Friday, September 14, 2012

Fire Season: All Fires Are Not Created Equally – Part 2



“Fire season worst in decades.”  “Disastrous (Bastrop) wildfire, worst in Texas history.”  These headlines, similar to ones that might have appeared in the 1870s to 1920s, are actually from 2011-2012.  What’s going on?

Taking a look at some of the largest single fires in U.S. history – for instance in years when a total of more than 20 million acres burned -- some individual fires charred between 3 and 4 million acres.  We know that many or those larger fires were in areas that had been heavily cut-over.  That’s still a lot of acres.  But, clearly losing an acre of cut-over land isn’t the same as an acre of old growth forest – whether one considers ecological or economic loss.

If you are having difficulty imaging 20 million acres, look at a U.S. map.  The States of South Carolina and Maine each have about 20 million acres of land.

Acres Lost are Growing, Again
The longest running campaign in Ad Council history, Smokey Bear and his well-known warning, "Only You Can Prevent Forest Fires," was introduced in 1944.  And it worked!  The Smokey website notes that “the Forest Fire Prevention campaign helped reduce the number of acres lost annually from 22 million to 8.4 million (in 2000).” The sad part in that true statement is that 8.4 million acres is well above the average of preceding decades.  

The point we are straining to make is that the total acres burned – whether the fires are in shrub habitats or forests – after several decades of “relatively” small losses, are getting bigger every decade.  For instance, the average wild-land acreage lost to wildfires in the 1980s was just over 2.5 million acres.  That grew by another million acres in the 1990s.  But, astonishingly, in an era of increased detection and firefighting tools, the first decade of the 2000s saw that number nearly double to more than 6 million acres -- with some years approaching 10 million!  

Right Message for the Right Time
Responding to the massive outbreak of wildfires in 2000, the Smokey campaign changed its focus to wildfires and the slogan to "Only You Can Prevent Wildfires."   Even Smokey had to acknowledge that in fire-based ecosystems like much of America’s western and southern forests, all fires aren’t created equally.