Fuel Loads Are At Dangerous Levels
Many decades of fire suppression and logging have increased the fuel load of our forests to a dangerous level.
Native Americans were forbidden to conduct the burning practices that formerly helped to keep forests and grasslands in productive balance. Logging practices left fire-prone slash and vulnerable brushy new growth. Runaway growth of young trees and brush has clogged forests that would have been kept clear by frequent low intensity fires. The extreme weather events caused by climate change have made things much worse.
In the picture to the left, brushy undergrowth and low hanging limbs provide an easy route for fire to “ladder” its way into the canopy.
We Must Adapt
We must adapt our lives—our homes, our forests, our planning for emergencies—to this danger
There is a lot that we can do to make ourselves, our homes, and our forests safer!
In the picture to the right, the “ladder” fuel has been removed. A fire here is more likely to burn on the ground and not burn fiercely in the canopy.
What You Can Do
Defensible Space
Protect your home by creating defensible space around it
Home Hardening
Protect your home through home hardening--working to make it more
resistant to catching on fire.
Landscape
Learn more about the role of fire in the landscape and how we can use it for
our benefit and the benefit of the forest.
Community
Protect Your Community--get involved with the Fire Safe Council and local
neighborhood groups.