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| Martin fire, Nevada |
Nick Bowlin
Between the town of Elko, Nevada, and the Idaho border stretches some of the most remote land in the Lower 48, rolling hills and arid basins as far as the eye can see. Last July, this section of the Owyhee Desert was scorched by a fierce, fast-moving blaze with 40-foot flames, the largest wildfire in state history. In the end, the Martin Fire burned 435,000 acres, including some of the West’s finest sagebrush habitat. Now, the raw range wind whips up the bare earth into enormous black clouds that roil on the horizon. Once rare, fires that large, hot and destructive are now common in the Great Basin, a 200,000-square-mile region of mountains and valleys that includes all of Nevada and much of Utah, as well as parts of California, Idaho and Oregon. But despite the rising fire risk, a general lack of attention is putting the rangeland in growing danger...Historically, sagebrush habitat burned about once every century or less, but now it happens around every five to 10 years. Over the past two decades, more than 15 million acres of sagebrush have been permanently lost to fire, according to the BLM, 9 million of them since 2014. Overall, since 2000, more acres of shrubland or grasssland have burned than forest...MORE
2 comments:
The article says the following: "more than 15 million acres of sagebrush have been permanently lost to fire,". I am having a little trouble with the word permanent since species eradication by fire would be a first. I doubt that fire is any more aggressive in the control of sagebrush than plowing is, and there were thousands of acres plowed to remove sagebrush in the west. Without constant maintenance the sagebrush is moving back into its original space. So permanent is not something which describes fire and sagebrush IMO.
It looks like the solution is available as a matter of statute since 2003 as found in 43CFR§4190.1 "Effect of wildfire management decisions". This statute is further strengthened by Presidential Executive Order 13855 of December 21, 2018;
Promoting Active Management of America’s Forests, Rangelands, and Other Federal Lands To Improve Conditions and Reduce Wildfire Risk
Grazing is probably the most effective and efficient method for reducing fire risk on rangelands but is not being used as a management tool to any substantial level. Federal employees have been given approval by both Congress and the Executive but fail to make the decisions and do the work.
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