Wildlife fires in California and Europe
Some scientists believe that in history of America there was at least one (maybe more) period of time when Indigenous peoples of America suddenly disappeared for noticeable period of time from areas where they lived many hundreds of years. Several different theories have been suggested to explain that phenomenon. One theory is that wildlife fires spreading in the most of America’s forests and prairies destroyed all plants and killed all animals. Even if not all people have been killed by fires disappearance of plants and animals could be the reason why people abandoned places, where they lived for centuries but could not find enough food anymore.
Any forest on Earth consists of trees which are born, live and die. If we assume that average life span of trees in a given forest is 100 years, it means that about 1% of all trees dies every year. During centuries huge amount of dead wood becomes available to start and spread any fire caused by nature or humans. Dry dead wood and old wood become the main fuel for any wildlife fire. We know that every year in every forest there are fires started by lightnings. However, continuous surviving and spreading of each started fire depends on many various conditions – how much dead wood fuel is in area, where the fire started, how dry is the dead wood, how windy is the area, how often rains happen in the area, how large is the forest area where fire started, what is the ambient temperature for long period of time before fire started and during the fire, how humid is the air, how many natural obstacles to a fire spreading are around, etc.
Even in tropical forests, in spite on relatively large amount of water in plants, ground, and air huge fires happen. Territory of the USA is located in more or less temperate climate zones. Some years droughts happen on large territories of the country. Common sense tells us that it is very probable that favorable conditions for fires may happen on large areas of country forests. So, the fire theory discussed above makes sense.
At the same time we know that from moment, when emigrants started arriving to North America, at least last several hundred years, wildlife fires did not attract excessive attention of governments and news media. We believe that the main reason for it is that in any human civilization people use all dead and old wood, they could find, to build houses, to prepare food and to warm houses. In process of assembling of dry and old wood people thereby cleared and clear forests without much thinking about it. In many countries of the world people started to organize wild forests for reasonable wood production in manners they like. In the USA of 18th to 20th centuries there were many businesses which used live and dead wood for manufacturing. At the same time they cleaned forests, their working places, from dead wood, cut old trees and planted new trees. I believe it explains why there was no many wildlife fires in the USA in 18th, 19th and 20th centuries, which attracted non-stopping attention of all kinds of media and governments.
However, at the end of 20th century in Europe and the USA environmentalists started demanding from local and federal governments to limit and finally forbid all businesses using wood. Critical changes in the USA and especially in California happened at the middle of 1990th, when federal government started actively support environmentalists and forbade to use forests in the USA as a source of wood. Government policies destroyed majority of businesses, which produced and used wood for manufacturing, and forbade cleaning of wild forests and even parks.
Those decisions, made by the federal, state and local governments in spite of multiple warnings from real scientists and businessmen. At the middle of 1990th, by nature of my work, I talked with many engineers-scientists who participated in various symposiums and meetings dedicated to future of several industries. Many participants in their presentations and in discussions warned that in next 10 to 20 years of neglecting of dry dead wood cleaning of forests wildlife fires will start in forested areas more and more often.
From middle of 1990th, when most businesses working in forests were forbidden, old dry wood fuel started to accumulate in all USA forests. 20 years passed. Every year numbers of wildlife fires noticeably increased in California and other states where environmentalists control life of forests and people. The same happened in Europe, especially Spain and Portugal.
It would be interesting to compare data for last 20 years for the USA, which drastically decreased wood production for manufacturing, and Canada, producing a lot of wood for manufacturing. I think that scientifically comparable data for number of fires and damage from fires, including multiple death of people, in the USA and Canada will be very educational.
There is one more small interesting point about world forests. Most plants and especially trees consume carbon dioxide for growth during night time and produce oxygen which is used by many living beings. Since cars and various manufacturing processes produce carbon dioxide, which is needed for plants and trees to grow, areas covered by forests in South and North America noticeably increased in last 100 years. Some scientist claim that forest areas in both Americas at the present time is almost two times larger than when the first European immigrants came to America. That fact and outraged governmental control of wood production in the USA tell us that there are much more fuel for wildlife fires accumulated in the USA forests than in Canada forests. It means that it is reasonable to expect progressive growth of forest fires in coming years in the USA but, maybe not in Canada.
B.V. October 20, 2017
Any forest on Earth consists of trees which are born, live and die. If we assume that average life span of trees in a given forest is 100 years, it means that about 1% of all trees dies every year. During centuries huge amount of dead wood becomes available to start and spread any fire caused by nature or humans. Dry dead wood and old wood become the main fuel for any wildlife fire. We know that every year in every forest there are fires started by lightnings. However, continuous surviving and spreading of each started fire depends on many various conditions – how much dead wood fuel is in area, where the fire started, how dry is the dead wood, how windy is the area, how often rains happen in the area, how large is the forest area where fire started, what is the ambient temperature for long period of time before fire started and during the fire, how humid is the air, how many natural obstacles to a fire spreading are around, etc.
Even in tropical forests, in spite on relatively large amount of water in plants, ground, and air huge fires happen. Territory of the USA is located in more or less temperate climate zones. Some years droughts happen on large territories of the country. Common sense tells us that it is very probable that favorable conditions for fires may happen on large areas of country forests. So, the fire theory discussed above makes sense.
At the same time we know that from moment, when emigrants started arriving to North America, at least last several hundred years, wildlife fires did not attract excessive attention of governments and news media. We believe that the main reason for it is that in any human civilization people use all dead and old wood, they could find, to build houses, to prepare food and to warm houses. In process of assembling of dry and old wood people thereby cleared and clear forests without much thinking about it. In many countries of the world people started to organize wild forests for reasonable wood production in manners they like. In the USA of 18th to 20th centuries there were many businesses which used live and dead wood for manufacturing. At the same time they cleaned forests, their working places, from dead wood, cut old trees and planted new trees. I believe it explains why there was no many wildlife fires in the USA in 18th, 19th and 20th centuries, which attracted non-stopping attention of all kinds of media and governments.
However, at the end of 20th century in Europe and the USA environmentalists started demanding from local and federal governments to limit and finally forbid all businesses using wood. Critical changes in the USA and especially in California happened at the middle of 1990th, when federal government started actively support environmentalists and forbade to use forests in the USA as a source of wood. Government policies destroyed majority of businesses, which produced and used wood for manufacturing, and forbade cleaning of wild forests and even parks.
Those decisions, made by the federal, state and local governments in spite of multiple warnings from real scientists and businessmen. At the middle of 1990th, by nature of my work, I talked with many engineers-scientists who participated in various symposiums and meetings dedicated to future of several industries. Many participants in their presentations and in discussions warned that in next 10 to 20 years of neglecting of dry dead wood cleaning of forests wildlife fires will start in forested areas more and more often.
From middle of 1990th, when most businesses working in forests were forbidden, old dry wood fuel started to accumulate in all USA forests. 20 years passed. Every year numbers of wildlife fires noticeably increased in California and other states where environmentalists control life of forests and people. The same happened in Europe, especially Spain and Portugal.
It would be interesting to compare data for last 20 years for the USA, which drastically decreased wood production for manufacturing, and Canada, producing a lot of wood for manufacturing. I think that scientifically comparable data for number of fires and damage from fires, including multiple death of people, in the USA and Canada will be very educational.
There is one more small interesting point about world forests. Most plants and especially trees consume carbon dioxide for growth during night time and produce oxygen which is used by many living beings. Since cars and various manufacturing processes produce carbon dioxide, which is needed for plants and trees to grow, areas covered by forests in South and North America noticeably increased in last 100 years. Some scientist claim that forest areas in both Americas at the present time is almost two times larger than when the first European immigrants came to America. That fact and outraged governmental control of wood production in the USA tell us that there are much more fuel for wildlife fires accumulated in the USA forests than in Canada forests. It means that it is reasonable to expect progressive growth of forest fires in coming years in the USA but, maybe not in Canada.
B.V. October 20, 2017