Mature Forests Resist Wildfire, Because They Hold More Moisture
Hart Hagan
Link to Substack Article: Mature Forests Resist Wildfire, Because They Hold More Moisture
And yet public agencies sell timber from our forests without regard to wildlife and or the climate
Issues addressed herein:
Why do we attribute climate change only to greenhouse gases, without regard to the health of our forests?
How do our forests regulate climate?
Does climate change increase the risk of wildfires?
Why do public agencies recommend thinning the forest?
How does “thinning” trap the forest in a perpetual state of flammability?
Exactly how does thinning cause the forest to dry out?
Does increased forest protection make forests more or less flammable?
Dr. Anastassia Makarieva has made yet another profound contribution to our understanding of forests and climate change in her article: The Rabbit–Duck Illusion in Climate Messaging: An Example from Wildfire Policy.
Caption: Rabbit-Duck Illusion. Wikimedia Commons. Author Unknown. Popular Science Monthly
The rabbit-duck illusion is a drawing in which you can see both a rabbit and a duck, but only if you have seen both in real life. If you know ducks, but have no concept of a rabbit, then you will only see the duck, not the rabbit.
Climate change is like the rabbit-duck illusion
In like manner, we have been taught that climate change is all about greenhouse gases. But most have never been taught that climate change is also about how we treat the land, not least of all our forests. As a result, when we read about climate change, or see the effects of climate change (flooding, drought, wildfire), we only attribute those changes to greenhouse gases, and not to land degradation, e.g., deforestation.
In reality, forests affect our climate, because
Forests cast shade, with a cooling effect
Forests emit water, causing evaporation, which has a cooling effect
Forests emit condensation nuclei, e.g., bacteria, that make condensation possible
This condensation forms clouds
Clouds make rain.
Furthermore,
A forest becomes a sponge because it soaks up rainfall
A forest improves the soil, making the soil a sponge
A forest casts shade, which prevents the soil from drying out
A forest holds water, which tends to regulate temperatures, preventing extremes of hot and cold
When you remove the forest, you remove all of these functions.
In addition, a forest that is allowed to mature is more resistant to wildfire, because it holds more moisture. This is largely the subject of Makarieva’s article.
A little background …
Industry and governments misuse our forests
The problem to be solved is that neither citizens nor policymakers understand how forests affect our climate. As a result, we allow industry to chew away at our forests, on the false pretense that they are “thinning” the forest to prevent wildfires and also restoring the forest to a previous state of health.
The mainstream view of climate as it relates to forests and wildfires is this: Humans burn fossil fuels, emitting CO2, which causes warming and drying, increasing flammability, thus emitting more CO2 and so in a vicious cycle.
Climate change does increase the risk of wildfires, but …
The mainstream view contains a grain of truth in that climate and weather do play a major role in the timing, extent and intensity of wildfires. But logging, thinning, burning and spraying also play a major role in both flammability and carbon emissions. So let’s understand what is good for the forest ecosystem, so we can grow healthy forests to regulate the climate and draw down carbon.
With regularity, we are told that we need to “thin” the forests and burn more because decades of fire suppression have resulted in excess “hazardous” fuels.
We are NOT told that living and dead wood is part of a mature forest ecosystem and that if you refrain from disturbing the mature forest ecosystem, it will hold more moisture and be less flammable.
Mature forests suppress wildfire
Makarieva explains in her article that if we allow the forest to mature, i.e., advance through the stages of succession, we thereby empower the forest to hold moisture, thus making it less flammable.
She writes:
“ … when we humans disturb ecosystems on a large scale, their recovery inevitably passes through a stage of heightened flammability. But unlike in natural settings, there is no surrounding biotic support to stabilize the environment in a moist state — the devastation is too vast. If, in our ecological ignorance, we continue to interfere at this vulnerable stage — reducing “fuel” through logging, burning, pesticides, and the rest of our ingenuity — we trap the system in a state of maximum flammability.”
Makarieva teaches that a forest in an earlier stage of ecological succession is less able to hold moisture because it is dedicated to building biomass.
Thinning and logging dry out the forest
If you are constantly thinning (i.e., logging) a forest, this opens up the canopy to sunlight, which dries out the fuel. Also, the removal of trees and shrubs exposes the forest floor to more wind, thus drying it out and removing the wind breaks that would otherwise slow the flame-fanning wind, when a fire does occur.
This is not what we want. But it is what we get, because the public does not understand these issues well enough to push back. And not just the general public. I know otherwise well-informed environmentalists, including journalists who have fallen prey to industry messaging about the need for thinning, burning and logging.
Trusted media outlets spread wildfire-related misinformation
And when trusted media outlets cover wildfire stories, such as the 2018 Camp Fire affecting Concow and Paradise, California, they never mention that these fires had spread faster due to thinning and logging. See this video starting at 6:45.
Thankfully, we live in a time when anyone can find reliable sources and dispel the dense fog of misinformation from industry and government.
Please read Anastassia Makarieva’s article if you have not done so already: The Rabbit–Duck Illusion in Climate Messaging: An Example from Wildfire Policy.
Protecting forests--and allowing them to mature--reduces wildfire intensity
Here is a study, referenced by Makarieva, on the question of whether “forest thinning” reduces fire severity: Does increased forest protection correspond to higher fire severity in frequent‐fire forests of the western United States? - Bradley - 2016 - Ecosphere - Wiley Online Library
This is possibly the most comprehensive study of its kind, studying the occurrence and intensity of wildfires over several decades in the American west. Holding constant for factors such as elevation, plant communities and forest types, the authors determined that the most protected and therefore least disturbed forests burned at lesser intensity.
Protected forests are less flammable
The idea that protected forests are less flammable is contrary to the prevailing message from the logging industry and the government agencies, as evidenced by this recent New York Times article, which I reviewed in this recent piece on Substack: How to Identify Timber Industry Propaganda, as Conveyed by Esteemed Media Outlets and Trusted Public Servants
Are wildfires becoming more prevalent?
On the issue of whether wildfires are increasing over the course of time, please read: Global trends in wildfire and its impacts: perceptions versus realities in a changing world | Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. Is a hotter, drier climate increasing the prevalence of wildfires? The answer is unclear. But this paper says that today’s wildfires are not out of proportion to historical norms.
So the paper poses a serious challenge to the industries that want to remove “excess” fuel on the theory that “desperate times call for desperate measures.” In other words, if today’s wildfires are not historically anomalous, then we should not use the fear of wildfire as an excuse to perform historically anomalous removal of “excess fuel.” And even if today’s wildfires were historically anomalous, is the solution (thinning) worse than the problem? Is the cure (logging) worse than the disease?
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