The destruction of the town of Greenville by the Dixie Fire recalls President Trump’s admonition that Californians needed to rake their forests. This may seem ridiculous, but this is the role of Mother Nature and Indigenous peoples in balancing organic matter accumulation. Herbivory, decomposition, or burning offset photosynthesis—biomass cannot increase infinitely. Greenville’s burning is instructive. The massive fire overwhelmed the combined efforts of the worlds two biggest fire suppression agencies—CALFIRE and the United States Forest Service. Thousands of firefighters and their tank trucks, working with hundreds of waterbombers and helicopters could only gently direct, not block the advance of the burn. Where firefighting was successful, it often depended on previous efforts to manage fuels, or from Trump’s perspective —raking the leaves.
So, that in a “roof to region” fire risk landscape “leaf raking” is obviously important brings us to three fundamental questions:
- Where will we reduce fuel by manual or mechanical means versus fire?
- How is fuel reduction work going to be paid for, especially where this is very expensive?
- Who is this going manage this process, especially where it abuts communities with high risk?
This will evolve over time, but a community centered perspective will always be important.
In closing, we can consider a classic baseball quote used by a veteran southwest fire ecologist (was it from Babe Ruth or Yogi Bear?)
“You need to rake your own leaves.”
… and from another southwest fire ecologist (these folks see alot of fire):
“Mother Nature bats last.”