The fire-fighting juggernaut continues to exploit the recent rash of western wildfires. I have yet to see any serious discussion in the media about the positive value of fires to western ecosystems, nor anyone questioning whether it's even possible to halt these blazes.

Over and over again the media portrays fires as some kind of catastrophic disaster. Yet wildfires are to western ecosystems what rain is to a tropical rainforest. They are necessary for the continued health and existence of these ecosystems. The use of pejorative statements like the fires "destroyed" so many acres of land or wildfires continue to "threaten" forests clearly portrays wildfires in a negative light. Yet wildfires do anything but destroy a landscape. Indeed, they are one of the major ecological forces that rejuvenate western ecosystems. In fact, it is large blazes that burn hundreds of thousands of acres at a time that do the bulk of forest rejuvenation work. Small "controlled" fires are almost meaningless from an ecological perspective-we need big fires.

Wildfires cleanse the forest of disease and insects. They thin forest stands. They recycle nutrients. They create snags that are homes for thousands of species. When such snags fall into streams, they provide bank stability and fish habitat. We couldn't pay enough or hire enough people to all these positive things in our forests that fires are doing for free. In short, our western ecosystems need wildfires and attempts to suppress them are like killing predators thinking we are helping the deer herds.

Furthermore, there is a huge misconception perpetuated by the fire fighting junta that gives people the impression that all fires can be contained or suppressed. In fact, a great deal of fire research, plus experience over the decades has shown over and over again that under conditions of extreme drought, and high winds-the very conditions that are driving all the large fires in the West at this moment-fire suppression is impossible. It is not fuels that create large fires, but periodic drought.

Our puny efforts to suppress large blazes can't change the climatic conditions that have spawn these fires, and at best we can only hope to deflect blazes away from towns or other important property. We might as well dump dollar bills on the blazes as fire retardant or water-for nothing we can do will stop such flames until the conditions that allow for the fires to burn are altered-typically a change in the weather. How often do we hear how fire fighters finally got the fire under "control" after it rained or snowed? Did the fire fighters put out the fire? Or are they taking credit for what was going to happen anyway?

Spending any money and risking any lives trying to stop these fires is as futile as standing at the edge of the beach with your hands up to stop an incoming tide. The tide will simply flow around you, and only go back out when it's time to reverse the flood.

The only fire suppression that should occur is to protect communities and lives. But even here one has to question where government responsibility for protection of life and property ends and individuals must bear the consequences for their own unwise decisions. It doesn't take a genus to know if you build a home in the middle of the forest that is fire prone, you are gambling with your property. Spending tax dollars to protect isolated cabins and homes built in the midst of fire-prone landscapes is no different than building houses in the flood plains of rivers or condos on hurricane prone Atlantic coast barrier islands.

There will undoubtedly be members of the timber industry and politicians set on increased exploitation of our forests that will use these fires as an opportunity to argue for more timber harvest. But logging doesn't reduce fire hazard, indeed, there is quite a bit of fire research literature that suggests that logging can increase fire hazards by opening up forests to more rapid drying, and greater wind circulation, accelerating fire spread by exaggerating the effects of drought and wind. Unless we are willing to remove all trees over millions of acres, logging will only exacerbate fire conditions, not help.

Rather than characterize this summer as the "worst" fire season in recent history, a more enlightened and informed perspective would call it the best fire season in a long time.

George Wuerthner is an ecologist and author of 24 books on environmental and conservation subjects.
wuerthne@teleport.com

Photos courtesy Jeff Henry

Back to Wildfire! Index