Scientists say WA wildfire management must go beyond forests

...This rangeland burned in the massive Pearl Hill Fire on Labor Day weekend near Bridgeport, a town in Douglas County. The flames then traveled into this prime sage grouse and pygmy rabbit habitat less than 24 hours later. Firefighters caught it at the highway. “Right now, it looks like a moonscape, whereas before, it was this diverse shrubland, with a lot of life and flowers and grasses and wildlife,” says Corinna Hanson, Moses Coulee land manager at The Nature Conservancy. In Washington, the shrub-steppe ecosystem historically covered about one-third of the state. Now, it’s estimated less than half of that is still intact. “It’s what I consider to be a threatened ecosystem,” Hanson says. Many of Washington’s largest fires have burned through rangeland, not timber forests, particularly during the megafires propelled by hurricane-force winds over Labor Day weekend in what’s been called an “unprecedented fire event.” Gov. Jay Inslee called the disaster “climate fires.” Extremely dry fuels — which will become drier as the climate changes — made the area ready to burn. All that was needed were sparks. Researchers have told Oregon Public Broadcasting that the winds that fanned the Labor Day weekend fires could also be connected to climate change...MORE

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I suspect we will see more and more of this, with global warming responsible for moonscapes and even wind. The scientists want more federal research dollars and the enviros more federal control and efforts to eliminate commercial activity. Just as federal law enforcement used the war on drugs to increase their authority and budgets, and then switched to fighting terrorists when that became more lucrative, the enviros have gone from using endangered species to now the frightening specter of global warming to further their political goals. Federal law enforcement comes at us with surveillance and weapons, while the enviros imprison us with lawsuits, judges and media campaigns. Two different goals but very similar tactics.  In both cases, however, we end up with less freedom.