Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Cohousing-L Digest, Vol 252, Issue 15

[Sara Gottlieb (sara.gottlieb]

>
> I wanted to respond to an assertion in the message below, and offer some
> useful information for communities in fire-prone areas:


The assertion that "The fires in California are the result of poor land
management - not some
"climate disasters"" is inaccurate.  While land management that excludes
fire can be a factor in promoting catastrophic wildfires and urban
development at the wildlands interface puts people at risk when wildfire
occurs, the cause of the current wildfires is climate-change influenced
drought in southern California and severe Santa Ana winds. You can read
much more about the mechanism in the Weather West Climate blog written by
climate scientist Dr. Daniel Swain here:
https://weatherwest.com/archives/43181

Now, for some helpful information for communities in fire-prone areas.  I
recommend looking into the Firewise USA program.  The Firewise USA program
provides simple, effective steps to help communities reduce the risk of
destruction from wildfire. Learn how to "Band Together" before wildfire
disasters occur.  More information is available here:
https://www.nfpa.org/education-and-research/wildfire/firewise-usa

My brother-in-law and his wife lost their home in the Marshall Fire in CO (
https://research.noaa.gov/looking-back-at-colorados-marshall-fire/) in 2023
and it was devastating.  Communities can and should take steps to avoid
this outcome.

Best,
Sara Gottlieb
Lake Claire CoHousing
Atlanta, GA, USA

>
>
> Today's Topics:
>
>    2. Fire - RE: Cohousing-L Digest, Vol 252, Issue 14
>       (tmalbright [at] verizon.net)
>
> Message: 2
> Date: Thu, 23 Jan 2025 11:50:21 -0600
> From: <tmalbright [at] verizon.net>
> To: <cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org>
> Subject: [C-L]_ Fire - RE: Cohousing-L Digest, Vol 252, Issue 14
> Message-ID: <0a5001db6dbf$46483500$d2d89f00$@verizon.net>
> Content-Type: text/plain;       charset="us-ascii"
>
> As a land steward / rancher - and having watched the LA fires - I'll make a
> suggestion.
>
> The fires in California are the result of poor land management - not some
> "climate disasters".
>
> Existing communities can best protect themselves by removing stuff that
> catches on fire from their immediate area - and campaigning for their local
> municipality to also clean up public lands / compel others to implement
> fire
> safety.
>
> Such things as prescribed fire on a regular basis will remove excessive
> fuel
> from forest floors, dead wood can be removed and disposed on in a safe
> centralized location (if prescribed fire is not an option) - and you should
> consider forced removal of and banning the future planting of dangeriuos
> tress and plants - such as Eucalyptus tress - which have flammable oil in
> their leaves and act like a fire bomb.
>
> Public policy about forest management will do much to save California -
> unfortunately the state now suffers from many years of misguided and poor
> management and there are lots of fires just waiting to happen.
>
>
> Ty
>
> Ty Albright Project Management
> Little Red Hen LLC
> 214-336-7952
> tmalbright [at] verizon.net
> www.linkedin.com/in/tmalbright
>
>
>