America’s fires: what did Trump say about them and is it true?

US President Donald Trump is trying to hold the Forestry Department accountable for the devastating fires ravaging more than ten US states, rather than climate change as the main factor behind these fires.

When asked during a visit to California about the role of climate change, Trump said: “I think this has more to do with forest management.”

He pointed to other countries with forests, saying: “I go to Austria, Finland and many different countries where there are no fires …”.

So is poor forest management responsible for worsening fires?

Who runs the forests?

First, most of the forests in California, Oregon and Washington are not the responsibility of state authorities, in fact their portion of forest land is small.

In California, the federal government owns about 58 percent of its 33 million acres of forest, according to the state governor’s office. The state itself owns only three percent, and the rest is owned by individuals, companies, or indigenous peoples.

The situation is similar in Oregon, where large proportions of forest land are under federal rather than state administration, as well as private ownership.

In Washington state, state authorities own only 12 percent of forest land, 43 percent from the federal government, and 36 percent from the private sector.

Federal agencies such as the United States Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management, and the National Park Service are responsible for the conservation of lands owned by the federal government and, when it comes to private forests, landowners. they must administer them.

State and federal agencies have programs to encourage cooperation and apply best practices when it comes to managing and preserving private forest lands, including reducing the risk of wildfires.

Federal agencies’ budgets have faced further cuts during the Trump years, while some private budgets aimed at reducing wildfire risks have increased.

California fires are turning the sky orange

Could there be better forest management?

Two years ago, Trump also criticized the California Forest Administration. He compared it to what Finland was doing and said the forests had been razed and cut down to prevent fires.

Finland cannot be directly compared to California due to differences in climate, types of vegetation cover, and land use. But experts believe there are problems with the way forests and land use are managed in California and elsewhere.

Scott Stevens, one of the University of California’s top wildland fire officials, has been questioning forest management priorities for years, noting that there are many dead trees left standing in parts of the state due to drought and disease. , although they increase the risk of devastating fires.

Professor Stephan Doer, a wildland fire expert at the University of Swansea in Britain, sheds light on the modern practice of fire suppression by allowing some limited fires to start and creating gaps in the forest to prevent the spread of fires.

“For centuries, indigenous peoples have been burning parts of the forest … This would reduce the density of flammable vegetation and make the forests less dense.”

“But the focus is on putting out the fires, and that has now led to climate change, creating what looks like a ‘matchbox’ of vegetation,” says Doer.

California fire: helicopters rescue dozens of people trapped in a camp in the US state.

The US Forest Service has tried to correct this in recent years by starting fires in so-called “controlled” or “surgical” fires.

However, there are doubts whether sufficient resources have been allocated for this or whether it is too late to prevent major fires.

John Bailey, an expert on wildfires at Oregon State University, told the BBC that at the time the administration was lighting surgical fires in the state, “but it seems they are insufficient to keep up with the amounts of firewood and weeds that accumulate annually “.

“There are places where it makes sense to weaken our forests, and we are doing it,” admitted Washington State Governor Jay Inslee.

But he criticized President Trump for highlighting this factor, not climate change: “These are fires caused by climate change.”

What is the role of climate change? In these fires؟

Drought and high temperatures dry out vegetation and become more flammable. Add to that the fact that the winter seasons, when it rains or snows, get shorter year after year.

In terms of loss of life and property damage, the data shows that the worst fires have occurred in the last ten years, except for a 1991 fire in Alameda County.

This year, there were also unusually strong winds with droughts in parts of the western United States. Six of the largest fires on record in California have occurred this year.

Professor Dwyer says that a combination of severe drought conditions, high temperatures and high winds is the main factor in the recent fires.

He adds that even in areas where there have been attempts to reduce the density of combustible forest cover in forests, it is unclear what effect this will have on current fires.

“The bottom line is that extreme weather conditions are the main drivers of these severe fires.”

Why are these Fires Exceptسوأ؟

One of the main problems related to these fires is the increasing number of people moving from urban areas to live near forests.

A 2018 study for the United States National Academy of Sciences estimated that one in three homes now exists in such areas, and this situation creates an increase in several problems, including:

• Increased risk of wildfire incidents near forests or other areas with flammable materials.
• Greater probability of material damage in case of fire.
• It becomes difficult to allow controlled fires to reduce vegetation.

A 2015 USDA report warned that the expansion of urban areas alongside forests “has increased the likelihood that wildfires threaten property and people.”