A Los Padres National Forest fire-prevention proposal sparks a long-standing debate on wildfire management

The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection has already responded to more than 4,900 incidents this fire season—a number the department expects to increase as this year’s season will be longer and drier because of climate change and drought. 

click to enlarge A Los Padres National Forest fire-prevention proposal sparks a long-standing debate on wildfire management
PHOTO COURTESY OF LOS PADRES FORESTWATCH
RULES AND REGULATIONS : The U.S. Forest Service is proposing thinning out certain trees in the Los Padres National Forest: They must be smaller than 24 inches in diameter in high density areas where trees overlap, leaving them at risk for drought, disease, and wildfire, according to the proposal document.

Los Padres National Forest is currently working to prevent extreme wildfires through the proposed Ecological Restoration Project: a project that aims to restore fire-adapted ecosystems, reduce fuels with thinning, and reintroduce fire to the landscape through prescribed burning. The project targets four of its five ranger districts—expanding from Ventura County, through Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties, and into Monterey—and would impact roughly 235,495 acres of land, according to the U.S. Forest Service. 

If the proposed project is approved—public comment ends on Aug. 28—the Forest Service would implement the plan beginning in 2024.

Forest Service Planner and Vegetation Fuels Program Manager Kyle Kinports said the project will improve the forest’s health by reducing fuels and creating boundaries between communities and forested areas to prevent wildfire impact on homes.

“We’ve tackled this on a smaller scale through individual projects; some of the most recent ones [are] the Mount Pinos Forest Health Project and Reyes Peak Forest Health and Reduction Project. We’ve been successful with those projects at that scale, but what we are seeing is there’s a lot more need out there for those types of treatments,” Kinports said. 

But others aren’t so sure the proposed project is the right track for wildfire prevention. Los Padres ForestWatch and the Sierra Club, among other environmental organizations, think this project will have drastic negative impacts on forest preservation, said Chad Hanson, Sierra Club research ecologist.

A Los Padres National Forest fire-prevention proposal sparks a long-standing debate on wildfire management
WEIGH IN : The U.S. Forest Service hopes to complete its ecological assessment by 2023 and begin implementing the wildfire prevention measures it prescribes by 2024. Visit cara.fs2c.usda.gov/Public/CommentInput?Project=62369 to submit your public comment before Aug. 28.

“What most of the science is telling us is that these giant logging and chaparral-clearing projects are not stopping wildfires. They often make them burn hotter and faster toward towns,” Hanson said. 

Cutting down the trees causes fires to sweep through more rapidly and intensely, he said, and it provides a false sense of security by telling the public it’s fuel reduction or fuel breaks. 

“The only thing that helps is to focus resources on actually protecting communities directly and helping communities become fire safe,” Hanson said. “Thinning is a euphemism for logging, [which] emits three times more carbon into the atmosphere. It’s a climate change nightmare to do this.” 

According to research Hanson has conducted, successful fire prevention is not about how many trees are in the population per acre, it’s about understanding weather and climate. A 2016 study he co-authored explored three decades of fire data in the Western United States and found two key things: First, fire behavior is determined by weather, climate, and climate change; second, the more vegetation management that occurs, the hotter and faster fires tend to burn. 

“So these projects they [the Forest Service] are proposing under deceptive terms like ‘fuel reduction’ and ‘fuel breaks’ are having the exact opposite results in most cases,” he said. 

Bryant Baker, director of conservation and research at Los Padres ForestWatch, agreed with Hanson. 

“Fire seasons have been getting more extreme over the last several years due to climate change. First off, we have to address climate change or we are going to keep seeing really large wildfires as climate change worsens,” Baker said. “The other thing I would like to say is, over and over, all other major fires over the last several years have burned in areas that have had projects like this.”  

Instead of targeting the trees and vegetation, Baker said groups should invest in protecting communities by retrofitting homes with fire-safe materials. Houses can burn because embers get sucked into vents, open windows, and other openings that can lead to the house burning down. Investing in ember-proof vent screens and double-paned windows, as well as sealing cracks around doors, are all low-cost and very helpful things to do, he explained. 

“[Protecting ecosystems is] what the Forest Service tried to make it seem like it’s about, but in reality most of the ecosystems in California are highly adapted, resilient, and resistant to wildfires,” Baker continued. “In the end, a lot of this work will do more harm than good, and instead the Forest Service should focus its efforts in key places right next to home.”

Andy Caldwell, representative of the Santa Barbara County Coalition of Labor, Agriculture, and Business, said he supported this project.

“By eliminating thinning, logging, fuel breaks, control burns, and the like, we allowed our wildlands to create a density of trees that are up to 10 [times] more than what is optimal for a healthy forest ecosystem,” Caldwell said in a statement. “This hands-off policy has been an unmitigated disaster. Millions of acres have burned resulting in scores of deaths with entire communities lost in the process.” 

By not intervening, a fire-friendly environment is created, which leads to future problems like mudslides, debris flows, and reduced air quality, Caldwell continued.

Kinports and the U.S. Forest Service—along with several environmental scientists cited in the project proposal—find that some form of human intervention is necessary to save the forest.

“With projections on climate in California—the warming in California—there’s going to be wildfires. Wildfire is not going away, and it’s something we’ll have do deal with, and our population in our forest will be susceptible to it. A management approach is needed to address climate change,” he said. 

Through the Ecological Restoration Project, the Forest Service’s approach depends on whether the area is forested or scrubland (chaparral), and from there it can decide what kind of treatment to do, Kinports explained.

“Basically what we’ve got are conifer forests that are overgrown with trees and that’s leading to declining health with those tree stands, and putting them at risk for wildfire,” he said. “Our intent with this project is to complete thinning within those areas and improve resiliency of those areas from disturbances like wildfires.” 

Tree thinning provides better opportunities for larger trees to survive, he added. The ongoing drought and climate change has put water in short supply, which stresses trees and leaves them more susceptible to insect infestations and disease, making them more at risk for more severe fire. Conversely, within chaparral forests, the service is seeing fire too frequently and seeking to address that by reducing fuel through thinning and trimming areas along roads near forest boundaries and around communities, he said. 

“What we are seeing is not enough fire in forested areas, that’s a result of suppression policies over the past century where we’ve been actively extinguishing fires. That’s led to overgrowth and too much fuel. ... What we see with high severity fires is it burns and consumes most of the vegetation there, resulting in the mortality of trees,” Kinports said. 

He also pointed out that wildfire is not just a threat to communities, but to wildlife. Fires can be extremely detrimental to endangered species like the California condor and California spotted owl. Although the Forest Service supports home-hardening for fire safety, Kinports said those decisions and efforts are beyond the service’s control. 

“What we can [control] is how the forests are managed. With fire suppression over the past century, that’s led to forested ecosystems that are not at their historical condition. We’re having too frequent fire in chaparral and not enough fire in the forest,” Kinports said. “Just leaving it alone is not going to benefit the ecosystem, and that’s why we’re proposing the actions we’re taking as part of this project.”

Reach Staff Writer Taylor O’Connor at [email protected].

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