TIMES RECORD • September 17, 2020
Management policies have created tinderboxes in Western forests, and climate change has made it much more likely that those tinderboxes will erupt into destructive fires. A third factor is that development has expanded into once-wild areas, putting more people and property in harm’s way. Addressing just part of this problem will produce incomplete solutions. Rather, a multipronged strategy is needed. One element is improving forest management to make these lands less primed to burn. The other is reducing carbon emissions and reining in global temperatures – the only way to moderate climate conditions that make fires larger and more likely. ~ Steven C. Beda, University of Oregon, environmental historian