6 Comments
Mar 24, 2023Liked by River Selby (they/them)

The grant money for this project comes from the climate bill passed by the Congress not Kamala Harris. You make it sound like she came to the state and wrote a personal check. That money as all government funded projects comes from tax payers.

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Hm, I didn’t say she wrote a personal check, interesting that you interpreted it that way! I linked to an article that gives the details and only said she approved the money, which is obviously taxpayer money. Thanks for your interesting interpretation and feedback!

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Mar 22, 2023Liked by River Selby (they/them)

Totally agree! What also frustrates me is (at least where I live) the "burn day or not" decision is based on weather quite some distance away and in an entirely different terrain and wind patterns. It's also partially based on air quality. I get that, no one wants to breathe smoke. But I'd rather breathe a little and have a healthier forest than breathe a lot of it later and have uncontrolled fire with loss of habitat, homes, and life.

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You're so right. I am currently living in Florida and there is smoke every day from rx burning. It's not a big deal. I think a lot of work has to be done with public education regarding the importance of rx fire, and I also agree that these burn day decisions need to be based on hyperlocal predictors rather than people far away making the decisions.

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I grew up in southern California with the “Double Sided Record” (45 rpm type of record) that proclaimed : Side A –“Due to the heavy rains this year, we will have a bad fire season” and Side B – “Due to the lack of rain this year, we will have a bad fire season”. My research in San Diego county, CA shows no correlation between winter rains and summer acres burned in chaparral.

This year has the potential to be the worst fire season in history, just like all the other years.

We must restore fire to the system.

https://fs.usda.gov/rm/pubs/rmrs_p073/rmrs_p073_077_079.pdf

Bob Eisele

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Thanks for this resource, Bob! As you probably know, different ecosystems have different responses to rain, and there are many many studies conducted on this effect. This is the one I was referencing, which I should have linked.

https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2020EA001624

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