Friday, December 6, 2019

Thursday, May 16, 2019

Fire footprint timelapse

Google Earth has produced a timelapse of bush fires in Australia that is illuminating.

The animation shows fire scars appear, fade and be overwritten by a new fire. Though fire size seems to be increasing in Australia, this process creates patchiness and resiliency in Sierra Forests, But it takes place over the hundreds of years cycle of forest tree growth, rather than the few years of brush and grasslands, so it's harder to see.

Friday, May 3, 2019

California's fire situation explained

Yosemite Valley in 1899 and 2011.

This is an excellent background piece from the NYT. It cuts through the fantasy spin of the timber industry and the extremist environmentalist wing, stating what the majority of loggers and environmentalists already agree on.

The piece cites the true leading experts in California fire history and forest ecology: Malcolm North, Stephen Pyne, Scott Stephens, Greg Asner, the Little Hoover Commission.

See also, this 2019 New Yorker article on the Sagehen Forest Project.