Why the West Needs More Fires
As Fire Seasons worsen, we need to relearn the old ways of working with fire and embrace indigenous stewardship practices.
As I write, fire rages across the western US and Canada. Late summer the Pacific Northwest now means Fire Season. Smoke from forest fires turns blue skies gray, the sunrises orange and sunsets red, and hampers plans for summer recreation anywhere except near the breeze-soaked coast. For the unluckiest, of course, it means flames. Homes lost. Lives lost.
It wasn’t always like this.
I’ve lived in this bioregion only nine years, but I remember a time before these oppressively smoky conditions started to seem like a dreaded inevitability. It used to be Cascadia’s residents favorite time of year, the season of warm nights and water sports.
Now, even the anticipation of Fire Season is enough to aggravate my insecurities around committing to a home and getting attached to any plot of land when it could burn away at a moment’s notice. This can in turn aggravate my climate despair, the assumption of guilt that somehow, I, as a member of humanity, would deserve it, after all the harm our species has done to the Earth.
In many ways, this has been a long time coming. Our society is reaping what our…
