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1 of 3 Premium Clicks used this month SUBSCRIBE Print + Online Subscriber Activation | Register x Forgot Password | Need an Account? subscribe | newsletter | deals Classifieds Jobs Autos Real Estate FEATURED » NEWS NOW Ticket availability ... As It Was: 'Infidel Hall' in Talent hosted 'Mental Library' ... Applications for marijuana dispensaries increase ... Ticket availability ... As It Was: 'Infidel Hall' in Talent hosted 'Mental Library' ... Applications for marijuana dispensaries increase ... ENVIRONMENT Scientist: We need to learn to live with wildfires Comment By John Darling For the Tidings DailyTidings.com By John Darling For the Tidings Posted Jul. 7, 2015 at 8:26 PM Updated Jul 7, 2015 at 8:27 PM By John Darling For the Tidings Posted Jul. 7, 2015 at 8:26 PM Updated Jul 7, 2015 at 8:27 PM --> What do you think?Have an opinion on this story? Send a letter to the editor at www.dailytidings.com/sendletter » Read more X What do you think? Have an opinion on this story? Send a letter to the editor at www.dailytidings.com/sendletter » Social News In this era of increasing climate change, the West is going to see more drought and more heat — and therefore, more fire. The key to coping with this is not endless aerial bombing of retardants, but letting this fire-adapted ecosystem burn, eschewing salvage-logging and creating fire-defensible zones in the urban-forest interface — and to back off from use of fossil fuels. That’s what the latest science says, according to Dominick DellaSala, Ph.D., president and chief scientist for Geos Institute in Ashland and lead author of the book, “The Ecological Importance of Mixed-Severity Fires: Nature’s Phoenix,” a 450-page book just published by Elsevier. “No matter where you look in the world,” says DellaSala, “you see nature is very resilient and that fire is not an ecological disaster … but is good for wildlife and plants.” When he and his 10-year old daughter hiked Grizzly Peak a decade after the Antelope East fire, he notes, she exulted over richness of flora and fauna — butterflies, bees, woodpeckers, saplings, the mountain bluebird and “if a 10-year old can see it, how can decision-makers from the Forest Service and BLM not see the ecological value of not salvage logging this?” After a fire, science is unanimous, says DellaSala, that the forest soil and ecosystem is in a sensitive state of rejuvenation. If salvage logging is done, he adds, it compacts and damages the soil to the point that the forest won’t grow back in a human lifetime. Salvage logging creates big slashpiles, he notes, and such logging debris, along with new tree farms, “explode” in the next fire and contribute to so-called catastrophic fires. The snags left after a burn have a role to play in the rejuvenation of the forest and, he says, “though they may think they’re doing a good thing (salvage logging), it leads to uncharacteristic fires that are hot and big.” The third big element in DellaSala’s new fire paradigm is that, instead of retardant bombing the region, “We have to take on this notion of coexisting with fire in the West” and protecting homes in the urban-forest interface by clearing out fuel within a couple hundred feet, pruning branches that touch a home, covering chimneys with vents so embers can’t get in and creating a defensible space around homes. Any watershed must be viewed also as a “fire shed” with the community cooperating, before fires, to protect all in the fire shed. If the fire shed community does this, he says, chances of being burned drop 90 percent. DellaSala pulls up an aerial photo of Anderson Creek, where he lives, with a 200-foot circle around each home. Only his and one other home are cleared of nearby fuels. DellaSala warns that “as climate change unfolds, we’re going to see more and more fire. As we pump more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, we’re going to have more drought — and fires track drought.” It’s true we have fewer fires now than the pioneers, who lacked any technology to suppress fires, he notes, adding that retardant does control 98 percent of fires in an average year, but the 2 percent that escape containment burn are responsible for half the forests burned. That may sound like a prescription for more retardant bombing, but DellaSala says increased warming “will make extreme weather events be the norm. Fire suppression will get less and less effective because of global warming. “If you’ve got drought, low humidity and high winds, you may as well toss all that (fire suppression) money out the airplane window.” DellaSala disparages the call for more thinning of forests, with harvesting of smaller diameter of trees, noting that such thinned forests burned just as hot as the rest. Such new forest and fire management ideas have not taken root, he says, as “there is a real disconnect … the agencies have so much pressure on them to log. They’re just going to log first and ask questions later, if they ask questions. It’s a tug of war now.” One of the book’s author-scientists, Timothy Ingalsbee, director of the nonprofit Firefighters United for Safety, Ethics and Ecology in Eugene, says, “The aggressive fire suppression and aggressive timber salvage of the past has been very damaging to ecological communities and the people related to them. Wildfire suppression is a complete money loser and that’s what’s changing the debate. We’re bankrupting the Forest Service over it. Most timber sales are done at a loss to taxpayers.” Nine-year old Geos, according to its motto, helps people predict, reduce and prepare for climate change. “We are the first responders, trying to make sure all hell doesn’t break loose,” DellaSala says. “I see more and more people waking up, although there’s still an awful lot of denial among political leaders." With plenty of wildfire already burning in the West and starting much earlier than usual, it’s indicative of a definite climate signal, he says. “We’re seeing more intense storms due to more heat energy being pumped into the atmosphere. The more heat, the more drought and the more fire. If we throw up our hands and walk away, it’s going to be much worse for the next generation. Drought and lack of snowpack are going to become bigger issues than fire. After this record-breaking summer, more people are going to say something weird is going on. It should be called global weirding, the mix of fire, drought, hurricanes, sea level rise.” The book, says DellaSala, has a lot of science and footnotes and can be read by the lay person, but is especially intended as a debate changer for Congress, the press and federal agencies. He and Chad T. Hanson, Ph.D., director of the John Muir Project of the Earth Island Institute, authored six chapters and the preface, and edited the writings of 25 other scientists who contributed. The book was peer-reviewed. It’s $89 on Amazon. John Darling is an Ashland freelance writer. Reach him at [email protected]. By John Darling For the Tidings DailyTidings.com By John Darling For the Tidings Posted Jul. 7, 2015 at 8:26 PM Updated Jul 7, 2015 at 8:27 PM » Comment or view comments Reader Reaction » STAY INFORMED Email NewsLetter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. Southern Oregon Directory Featured Businesses Loading... 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