When is local fire use arson or good fire management
When Is Local Fire Use Arson or Good Fire Management? In much of the world today as countries develop a robust firefighting capacity there is increasing pressure by national and regional authorities and firefighters to replace local agricultural and wildfire mitigation burning with fire exclusion. In some of the more developed countries the move to fire exclusion has in large succeeded with a corresponding rise in heavy fuel loads resulting in more intense and unstoppable wildfires. In other countries especially in Asia there still is a great need by local people to continue to use local burning for economic reasons. Here the authorities are encountering stiff resistance to the imposition of fire exclusion, even when they are labeled as criminals and arsonists for continuing the fire practices that have served them well for generations even thousands of years.
I want to make myself very clear lest I be misunderstood. I support wildfire suppression to protect lives, property and ecosystems, but I do not support fire suppression for the imposition of fire exclusion in place of good fire management. We have to protect our citizens and their property first, but then we must develop reasonable prescribed fire regulations to build and protect the world’s largely fire dependent ecosystems not further degrade them with fire exclusion. In fact good fire management requires both fire suppression and good local fire use with both regional and local authorities working closely together for common solutions.
Community involvement in decision making is paramount to come up with good fire management solutions. The Southeastern United States leads the world in prescribed fire use, reasonable regulations and community involvement in relation to fire use. The rest of the world can rightly look to the Southeastern United States for solutions to their wildfire mitigation and ecological restoration issues. Why reinvent the wheel so to speak when these solutions can be copied and adapted to other countries and regions of the world. For instance there are good fire management templates available on the Internet for US national parks, forests and state and private lands. In addition there are some very good organizations that work in an integrated way with communities and governments like Firewise and the Prescribed Fire Councils.
The divide between local people and regional authorities and firefighters is especially severe in countries other than China where the local people still can fight back by covertly lighting fires for economic and survival reasons. In Russia, India, Thailand and Viet Nam local burning is criminalized and local burners using fire to protect their villages and for agriculture are considered arsonists. Regional and national authorities see no distinction between legitimate local fire ignitions and illegitimate ones like carelessness and true arson cases.
A recent article found on a Facebook Russian firefighting group illustrates this divide very well. “"Gurulev proposed to dismiss the foresters of Transbaikalia, blaming the fires on dry thunderstorms.. Deputy Chairman of the Government of the Trans-Baikal Territory, Andrei Gurulyov, on April 10 suggested promptly dismissing foresters, who called the “dry thunderstorm” the cause of fires, covering forest arsonists.”
Another misconception that feeds this divide between regional authorities, firefighters and local burners is because of the widespread destruction and modifying of fire adapted ecosystems due to human activity. Many firefighters and authorities in Russia falsely believe that institution of fire exclusion or “minimal” fire use will somehow bring back the original Russian ecosystems when the die has already been cast. All that can be done now is create preserves maintained under good fire management plans and to work closely with locals to maintain the already changed forever fire adapted ecosystems in a way that benefits nature and local people economically dependent on the land and its resources.
Those that have an interest in global and regional prescribed fire issues can join our Facebook group Association of Fire Management Activists.
I want to make myself very clear lest I be misunderstood. I support wildfire suppression to protect lives, property and ecosystems, but I do not support fire suppression for the imposition of fire exclusion in place of good fire management. We have to protect our citizens and their property first, but then we must develop reasonable prescribed fire regulations to build and protect the world’s largely fire dependent ecosystems not further degrade them with fire exclusion. In fact good fire management requires both fire suppression and good local fire use with both regional and local authorities working closely together for common solutions.
Community involvement in decision making is paramount to come up with good fire management solutions. The Southeastern United States leads the world in prescribed fire use, reasonable regulations and community involvement in relation to fire use. The rest of the world can rightly look to the Southeastern United States for solutions to their wildfire mitigation and ecological restoration issues. Why reinvent the wheel so to speak when these solutions can be copied and adapted to other countries and regions of the world. For instance there are good fire management templates available on the Internet for US national parks, forests and state and private lands. In addition there are some very good organizations that work in an integrated way with communities and governments like Firewise and the Prescribed Fire Councils.
The divide between local people and regional authorities and firefighters is especially severe in countries other than China where the local people still can fight back by covertly lighting fires for economic and survival reasons. In Russia, India, Thailand and Viet Nam local burning is criminalized and local burners using fire to protect their villages and for agriculture are considered arsonists. Regional and national authorities see no distinction between legitimate local fire ignitions and illegitimate ones like carelessness and true arson cases.
A recent article found on a Facebook Russian firefighting group illustrates this divide very well. “"Gurulev proposed to dismiss the foresters of Transbaikalia, blaming the fires on dry thunderstorms.. Deputy Chairman of the Government of the Trans-Baikal Territory, Andrei Gurulyov, on April 10 suggested promptly dismissing foresters, who called the “dry thunderstorm” the cause of fires, covering forest arsonists.”
Another misconception that feeds this divide between regional authorities, firefighters and local burners is because of the widespread destruction and modifying of fire adapted ecosystems due to human activity. Many firefighters and authorities in Russia falsely believe that institution of fire exclusion or “minimal” fire use will somehow bring back the original Russian ecosystems when the die has already been cast. All that can be done now is create preserves maintained under good fire management plans and to work closely with locals to maintain the already changed forever fire adapted ecosystems in a way that benefits nature and local people economically dependent on the land and its resources.
Those that have an interest in global and regional prescribed fire issues can join our Facebook group Association of Fire Management Activists.