wildfires don’t destroy they transform
you might be saying to yourself wait a
minute these fires are so destructive
what do you mean they don’t destroy well
the fires do have a destructive nature
this isn’t the full picture especially
out west we see yearly fires that
destroyed people’s homes and livelihoods
fire is often seen in the public
imagination as a bringer of chaos and
destruction however this view doesn’t
do you remember Smokey the Bear pretty
much all Americans know his posters
recognize his name and know his slogan
only you can prevent forest fires
which is how only you can prevent
wildfires but anyways Smokey the Bear
has been one of the most influential
advertising campaigns in US history in
it and he has had a lasting and
continuing impact on the way we see
forest fires giving people a one-sided
view of this phenomenon in the long run
he has had a negative impact on the way
we see forest fires some fires that
shaped this view in America where the
Peshtigo fire in 1871 as well as the
great fire of 1910 during these fires
thousands of lives were lost and
millions of acres of forests were burned
the National Forest Service was founded
five years before the great fire in 1905
in order to provide in order to provide
quality water and timber for the
nation’s benefit so losing timber one
against one of their main objectives
after the great fire in 1910 they had to
prove their worth to the American public
and to Congress as to continue their
program because what’s the point of a
Forest Service that they’re not saving
the trees so in order to prove
themselves they enacted and strengthened
their fire policy aiming to prevent all
fires from half
and to put the and put to put the ones
out that started out as quickly as
possible the goal was to create a fire
free landscape however people didn’t
realize that this was a very bad idea
the very force that they were trying to
preserve needed fires in order to
flourish they were in fact doing harm
the benefits of maintaining a forest
fire regime were not well known just
like Smokey Bear they were wrong to
relate this issue back to you think
about your emotions in mental space if
you repress something or if you refuse
to deal with the stresses in your life
it are all culminate in a breakdown or
an explosion so this is what happened in
our forests without piata growth to
clear out the undergrowth in dead trees
they began to accumulate here are two
pictures in Yosemite taking 80 years
apart one in 1890 and the other in 1970
if you look closely down here for
reference these little smudges are
people these are giant trees so under
under the rules of fire suppression the
clearings that you see here disappeared
and the force became crowded chock full
of trees and with this dry summers all
this dead matter dried up so when a fire
did start or there by lightning or by
human causes it was much more intense
than it would have been without fire
suppression take the summer of 1988 at
Yellowstone for example the fires were
preceded by for what they were preceded
by droughts and dry conditions the fires
burned from June all the way till
September eventually burning over seven
hundred and ninety thousand acres
throughout the park effort firefighting
effort firefighting efforts cost upwards
of 120 million dollars it they hardly
seem to make a difference human efforts
were proving fruitless with with this
event so what it did end up stopping the
blaze that the humans could not it was a
quarter inch of snow
you see it’s important that we crash and
burn every once in a while it gives you
perspective and allows for you to start
anew if we forever to refuse change and
disturbance in our lives the intention
would begin to build by creating more
space we have room to grow the ecosystem
managed to take care of itself in the
end because of the intense media
attention that these events was received
many people who thought that Yellowstone
would not recover but it has recovered
with only the moose population she had
to bounce back and without fire new
growth will grind to a halt in force
with fire adopted and fired dependent
planets this whole idea of cyclic growth
and decline isn’t that crazy economic
cycles go through something similar with
growth and a peak followed by a decline
in the recession many plants including
many Pines such as the lodgepole ponder
in Ponderosa as well as the iconic Giant
Sequoias require fire in order to
reproduce they have what is called
serratus codes one of which you can see
here this one is open so the seeds are
hidden inside the cone by these scales
and when the when the cone is closed the
scales are coated by a resonant only
with the intense temperatures of a fire
can their resin melt to allow the scales
to open in the seeds to fall out and
replant themselves in addition some
animals like the bluebird also require
the habitats created by fire in order to
survive they missed in the hollowed out
cavities of trees created by fires
however most people don’t like change
and we want to keep things stable in our
lives we dislike the unpredictable
changes to plans moving and other
trenches and transitions through life
make us uncomfortable we like to have a
plan or framework for a lot of schools
to strive for we want to predict where
we’re going on our journey of life our
people can predict with some accuracy
or if a fire will occur in world and
where it will go from there if there are
many unknowns and there there are
numerous factors bringing into this
decision such as winds weather patterns
and climate which all contribute in
unpredictable ways we need to embrace
the fact that our forests need change
removing fire from the ecosystem creates
more problems in the long term than it
solves
we need to reintroduce fires to our
natural ends across the United States we
can do this by letting naturally caused
fires burn as long as they don’t
threaten human lives and by performing
prescribed burns prescribed burns burns
are purposefully started low intensity
burns hotter highly monitored butter
started on order to clear out the
undergrowth and to touch matter and to
receive new trees and it’ll stay also
provide ecosystem benefits that vary by
landscapes so even though we might want
to keep the our lives the way they are
we need to embrace change through our
lives we are always changing and so is
everything and everyone around us it is
the only constant so I hope you think
more carefully about the events and
phenomena around you as well as
contemplate the true consequences of
change in the complexities of it all thank you
you might be saying to yourself wait a
minute these fires are so destructive
what do you mean they don’t destroy well
the fires do have a destructive nature
this isn’t the full picture especially
out west we see yearly fires that
destroyed people’s homes and livelihoods
fire is often seen in the public
imagination as a bringer of chaos and
destruction however this view doesn’t
do you remember Smokey the Bear pretty
much all Americans know his posters
recognize his name and know his slogan
only you can prevent forest fires
which is how only you can prevent
wildfires but anyways Smokey the Bear
has been one of the most influential
advertising campaigns in US history in
it and he has had a lasting and
continuing impact on the way we see
forest fires giving people a one-sided
view of this phenomenon in the long run
he has had a negative impact on the way
we see forest fires some fires that
shaped this view in America where the
Peshtigo fire in 1871 as well as the
great fire of 1910 during these fires
thousands of lives were lost and
millions of acres of forests were burned
the National Forest Service was founded
five years before the great fire in 1905
in order to provide in order to provide
quality water and timber for the
nation’s benefit so losing timber one
against one of their main objectives
after the great fire in 1910 they had to
prove their worth to the American public
and to Congress as to continue their
program because what’s the point of a
Forest Service that they’re not saving
the trees so in order to prove
themselves they enacted and strengthened
their fire policy aiming to prevent all
fires from half
and to put the and put to put the ones
out that started out as quickly as
possible the goal was to create a fire
free landscape however people didn’t
realize that this was a very bad idea
the very force that they were trying to
preserve needed fires in order to
flourish they were in fact doing harm
the benefits of maintaining a forest
fire regime were not well known just
like Smokey Bear they were wrong to
relate this issue back to you think
about your emotions in mental space if
you repress something or if you refuse
to deal with the stresses in your life
it are all culminate in a breakdown or
an explosion so this is what happened in
our forests without piata growth to
clear out the undergrowth in dead trees
they began to accumulate here are two
pictures in Yosemite taking 80 years
apart one in 1890 and the other in 1970
if you look closely down here for
reference these little smudges are
people these are giant trees so under
under the rules of fire suppression the
clearings that you see here disappeared
and the force became crowded chock full
of trees and with this dry summers all
this dead matter dried up so when a fire
did start or there by lightning or by
human causes it was much more intense
than it would have been without fire
suppression take the summer of 1988 at
Yellowstone for example the fires were
preceded by for what they were preceded
by droughts and dry conditions the fires
burned from June all the way till
September eventually burning over seven
hundred and ninety thousand acres
throughout the park effort firefighting
effort firefighting efforts cost upwards
of 120 million dollars it they hardly
seem to make a difference human efforts
were proving fruitless with with this
event so what it did end up stopping the
blaze that the humans could not it was a
quarter inch of snow
you see it’s important that we crash and
burn every once in a while it gives you
perspective and allows for you to start
anew if we forever to refuse change and
disturbance in our lives the intention
would begin to build by creating more
space we have room to grow the ecosystem
managed to take care of itself in the
end because of the intense media
attention that these events was received
many people who thought that Yellowstone
would not recover but it has recovered
with only the moose population she had
to bounce back and without fire new
growth will grind to a halt in force
with fire adopted and fired dependent
planets this whole idea of cyclic growth
and decline isn’t that crazy economic
cycles go through something similar with
growth and a peak followed by a decline
in the recession many plants including
many Pines such as the lodgepole ponder
in Ponderosa as well as the iconic Giant
Sequoias require fire in order to
reproduce they have what is called
serratus codes one of which you can see
here this one is open so the seeds are
hidden inside the cone by these scales
and when the when the cone is closed the
scales are coated by a resonant only
with the intense temperatures of a fire
can their resin melt to allow the scales
to open in the seeds to fall out and
replant themselves in addition some
animals like the bluebird also require
the habitats created by fire in order to
survive they missed in the hollowed out
cavities of trees created by fires
however most people don’t like change
and we want to keep things stable in our
lives we dislike the unpredictable
changes to plans moving and other
trenches and transitions through life
make us uncomfortable we like to have a
plan or framework for a lot of schools
to strive for we want to predict where
we’re going on our journey of life our
people can predict with some accuracy
or if a fire will occur in world and
where it will go from there if there are
many unknowns and there there are
numerous factors bringing into this
decision such as winds weather patterns
and climate which all contribute in
unpredictable ways we need to embrace
the fact that our forests need change
removing fire from the ecosystem creates
more problems in the long term than it
solves
we need to reintroduce fires to our
natural ends across the United States we
can do this by letting naturally caused
fires burn as long as they don’t
threaten human lives and by performing
prescribed burns prescribed burns burns
are purposefully started low intensity
burns hotter highly monitored butter
started on order to clear out the
undergrowth and to touch matter and to
receive new trees and it’ll stay also
provide ecosystem benefits that vary by
landscapes so even though we might want
to keep the our lives the way they are
we need to embrace change through our
lives we are always changing and so is
everything and everyone around us it is
the only constant so I hope you think
more carefully about the events and
phenomena around you as well as
contemplate the true consequences of
change in the complexities of it all thank you
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