Fuels Loads and Loads of Malarkey
The book Fahrenheit 451, in earlier times a high school staple, is where in future American society, books were outlawed and a posse called "firemen" would burn discovered. The title comes from the ignition point of paper. Fahrenheit 572 would represent the highest ignition point of wood – some would catch fire at a lesser temperature, the lowest being about 482°F. This discrepancy would be attributable to the density variance between hardwoods and softwoods.
According to the World Resources Institute, “Climate change is one of the major drivers behind increasing fire activity”. Naturally, no temperature on earth would make any wood or tree spontaneously combust. The Western Fire Chiefs Association states, “Humans cause nearly 90% of wildfires in the United States via discarded cigarettes, unattended campfires, burning debris, or through equipment malfunctions. Although less common, wildfires can also occur through non-human phenomena like lightning strikes and volcanic eruptions.”
The one they forgot to mention, under the human-caused category, is “arson”. I recall a 2018 article from the Vancouver Sun, where 29 of the 34 fires in the Okanagan Valley of British Columbia, over the course of 4 years, were intentionally set by arsonists. I suspect that it is not too different in other parts of the world. Climate change proponents seem to neglect this one – especially considering the vast number of arrests for this type of criminality in California.
Activist science claims that aridity causes a substantial number of fires with significantly more loss of resources. In the article, “Pretense and Paradox”, I wrote “. . . during the later part of spring, a Montana CBS affiliate was interviewing a forester from the US Forest Service, a division of the Department of Agriculture. As a result of low snow levels, during the colder periods of late fall, winter, and early spring, the forester predicted an elevated fire season. By some twist of providence, I happened to catch the same forester a year later predicting another high fire season because the abundant snows during the preceding late fall, winter, and early spring would create a wealth of vegetation that would assuredly become wildfire fodder”. So which is it?
This vegetation, along with fallen or dead trees, shrubs, and general vegetative debris is collectively called fuel load. The US Geological Survey (USGA) states, “The Fuel loads are important drivers of fire behavior, and fire is an important natural process that can also be used as a tool for ecological restoration purposes. Land managers and fire experts attempt to track and manipulate fuel loads in order to assess fire risk, control fire behavior, and restore ecosystems.”
In my article, “The Anatomy of Wild Fires”, I wrote, “In their reports on state wildfires, Calfire, a division of California’s Department of Forestry and Fire Protection articulated that climate change is not a participant. Excess fuels are constantly being created because of anti-logging legislation, a deficiency of prescribed burns, elimination of fire breaks and berms, and no forest floor clearing and cleaning.”
In actual fact, those that think that they are protecting forests with their contentious and litigious green motivation, are the ones devastating them.
After interviews with experts and studies on fuel loads, as they pertains to wildfires, Don Healy writes a compelling article, entitled Fuel Load and Forest Fires. He explains this methodically using the graph below: