Month: April 2020

The major topics of week 2 that stand out are the overwhelming cost increase of wildfires and the different agencies or organizations that are in place for support. Over the years these types of agencies have a total new look and ability to assist. There has been many times where suppression costs are more than available funds meaning the US forest service and department of the interior must transfer funds from other departments to lend a hand. When there are not sufficient funds it effects other agencies greatly causing them to supply funds inn times of need. There must be some type other approaches to paying for wildfires. The author of US GAO states, The forest service and interior had transferred almost $3 billion from other programs causing them to suffer as well. Congress can reimburse these companies however, this comes at the cost of tax payers and other supporting companies. There once was a single reforestation fund to draw funds from but now the more contributors the better. The overall costs of woodland fire are closely but not copley related to the amount of acreage burned. It really depends on the location being burnt at the time and the variability of fire intensity or behavior. In modern times, the costs of woodland firefighting is clearly going to continue to increase. Even when wildfires decrease, with he increasing populations and woodland urban interfaces can cause costs to skyrocket. As stated in, “Getting burned: A taxpayers guide to wildfire suppression costs,” in the 2000’s the US has already spent over $1.4 billion in suppression relief with the number to continuing to climb. To put that into perspective in the 1970’s we only spent $420 million.

During the growing industrializations that have happened across the globe, wildfires are being looked at as something negative. Companies and growing towns want to be protected to they chose to suppress fire as quickly as they saw smoke rise in the air. The suppressed fires means the protection of product for loggers and towns won’t have to worry about flames putting them in danger. In fact, this is allowing forest fuels to become overgrown and increase danger for future fires that may come through a certain area. Fires are a natural part of the ecosystem and how many nutrients are recycled and reused for new life to spring up. When the woodland fires are taken out of the equation for certain areas of protection it will cause a greater danger for those areas in future dates. Land mangers need to realize that many ecosystems require fires to thrive and must abandon the policy of fire exclusions. For modern and future fire suppression techniques, the only way we can combat the ever changing landscapes and weather is mixing suppression techniques. This means multiple agencies must be able to work together to achieve a task favoring everyone. Prescribed burning, thinning, pruning, and making of fire breaks in wilderness areas will greatly help prevent and slow future fires. People in the modern world have to be educated and understand that some fires are good and must burn while others that threaten lives can be suppressed. Letting the natural fire occurrences in a certain areas can benefit the ecosystem and the communities surrounding it.

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