🧵 THREAD: 1. Scientists, experts & we journalists love to write about how immediately extinguishing every wildfire is dangerous & why more fires should be allowed to burn. They're not necessarily wrong but such discussions often miss the practical challenges of doing so. - ThreadSky

tyolsen.bsky.social • 77 days ago

🧵 THREAD: 1. Scientists, experts & we journalists love to write about how immediately extinguishing every wildfire is dangerous & why more fires should be allowed to burn. They're not necessarily wrong but such discussions often miss the practical challenges of doing so.

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tyolsen.bsky.social•77 days ago

2. For 50 years, BC's gov't has been reminded that fire plays an important role in ecosystems by clearing away fuel. One fire may not prevent or stop subsequent fires, but almost as a rule, they do tend to reduce their intensity. And it's the intense, uncontrollable blazes that do all the damage.

tyolsen.bsky.social•77 days ago

3. Those reminders have become increasingly frequent in recent years, as more extreme fire seasons have ravaged BC's forests. At the same time, BC's wildfire service has become more aggressive in immediately extinguishing fires, one BCWS fire expert told me. But there's a decent reason for that.

tyolsen.bsky.social•77 days ago

4. The problem is that even though most experts WANT to allow fires to chew through underbrush to reduce the fuel load in forests, it's become increasingly dangerous to actually do so. The 2023 Kookipi Creek fire was a prime example of how a seemingly unthreatening blaze could become a monster

tyolsen.bsky.social•77 days ago

5. The state of BC's climate in the 2020s is making it more dangerous to allow potentially useful fires to do their work. As
@johnvaillant.bsky.social and Mike Flannigan have documented, today's climate creates far more of the 'fire weather' days that see significant fire spread.

tyolsen.bsky.social•77 days ago

6. So a fire 20km from anything of value today has a much greater chance of eventually encountering weather that might push it towards homes or properties. So allowing such fires to burn becomes more risky. At the same time, it's also more risky NOT to allow the fires to perform their natural role.

tyolsen.bsky.social•77 days ago

7. This Catch 22 is one of the central dilemmas for BC's wildfire crews in 2024 but hasn't gotten enough attention. We journalists love the "use fire to fight fire" story. We also will air residents' complaints when a fire that was allowed to burn takes off and burns buildings but...

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