Hard to fool-proof climate adaptation when there are so damn many fools out there. See above.
Below, in the best of conditions, California’s ongoing Park fire would have been difficult to hedge against. Even those who went thru previous fires and took precautions were taken off guard.
Below that, Vermont’s River Flooding, dredging Rivers is not a clear solution.
The Park Fire demonstrates how years, if not decades, of weather patterns in a changing climate can converge to send flames raging through remote wilderness and mountain outposts at shocking speeds.
Historic drought left trees weakened or dead. Stormy winters washed debris into piles, while the rain allowed flammable grasses to thrive. Intense heat, smashing records across California this summer, dried everything out.
And then, there is the element of randomness in where fire moves after it ignites. Like most wildfires, Park was sparked by human activity. A witness saw a man push a burning car down a hill near a popular swimming hole in Chico’s Upper Bidwell Park, though the suspect told authorities it was an accident, according to local reports.
With winds flowing from the south, that meant flames fanned into some pristine and densely forested wilderness in Lassen National Forest, toward the southernmost peak of the Cascade range of volcanoes. The same treacherous terrain that made the area’s Ishi Wilderness a refuge for native Yahi people — a man named Ishi was the last of the tribe to remain there — allowed the fire to rapidly consume the rugged landscape.
Ecologists had hoped parts of the wilderness had experienced enough fire that they could weather the burn. One ponderosa forest studied for decades, known as Beaver Creek Pinery, was thought to be a prime example of a fire-tolerant and healthy forest, and scientists had been planning a prescribed burn in the area to see how it would fare.
Continue reading “From Vermont to California -“Adapting” to Climate Change is Tough”
