[Stoves] brush fires

[Ronal W. Larson]

Chuck and list:

	I have just responded to this important fires suppression topic on the biochar policy list.

Ron


On Sep 21, 2015, at 8:26 PM, Chuck Martins <cmartins at mcn.org> wrote:

> 
> On Sep 21, 2015, at 12:04 PM, Ronald Hongsermeier wrote:
> 
>> Hi Kirk,
>> 
>> back in the late 80's I lived in California during the end of the last major drought cycle there. I watched the levels in the reservoirs above Fresno and Bakersfield go down to nearly creek levels. The idea of virgin forests is one that dies hard among the green activists. Buffer zones where wood and brush and dry grasses can be harvested -- even for the express purpose of  fire suppression -- is unpopular because it goes against Mother Nature being the highest value and Nature only really being of value when it is pristine as in "untouched by humankind". That uncontrolled fuel accumulation leads to uncontrollable fires is a thought that goes cross-grain to the Nature religion's orthodoxy. Unluckily, both humans and all other forms of biodiversity  cook similarly when forest-fired!
> Hey Ron,
> it wasn't green activists that caused massive fuel build-up in US forest lands.  It was (and to a slightly lesser degree, still is) due to forest management practices.  In the old days, a fire on the forest meant that harvestable resources would be lost, therefore suppression was the chosen method to preserve those valuable resources.  In parkland, the viewshed was also placed higher than the health of the forest and suppression became the name of the game. 70+ years later (in the late 1980's/early nineties) we finally began to recognize the folly in total suppression but the fire has been laid in the hearth and there isn't much that can be done about it now.  A legacy of 8 decades of fire suppression has lead to populating areas that are not easily preserved in the case of wildfire which leads to more suppression activities and kicks the ball down the road.
> 
> Policy created the problem, not greenies this time.
> chuck (wildland firefighter from CA in the years '86-'91).
> _______________________________________________
> Stoves mailing list
> 
> to Send a Message to the list, use the email address
> stoves at lists.bioenergylists.org
> 
> to UNSUBSCRIBE or Change your List Settings use the web page
> http://lists.bioenergylists.org/mailman/listinfo/stoves_lists.bioenergylists.org
> 
> for more Biomass Cooking Stoves,  News and Information see our web site:
> http://stoves.bioenergylists.org/
>