires right now. And when the firefighting budget is blown, extra money is drawn from the fire prevention budget. I’m sure you can see the problem: as the Forest Service spends more money fighting fires, it has less money to spend preventing them. This is clearly unsustainable.
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