
A controlled blaze in Utah could improve models of how wildfire smoke spreads - Anon84
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-01604-w
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andrei_says_
Forests that have been clear cut have a different structure from old forests
and burn very differently. Most California fires were of the former kind.

In “Young” forests grown in the place of clear cut “old forests”, the
shrubbery grows before the trees and is very thick. The trees are not that
high and the branches are close to the ground. These forests get completely
annihilated by fire.

Old forests have tall trees, with branches away from the ground and almost no
shrubbery. So when a fire happens, the shrubbery tends to burn out before any
trees catch on fire. Such forests are benefitted by fires.

Cleaning the shrubbery in some parts of idlewild, ca prevented the forest from
burning during the recent fires. It’s a strategy that is proven to work.

Not clear cutting forests also helps of course.

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magduf
It sounds to me like there's a very simple solution to this problem: just
don't clear-cut forests.

Of course, as usual with stupid humans, when there's a very simple solution to
a problem, they absolutely refuse to do it, usually because some selfish
person is benefiting from the action that's causing the problem, and countless
other people are perfectly happy to enable that person.

~~~
Spooky23
Were we in 1819, then I would agree.

Unfortunately, we're in 2019, and it's already happened. You're stuck with
homogenous forests.

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magduf
This is incorrect. There are still old-growth forests, such as the Amazon, but
they're still being clear-cut.

It's very, very simple: stop doing that.

No, we can't easily get back the old-growth forests in the US, as that ship
has sailed, but there's more to the planet than the US, and we can stop
causing even more damage. But we don't want to.

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xeromal
Brazil isn't going to stop so do we invade a sovereign nation to get them to
stop in order to benefit the world?

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darkpuma
If you ranked all wars humanity has fought from most justified to least, I
expect your proposed war would be rather near the top.

~~~
xeromal
Oh, I definitely agree. I just don't think anyone else is on board with me.
There should be UN forces that help steward our earth from dipshit despots.

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snowwindwaves
Http://firesmoke.ca is a website I am unfortunately visiting already this
year.

on top of destroying people's homes and lives, what used to be the best couple
months of summer are pretty much ruined for any type of outdoor activity from
Mexico to Alaska and la push to Regina.

It is already hazy around vancouver due to the big fires in Alberta. We also
had a fire get out of control in early April when the ground is supposed to be
super wet still.

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Shivetya
they do occasional controlled burns in Eastern Alabama and the acrid smoke
smell can saturate North West Atlanta and further North.

Nice little PDF from forestry service about Southern Burns
[https://www.fs.fed.us/rm/pubs/rmrs_gtr292/1989_wade.pdf](https://www.fs.fed.us/rm/pubs/rmrs_gtr292/1989_wade.pdf)

