Wildfires

Brando CalPankian said:
I'm not getting a clear read, other than literal climate change, as to what is causing the fires. I'm not privy to Canadian politics/management practices.

Why is this happening? What can actually be done?
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I don't know as much about Canadian forestry either...but I suspect their situation isn't drastically different than ours...decades of underbrush built up, no removals, suppressing small fires that would burn that in smaller portions so that when (not if) it burns, it gonna be big.

Not that these aren't bad...but they aren't the Thumb Fire or Peshtigo Fire (and others associated with that larger complex...same time as the big Chicago fire in 1871, but somewhere between 4x-10x the number of people lost their lives there compared to the Chicago fire) or Great Fire of 1910 in Idaho/Montana.
 
ATH said:
I don't know as much about Canadian forestry either...but I suspect their situation isn't drastically different than ours...decades of underbrush built up, no removals, suppressing small fires that would burn that in smaller portions so that when (not if) it burns, it gonna be big.

Not that these aren't bad...but they aren't the Thumb Fire or Peshtigo Fire (and others associated with that larger complex...same time as the big Chicago fire in 1871, but somewhere between 4x-10x the number of people lost their lives there compared to the Chicago fire) or Great Fire of 1910 in Idaho/Montana.
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That's what I'm seeing, it's a fragmented issue. There's hundreds (nearly a thousand) small fires. And Canada is HUGE, remote, and rugged.

Are the fires happening in managed (or previously managed) areas? Managing underbrush is easier said than done in many areas. Is the answer an army of skid mounted mulchers?
 
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I did a post in a previous fire season explaining that the Canadian forest stretches coast to coast and is so huge that the entire population spread over it couldn't make a dent. And then do what? Cut/rake dead/dry into piles - dump them in a lake? Or do what with it? Nature composts if it's not too hot/bone dry.

The Trump rake concept is right up there with shining a light up your butt for Covid. Sorry I'm tired.


For translating the news article 260 hectares is a square mile.
 
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Bart_ said:
I did a post in a previous fire season explaining that the Canadian forest stretches coast to coast and is so huge that the entire population spread over it couldn't make a dent. And then do what? Cut/rake dead/dry into piles - dump them in a lake? Or do what with it? Nature composts if it's not too hot/bone dry.

The Trump rake concept is right up there with shining a light up your butt for Covid. Sorry I'm tired.


For translating the news article 260 hectares is a square mile.
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Yeah there's no "cleaning up the woods". Mismanagement from cutovers is one thing... Who wants the woods to look like a park?
That's the key, dry weather and dead soil.
 
Brando CalPankian said:
I'm not getting a clear read, other than literal climate change, as to what is causing the fires. I'm not privy to Canadian politics/management practices.

Why is this happening? What can actually be done?
Click to expand...
The video posted by @Teubor said a massive lightning event on July 6. Also said smoke can actually inhibit rain. I thought that interesting. I would have guessed (wrongly!) that the smoke particles give something for the moisture to grab and fall from the sky.
 
I understand the lightning strikes and how smoke can affect weather patterns. I guess my question is, is that truly enough to cause the massive fire patterns we've been seeing over the last 10-15 years? It feels utterly hopeless. I've watched as the PNW and Inland NW keep burning more and more. The Spokane area is completely changed by it. The WA peninsula is changed by it. Now I'm in Minnesota, supposed to be wet AF, and it's getting drier and drier here. There's more and more fires.

It's often blamed on fire suppression or lack of maintenance, but that feels way too thin. Climate change as a whole, sure. But categorizing symptoms hasn't quite brought us to conclusions on how to help. Is the soil sponge in areas that far gone?

And exactly, the case for physical management of one of the largest continuous stretches of forest is utterly insane. To manage it would require more fragmentation of the forest, further degrading its capacity.

It sucks. Not very fun to watch.
 
Brando CalPankian said:
That's what I'm seeing, it's a fragmented issue. There's hundreds (nearly a thousand) small fires. And Canada is HUGE, remote, and rugged.

Are the fires happening in managed (or previously managed) areas? Managing underbrush is easier said than done in many areas. Is the answer an army of skid mounted mulchers?
Click to expand...
The boreal forest is the absolute largest, basically think all the worlds largest forests can fit inside it. Also incredibly remote with a lack of resources.
Sure there are some population centers but that’s just a fraction of the county.. throw in some politics and the shit show up there is worse than here.
Sure there is the timber extraction and miss management but their suppression efforts in natural areas are also going up in smoke’n’ash. Literally we cannot manage our way outta this one.
 
Evo said:
The boreal forest is the absolute largest, basically think all the worlds largest forests can fit inside it. Also incredibly remote with a lack of resources.
Sure there are some population centers but that’s just a fraction of the county.. throw in some politics and the shit show up there is worse than here.
Sure there is the timber extraction and miss management but their suppression efforts in natural areas are also going up in smoke’n’ash. Literally we cannot manage our way outta this one.
Click to expand...
Are the fires worse in intensity than in the past? Or are they simply more numerous and remote? Additionally, if they really aren't as intense as claims make it seem, is the issue now that media spreads the information quickly, and there are simply more people being affected by the impacts of the fires (I.e leaders threatening tariffs because of smoke).

Additionally, will the trend continue across the globe? We've seen the Amazon, Russians Boreal, and Southern Europe burn vast swaths in recent years.

Lastly, will the fires burning through Canadian forests help prevent future fires, or is it degrading the ecosystem and contributing more problems to the future?
 
Brando CalPankian said:
The most succinct summary I've found. Not mine, stolen from LinkedIn because it raised points I never thought of.
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Thank you for posting that. If those numbers are accurate, and I hope they are, that is really quite enlightening. I knew that the population of the United States was far greater than that of Canada, but I did not realize there was such a tremendous difference in population density. I also had no idea that the US has had 10 times as many fires as Canada, probably a lot of that has to do with the population density difference. There are too many foolish people hiking around in the woods in the US starting fires.
 
Reach said:
Thank you for posting that. If those numbers are accurate, and I hope they are, that is really quite enlightening. I knew that the population of the United States was far greater than that of Canada, but I did not realize there was such a tremendous difference in population density. I also had no idea that the US has had 10 times as many fires as Canada, probably a lot of that has to do with the population density difference. There are too many foolish people hiking around in the woods in the US starting fires.
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That...and a large % of US forests border desert conditions so the fuel moisture contents are likely much lower.
 
Reach said:
Thank you for posting that. If those numbers are accurate, and I hope they are, that is really quite enlightening. I knew that the population of the United States was far greater than that of Canada, but I did not realize there was such a tremendous difference in population density. I also had no idea that the US has had 10 times as many fires as Canada, probably a lot of that has to do with the population density difference. There are too many foolish people hiking around in the woods in the US starting fires.
Click to expand...
I looked at the fire maps from June 30 - July 5 that told me all I needed to know..
 
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