Philosophy

Forest Wildfires

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I know it’s winter, but we need to talk about wildfires. There is a common, simple-minded view—popular among those who deny climate change—that overzealous park employees unnaturally suppressed fires, causing wildfires today. End of story. Once we ‘catch up’ on the ‘fire deficit’ everything will be fine. This is bunk.

Last year Canada had a record-smashing year of wildfires, and the frequency of wildfires far exceeds what is normal, considering the naturally slow growth rate of trees in boreal forests. Most of these fires were in remote northern Canada, where historic fires were not even reported, let alone suppressed. The estimated number of fires was not too high, but many of the fires were mega fires, burning over seven times as many acres as the modern historic average. There is only one explanation for the scale of the wildfires last year, and it isn’t Smokey the Bear. The primary cause of increasingly severe forest fires is carbon pollution. 

The first humans to change natural fire ecology in North America were natives who for centuries used fires in the valley for agriculture and to attract game with new grass. The most destructive humans by far were loggers who clear cut whole forests. During the Great Depression, roads and campgrounds were developed in both old and regrown forests, bringing millions of visitors who parked their hot cars on dry grass, dropped their cigarettes on pine needles and left their campfires unattended, causing a dramatic increase in forest fires. Firefighters responded by putting out fires when they threatened nearby communities.

We changed forest fire ecology in complex ways over centuries, so the simple ‘fire suppression’ explanation is false. We don’t know exactly what the forest’s natural ecology was like before man started playing with fire here, but man’s brief experiments for a few decades last century—causing wildfires due to camping and suppressing some fires at the edges—all account for maybe 2% of the life of a Giant Sequoia. Yosemite park rangers tracked all fires within the park since the 1930’s, and for decades none of the fires were large enough to matter to the overall health of the forests until recently. Past fires were often 100 or maybe 1000 acres, but recent forest fires are 100,000 or 1,000,000 acres. Our hotter climate has changed everything. Now we need to change our perspective from our recent past to the consequences of our carbon pollution on the future. Extinction is not a mistake we can correct later. 

California has the most national parks with 28 park units, and about 12 of them have some type of large forest, often wilderness. I’ve been in all of those forest parks in the past year or so, and 9 now have huge swaths of dead trees from recent wildfires. 

Only Muir Woods, a small coastal redwood forest park along a creek surrounded by wealthy suburbs, has been spared. Pinnacles has had multiple wildfires in the past three years, but firefighters managed to contain them quickly. Even foggy Redwood park lost 11,000 acres in 2003 due to the Canoe Fire. 

This level of wildfire is not normal; it is out of control, and it is getting worse. Discussing past firefighting efforts and increasing the rate of manmade fires is not going to fix the problem. If we do not stop our carbon pollution, then 100 years of environmentalists’ efforts to save these forests for future generations will be wasted. 

No Time To Wait

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The warmest time of the day is from 3-5 pm, not noon when the sun peaks. The warmest week of the year is between mid July and mid August, not the summer solstice in June. Similarly, the peak year of manmade global warming will come years after we stop increasing carbon pollution. The delay in feeling the full effects means, if we wait until the climate gets intolerable before acting, then we will have to endure many years beyond that intolerable level before our actions take effect. 

We know we are abruptly shifting our climate out of the comfortable zone that enabled human evolution, and we don’t know how bad it will get. We only know that we must act long before the climate becomes intolerable, in order to avoid catastrophe. 

Some say we should wait for more evidence about global warming before acting, such as scientific proof showing the damage caused by carbon pollution. This is like refusing to stop smoking and start taking medicine, until after the disease kills you. Climate scientists have already diagnosed the problem and prescribed the solution, but too many of us are unwilling to face the truth, change our behavior and take our medicine. 

Standing On the Shoulders of Giants

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100 years before I started this trip, my grandfather and two of his rambunctious young friends drove a 1919 Hudson Essex convertible on a summer road trip from Massachusetts to Wyoming and back.  Dreaming of Zane Grey’s purple sage, they packed their pistols and loaded their camping gear into a trailer.  Every other day or so, they had to fix either the car, the tires or the trailer.  The three of them took turns driving 50 miles each per day, while one rode in the trailer.  I know this, because he kept a journal, which my uncle has lent me.

They evaded two likely robbery attempts, and enjoyed free meals from curious folks along the way.  They hunted, fished, rode horses and slept under the stars.  One shot himself in the foot while trying to draw on a rabbit, and once, near the end of the trip, two of them had a bare-knuckled brawl.  In many towns out west there were more “Indians” than anyone else, and they observed a bank robber caught by cowboys before he could escape on horseback. Tough guy that he was, my grandfather wrote his mother regularly, describing their adventures, asking for money and enclosing pressed wildflowers. 

“I would not go by train if they gave me free rides both ways.
We have lived and seen life in its rawest phases and have lived each state as it came along.
We have been right with nature and also have seen real life among all classes of people.”

— F. Marsh, ‘somewhere between Meadow and Chugwater Wyoming’, July 19, 1921

An avid birder and naturalist, he carefully recorded his sightings: “many big red headed woodpeckers” in Ohio, Illinois “full of small screech owls”, “hundreds of wild pigeons and red headed woodpeckers” in Iowa, “villages of prairie dogs”, elk, beaver, bear, a badger, a pine marten (weasel), various ducks, whiskey jacks, flocks of “blue and spruce” grouse, yellowlegs, “flocks of whippoorwills” and a wolverine in Wyoming (with deep snow in August at 10,000’). Several of these species are no longer seen where he saw them. They spent a month camping in Wyoming and neighboring states and also stopped in many of the same places I’ve been: Seneca Falls, Indiana Dunes, Devil’s Tower, Mt Rushmore, along the Oregon Trail, the Custer battlefield, Wind Cave, the Badlands and Yellowstone.

The trip changed my grandfather. By the end of his journal, his writing is a bit bolder, more confident and even defiant. The adversity, rough roads, lack of funds, gruff humor and necessity of keeping in good spirits while solving practical problems creatively, must have changed all three friends for the better (despite the fisticuffs). 30 years later, he took his two kids across country on another epic journey recorded by my uncle. Another 20 years after that, and he was still telling great stories and reading The Roosevelt Bears (see photo) to me and my siblings.

On this Father’s Day, I’m thinking of my Dad, who either took me or sent me on field trips as a kid to almost every park in New England and many more on the way down to DC. He got along great with his father-in-law, and they loved sharing stories and laughing. For them, adventures were one of the most important parts of life, and I wish I had told them more how much they inspired me to see the world and learn. So, if you have the chance to tell your father (or any father-figure for you) how they have inspired you to be better, then please do so. Thanks.

How the NPS can help fight climate change

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The Climate Crisis is devastating our national parks, threatening the wildlife, forests and beautiful coastlines that many parks were designed to protect. The National Park Service (NPS) needs to change its own policies to stop encouraging fossil fuel use and start encouraging electric vehicles. Right now, the NPS is updating its infrastructure, enhancing campsites, comfort stations and roads to better meet the needs of increasing visitors. They’ve also increased some fees and shuttle-services. Fighting the climate crisis needs to be a priority in all those decisions.

In my recent visit to Death Valley, the campers next to me in Texas Springs campground “bent” the rules. Their large 5th wheel and vehicles exceeded the campsite limit. I paid $2 extra to be in a “generator free” campground, but they idled their trucks for hours to recharge their batteries. They used one of their trucks to try to hold my campsite for themselves without paying. They left their campfire burning all night unattended. They used off-highway vehicles (two ATV’s and a dirt bike) in the park, which is prohibited. Besides being a nuisance, they also emitted more carbon than anyone else in the campground.

Since the Climate Crisis is exacerbating the drought, worsening wildfires and threatening species, the NPS should be more aggressive in discouraging fossil-fuel use. Charge carbon-burning vehicles per axle, charge extra for campfires, prohibit truck idling & alternator charging in no-generator sites and charge for their use in RV sites. Add more EV charging sites and add electric shuttle buses. Large gas-guzzling RV’s are terrible for the climate, and they require more expensive infrastructure (wider paved roads and longer pull-through campsites). They also produce more pollution in the park including noise and light. Instead of letting these fossil-fuel RV dinosaurs roll over the parks, the NPS must take a stand and change policies to be part of the climate solution.