Heard someone at city council claim wildfires are getting worse only because of bad forest management. That got me thinking.

I was sitting in on a city council meeting last month in Flagstaff and this guy goes on about how logging and clearing brush would have stopped the big fires. But then the fire chief got up and said climate change is drying out the fuel load faster than we can manage. Which side holds more water here? I keep going back and forth. Has anyone else come across a clear answer on this?

3 comments

3 Comments

quinn6069h ago

Blame both climate change and bad management because theyre feeding each other.

harperp246h ago

Is it bad that I had to google the wildfire map just to make sure my trail-running route wasn't actively on fire again? @quinn606 nailed it, climate change gives the spark and bad management just hands it more fuel. Guess I'll keep my running shoes ready for the next evacuation drill instead of a PR.

phoenix_singh252h ago

Think about it like this: the fire chief wasn't denying forest management matters, he was just pointing out that climate change makes the job way harder. You can clear brush all you want but if drought and heat keep turning everything into kindling faster than you can haul it out, you're still fighting an uphill battle. Does the guy from the council have any numbers on how much logging they did in the 1950s versus how big fires were back then?