Page 43 - Green Builder Magazine Jan-Feb 2018 Issue

The New New Normal

The 2017 wildfire season reshaped how we define and address

the global wildfire problem. What’s next?

BY LUCIAN DEATON

N TRYING TO MAKE SENSE of the many
dramatic wildfires that occurred this year,
a few media outlets have described 2017
as the dawn of a “new normal” in terms of
the scope and size of wildfires. While that
label is open for debate, I do think 2017 was
Iunique in revealing some important lessons
and showing us the full cumulative impacts of a
changing world on wildfire behavior.
The fire season kicked off in January when
wildfires burned across Chile, charring entire towns
and landscapes. In spring, a historically early batch
of wildfires ignited in Florida and California, while
grass fires burned hot and fast across Kansas and
Oklahoma and near Cape Town, South Africa. This
summer, 60 people died while fleeing a forest fire
in Portugal; the U.S. wrestled with the costliest
wildfire season on record; and large, menacing
fires on the Mediterranean coasts of Europe sent
tourists scurrying and made global headlines.
In mid-October, one of the most destructive CREDIT: FLICKR/GLENN BELTZ
wildfires in U.S. history struck Northern California,
killing at least 40 people and destroying thousands
of homes. The year closed out with similarly A burning problem. Wildfires around the world in 2017 demonstrated the disastrous combined
destructive fires in Southern California. effects of increased wildland development, an aging rural population and a warming climate.
While certainly a challenge for residents and the fire service, did these grazing pastures have been transformed into forest plantations of pine and
events really mark a “new normal” as some would suggest, or just a more eucalyptus to feed the global wood-pulp market. This new cash crop is highly
recent version of the old normal? It’s a little of both. Many of the factors that combustible and is surrounded by small landowners who are often unable to
made for a difficult fire season—increased development in the wildland/ properly manage fire on their own lands.
urban interface, an aging rural population and a warming climate—aren’t Similar changes are happening across the globe. In the U.S., rural
new, but 2017 was perhaps the first time we clearly saw their combined populations are getting older, making it more difficult for some people to
effects. Taken as a whole, they have created a new fire environment that adequately maintain their properties against fire. Summers are getting hotter,
we have not prepared well for. When the three components of the wildfire and changes in how we use the land have put more people in places where fire
triangle—fuel, topography and weather—become imbalanced, wildfire as has historically been an integral part of the landscape. The resulting buildup
we know it stops behaving in a roughly predictable way, and a “new normal” of dry overgrowth requires only a spark to become a devastating wildfire.
is the result. These shifting factors are the real “new normal.” If we are to address them,
The June wildfires in Portugal offer a good illustration of the potential fire departments, wildfire agencies and policymakers need to learn from the
outcome of this imbalance. While seeking answers about why the deadly global wildfire experience of 2017. These lessons will help us figure out not
wildfire in Portugal swept so quickly across the rural landscape, The New only where wildfires might demand attention in the years to come, but what
York Times described the problem in part like this: “hotter, drier summers are other steps we can take to mitigate their impact. GB
setting off more forest fires, which are accelerating a decades-old migration
[among residents] from rural areas, leaving lands untended. That, in turn, helps Lucian Deaton is project manager in the National Fire Protection Association
fuel new and more-intense fires that spread and burn even faster.” (NFPA)’s Wildland Fire Operations Division. NFPA (www.nfpa.org) is a global
The Times also explained that changes in land management helped fuel the nonprofit organization that strives to prevent death, injury, property and
flames in Portugal. Areas that were once open oak stands, farmers’ fields and economic loss due to fire, electrical and related hazards.

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