‘Creating beautiful, productive, manageable landscapes that are fire-wise, fire-smart’

Oregon’s primed for wildfire. A mild, moist winter was great for plant growth. It’s been exceptionally hot and dry since early spring, and much of that new growth has become burnable. With an ignition source and gusting winds, it would be perfect conditions for wildfire.

This isn’t just a year of anomalous weather, it’s an emergence of extremes under a climatic trend. No credible science predicts these trends will reverse in our lifetimes, or those of our children and grandchildren. In the near term, the federal government’s readiness to respond to wildfire emergencies is in doubt – especially if multiple fires break out across the West.

Whether extreme wildfire burns this year in the Willamette Valley is a roll of the dice – and again next year and the next. And the dice are increasingly stacked in wildfire’s favor.
What do we do? We take care of ourselves. We care for each other. We build community. We don’t gamble. We load the dice in our favor. We build resilience and self-reliance. But what about beauty?

Too often, wildfire risk mitigation is seen as a removal of something, a taking away. It is “fuels reduction.” But it shouldn’t be just about a lessening. It’s about a making. Not solely a scarcity of fuels but an abundance of things useful, productive, beautiful. More like taking a large block of marble and removing material until a pleasing sculpture remains.

It’s about creating beautiful, productive, manageable landscapes that are fire-wise and fire-smart. When I first began learning about wildfire risk reduction, a fire manager told me “stop looking at the vegetation. You need to see the fuels.” I know now that I need to see both.

To see the landscape as fire sees it, I need to recognize the types and quantities of fuels, and their continuity along the ground toward our home and upward into the tree canopy. I need to assess where to reduce the fuels that control ignitability, flame length and fire intensity, and where to break up the continuity that supports fire transmission from one place to another.

But through this reorganization of fuels around my home, I also need to experience beauty. If people don’t love the landscapes they’re creating when they reduce and reshape their fuel loads, they will sooner or later abandon their efforts, either out of neglect or from being disheartened by what they’ve lost.

Every time a wildfire ignites, the dice begin to roll – over and over. Will this tree torch from ladder fuels that lead from the ground up into the canopy? Will gusting winds create an ember shower from trees a mile or more away that beats against your roof and walls? Will one of those embers get into the vents beneath the eaves and start a fire that burns your house from the inside out?

All we can do is load the dice in our favor. Each one of us needs to decide how much risk to take and where. Because homes are lost during extreme fires, you want to prepare for the worst. But how bad a “worst” case? In our yard, we’ve spent 20 years creating wildlife habitat for native birds and insects. We love our shady backyard and the birds love our dense shrubs. We love their leaves and blossoms and berries. Every day. How do we compare this daily value against the potential that the added fuels might threaten our home in a once-in-a-lifetime fire?

The most compelling evidence that fuels reduction around homes reduces losses is for a 5-foot zone around the house. Beyond that, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. The biggest issue is reducing the likelihood of fire transmission to your home – for example, replacing the last 5 feet of a connected wooden fence with metal so that it can’t act like the fuse on a stick of dynamite.

The same goes for burnable vegetation that could lead fire toward your home or up under the eaves. But not all vegetation burns easily. The mixed results of fuels reduction outside the 5-foot zone have led some researchers to question whether in fact, well-maintained, irrigated vegetation near the home can create a protective barrier that “reduce(s) exposure to fires by blocking wind and heat and intercepting embers.”

There are few certainties with wildfire. It obeys the laws of physics but it also rolls the dice. Load the dice in your favor for that rare, extreme wildfire that may never come. But do it in ways that please your senses and serve your needs every day.

The primary ignition source for urban homes is nearby burning homes. Focus first on that. Protect yourself, your neighbors and our community. And create food and flower gardens, wildlife habitat, and places of beauty and delight for yourself, and your household.