Stop reacting to wildfire ignitions and take the initiative to actively manage fire. Fuel treatments must greatly increase. Controlled burn, chip, masticate, thin-pile-burn, all of it. Staff both fire suppression and fuels treatment with well-trained, well-paid crews, with meteorologists and other specialists.
Burn understories in mixed conifer forests. It has worked for millennia. Do it on days when unstable atmospheric conditions lift the smoke away. Do it in strategic locations that will actually meet wildfire where it is most likely to occur. Do it to restore forest resilience. But do it.
Zoning must be based on science. Building codes must be based on science. Funding for fire research must be stable and plentiful. We need answers.
— Mail Tribune
