Living with wildfire in the western U.S.

Sisters knows better than most communities how much wildfire can affect the environment, the economy, and people's health and well-being.

The community hosted Dr. Paul Hessburg on Thursday evening at The Belfry to talk about living with the ever-present threat of wildfire. Hessburg is a landscape ecologist with the Forest Service's Pacific Northwest Research Station and a member of the University of Washington's affiliate faculty. His presentation, "The Era of Megafires," came from the influence of atypically large wildfires particularly in and around Hessburg's hometown of Wenatchee, Washington, where friends' and families' homes were destroyed by fire.

The Era of Megafires is a multimedia presentation discussing sustainable forestry, as well as the adaptations citizens need to make to learn to live with wildfire. The talk consists of 34 years of research into wildfire trends in the western U.S.

A megafire is considered to be over 100,000 acres in size, and since 2015 we have seen an increase in fires of this size. There have been numerous fires across Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Montana that are considered megafires. These fires take federal funding and resources to fight. Over 57 percent of the Forest Service's budget went just to fighting wildfires in the past years. Only 17 percent of that budget went to firefighting 25 years ago. In the past few years fire-suppression efforts have seen an increase in spending; $50 billion was spent in a single year in suppression efforts.

Hessburg kept the audience engaged with appealing visuals. The audience watched a video spanning green forests shot from above with glorious sun shining. He asked the audience to think how this made them feel. The glorious scene reminded citizens why they moved to the area with forests like that. However, he said, these are not what western forests are supposed to look like.

"Forests are supposed to be patchy, with areas of dense conifer, and then areas of bare exposed landscape," said Hessburg.

The topography, elevation, and weather all work together to shape the forest and helps decide when and where fires occur. With an increase in the density of forests, fire is becoming more intense and hotter because the undergrowth is not being regularly burned out in low-intensity fire.

In the past 100 years we have suppressed fire. The "burnout culture" that the Native Americans had was lost. Railroads, cattle settlements and farms were put in place in the West, stopping fire from coming through naturally. After the "Big Burn" of 1910, suppression efforts increased. Inefficient logging and fuel buildup led to what Hessburg called "The Epidemic of Trees" - so many trees in the forest and so many little dense trees all close together, creating the perfect storm for a hot and fast-burning wildfire.

One of the leading causes of these megafires is climate change. Evidence shows we are experiencing dryer and hotter weather for longer periods of time. Hessburg spoke of the Alberta wildfire in May of 2016, which burned in forests that are halfway to the Arctic Circle. Hundreds of thousands of people were displaced and lost their homes. In Canada and the western U.S., we are experiencing earlier spring-like weather and warmer winters with less snow. Hessburg spoke of how there will be two or three times more fires than we have now by 2050, only 30 years from now.

Hessburg said, "It's time the rules of the firefighting regime change." Hessberg asserts, "Fire and smoke is a part of our future, no matter what. We just have to learn to better live with it and manage it because we can't stop it."

Hessburg's first adaptation is to create a resilient landscape by using prescribed burning.

Prescribed burning in the spring and fall allows for dead undergrowth to be eliminated in a controlled manner.

So, once the fire hits an area that has been burned, it doesn't burn as hot or as fast because there isn't fuel to carry it.

The second solution is to do mechanical thinning and logging in an efficient manner.

There are ways to thin the forests that are beneficial to it, so the canopy isn't growing close together.

In turn, this logging and thinning boosts the timber industry, where lumber can be taken to mills and made into bark, 2x4s and many other products contributing to the economy.

The third adaptation we must become accustomed to is fire-management mechanisms.

There are over 12 million acres of forest that need treatment in Oregon and Washington; fire is supposed to be in our forests.

It will take over 20 years to treat the entire area.

The two-to-eight percent of fires that get out of control are the ones that cause the most damage.

A main emphasis of the talk was to make citizens aware that it is also their responsibility to protect their homes and create a safe environment around themselves to protect from wildfire. Homes are being built and developed in the areas of wildfire on hillsides and mountaintops. Building a home at that level comes with a certain level of responsibility. With steeper roads and denser forests surrounding the home, Hessburg emphasizes that citizens need to be made aware of what is around them and take action because firefighters can't do it all.

"The homes are difficult to defend, and once the fire is there, there is no stopping it. There has to be defense done in advance," said Hessburg.

Hessburg recommends having debris cleared at least 30 feet from the home, and to keep the area around your home "lean, mean and green."