USA: Three underrated ideas for preventing wildfire devastation

By Francie Diep

Pacific Standard spoke with three California residents, all of whom have interesting, well-supported, yet often little-known ideas for wildfire prevention strategies that go a bit deeper than tree removal. It remains to be seen whether their proposed policies are politically and financially feasible, but, in the meantime, the ideas reveal overlooked reasons why the West's wildfires are worsening, and what we can do about it. 

The inevitable wildfire: Max Mortitz

People need to start thinking of wildfires the way they do tornadoes and earthquakes, says Max Moritz: as inevitable natural disasters. That means spending more time and money on getting governments to build with more foresight on fire-prone land, and on convincing homeowners to retrofit their houses to be more fire-proof. Both Congress and the public often focus on preventing fires, or taking steps to reduce their severity, Moritz says. While important, that ignores the reality for many parts of the state.

"We can no more prevent fires on these landscapes that have been burning naturally for thousands of years than we can prevent earthquakes," says Moritz, a fire-risk researcher with the University of California system. Before extensive human settlement, many areas of California naturally burned every several years to several decades, depending on the ecosystem. Fire was so regular that some native plants evolved so that they won't germinate until their seeds are bathed by fire.

"We can, as a society, take steps to make sure that the exposure and the damage that gets caused by fires like this is less," Mortiz says. "The idea that we can somehow keep fire from happening is unrealistic, and I think the sooner we get past that idea, the sooner we can start looking at real, comprehensive solutions."

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