It matters… ‘in a concrete, affect-your-daily-lives way’

This week, if you just watch one thing, make it the brief video of the memorial for Assistant Chief Josh Bischof shared by Cal Fire Riverside. Chief Bischof was one of three who perished on a helicopter that crashed in Riverside County a month ago🖤. The video brings home the heaviest cost of the profession which can be incredibly tragic, and is a risk that firefighter’s families live with, daily. 

This week:

• Notes from the Fire Tower (thoughts on the news about fire) is now its own post on substack. This week: Whose 🔥 fire gets reported?
• ClimateNative plant pocket gardens, 🌿 prescribed burn effectiveness in Kelowna, Canada 🇨🇦, and attribution science 🌎
• Firefighting🌺 Maui update, the impact of climate change on national security, and a drone putting firefighters at risk in Texas 🛸
• FiretechThe debate between climate adaptation vs prevention, and the internet of trees 🌳
• What’s burning? 🔥Greece, Louisiana, Oregon… among others

Climate

Native plant pocket gardens, prescribed burn effectiveness in Kelowna, Canada, and attribution science

• Small pockets of native plants are being found to have an outsize impact on their neighborhoods—as wildlife refuges, for stormwater absorption, as carbon sinks, and “tiny forests can help lower temperatures in places where pavement, buildings and concrete surfaces absorb and retain heat from the sun.” Big kudos to all gardeners, garden docents, teachers and guerilla planters, you are on the right track no matter which side of the 🌱native plant density controversy 🌿 you stand (that is my attempt at native plant clickbait, what do you think?).
• Researchers have shown this week that climate change makes the hot, dry and windy conditions that Canada faced in what would become its most devastating fire season on record at least twice as likely to occur as they would be in a world that humans hadn’t warmed by burning fossil fuels. The researchers are part of a group called World Weather Attribution, which is part of a burgeoning research movement which aims to study how human activities have influenced disasters from floods to fires. Previously I turned to this Union of Concerned Scientists story to understand what people are calling attribution science. 
• The efficacy of prescribed burns in protecting Kelowna, Canada is highlighted in this article about forest resilience and indigenous stewarship in The New York Times. A fire resistant zone around the town of Kelowna protected suburban areas and provided an area where firefighters could get a handle on the fire by starving it of easy fuel. The First Nation's elders instructed Dave Gill, the general manager of forestry at Ntityix Development, to manage the forest on a 120-year timeline, this, coupled with what he learned from his Indigenous co-workers changed how he thinks about the forest.While forest fighting requires (and receives) billions of dollars, the funding for projects that prevent fires from taking hold is generally modest.

“We’re leaving the trees that have the most timber value behind,” Mr. Gill, said. “This is trying to just instill a different paradigm in the way that you look at the forest, not just putting dollar signs on trees.”

• Canada pledges to accelerate acting on climate change at a global environment conference in British Columbia

"No one country, no one people can pretend anymore that what happens or doesn't happen on the other side of the world doesn't matter to them," [Prime Minister Justin] Trudeau said. "And not just 'doesn't matter' even in an abstract way, but 'doesn't matter' in a concrete, affect-your-daily-lives way.

• And, conspiracy theorists have been very busy this fire season.

Firefighting

Maui update, the impact of climate change on national security, and a drone putting firefighters at risk in Texas

• In Maui the fatality count is holding at 115, an evocative reminder of how devastating the fire conditions were in Lahaina, making it difficult to identify human remains. About a hundred people have been confirmed alive from 388 names made public late last week, though many still do not have news about their loved ones, water is still unfit for consumption and fingers are being pointed on who is to blame for the devastation—is it the utility? Or the fire agency? 
• The National Guard is concerned that the impact of climate change, changing fire behavior and causing other natural disasters, is straining troop resources nationwide, impacting our national security and necessitating specialized training.
• A drone interrupted firefighting operations in Texas, in a dangerous close call with a helicopter and multiple media outlets delivered a very strong message that this is a felony offense, and potentially deadly for the firefighters onboard, while also jeopardizing the efforts to suppress the fire.
• In Canada, as elsewhere, volunteer firefighters face shortages as well as increased workloads as they respond to more types of emergencies and more extreme weather
• Greece is calling for reinforcement as over 600 firefighters with air support struggle to contain three major blazes—ignited by a variety of lighting, negligence and arson. 
• In Northern California we’ll be experiencing our first power outages of the fire season during red flag weather warnings this week.

Firetech

The debate between climate adaptation vs prevention, and the internet of trees 🌳

• Many in the wildfire technology space face a conundrum when it comes to talking to climate investors, who want to fund work that will end climate change, not adapt to it.

Notes on the IoT… internet of trees… (what did you think I meant?). Tech story on Dryad sensors to detect fires early, when they’re small.

Solar-powered sensors, placed about one per hectare throughout the forest’s understory, detect wildfires in their early smouldering phase by ‘smelling’ tell-tale gases like hydrogen and carbon monoxide in microscopic quantities. They also monitor temperature, humidity, and air pressure. 

• Bloomberg published a European-centric roundup of firetech which is worth a read if you have access behind the paywall. 

What’s burning?

Greece, Louisiana, Oregon… among others

• Turkey, Greece, Italy—in Greece, which is still pouring resources into fire suppression without getting a hold on the fires, they have experienced at least 18 fatalities as reported last week (it was revealed that among the 18 there were two children, believed to be migrants💔). The fires are suspected to have been started by arson. There are some very strong images coming from the Greek fires, and by strong I mean that I looked at them with my hand on my heart and tears in my eyes. 
• Oregon, Louisiana “nobody in our state has had to address a fire like this before.”

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