To live in the American West today is to live with wildfires. And to suppress those fires is only to delay, and worsen, the inevitable. The massive f

We must burn the West to save it

submited by

Style Pass

2021-07-13 19:00:05

To live in the American West today is to live with wildfires. And to suppress those fires is only to delay, and worsen, the inevitable.

The massive fire seasons in recent years are vivid reminders of this fact. Record heat and an expansive drought across much of the region have laid the groundwork for another massive fire season this summer. It’s not clear yet whether it will be as severe as the unprecedented fires of 2020, but already, more fires have ignited and more acres have burned. In California alone, more than twice as many acres have burned so far this year compared to the same time period last year.

A number of unique factors in recent seasons combined with long-term trends and created the devastating blazes. But a major reason for the massive scale of the destruction is that natural fires and burning practices first developed by Indigenous people have been suppressed for generations.

Wildfires are essential to many Western ecosystems in the US, restoring nutrients to the soil, clearing decaying brush, and helping plants germinate. Without these fires, vegetation in woodlands, grasslands, and chaparral shrublands accumulates, so more fuel is available to burn, especially when a megadrought keeps drying out the fuel, year after year. A debt to the landscape starts to mount, and when it comes due, there is hell to pay.