Fighting Fire With Fire — Burning Trees To Save Them
by Marcus Thompson & Stewart Mcmorrow
The old adage of “fighting fire with fire” is a concept that is colloquially coded into all of our vernacular — but when it comes to forest fire, it doesn’t hold as warm a place in our hearts or minds.
With catastrophic wildfires almost endlessly ravaging the habitats, landscapes, and homes of California and its citizens, there are very few left who look at fire in the forest as having any utility whatsoever.
In our research for FIREWATCH, a project that uses NFTs to prevent wildfire in California in partnership with One Tree Planted, we learned that forest fire isn’t always a bad thing — quite the contrary: Fire can be good.
We sat down with Stewart McMorrow, Registered Professional Forester and Staff Chief of Wildfire and Forest Resilience Task Force — to help us deepen our understanding of this “controversial” POV—and ensure FIREWATCH made the most lasting impact possible by raising funds and fighting fires.
Understanding Fire
Fire is a natural part of the ecosystem.
For thousands of years, forests were able to sustain themselves without human intervention, which begs the question:
Why are fires getting so intense in recent years?
Climate change certainly plays a role in the heat and drought conditions of certain areas, but in many ways, the rise of population and the construction of homes in areas that were formerly sites of regular burning exacerbates the problem in a major way.
“Across the California landscape, you see an increase in the amount of homes and people that are living in the middle of these environments that used to burn regularly. [And then] when fire does take, it destroys the communities, and in some cases, that’s a direct result of us putting out fires for a hundred years or so and not letting it do its natural thing.” — Stewart McMorrow
Stewart continued to say:
“We were saving ourselves and our communities, so putting the fires out wasn’t a bad thing — but we need to actually start figuring out how to reapply fire and control it so that it doesn’t destroy native forest ecosystems to the point where they will not recover.”
Types of Good Fire
It’s understandable that many citizens are wary of the use of fire — but many experts like Stewart hold a different opinion.
“If we’re going to continue living in these areas, we have to live with fire, not against it.” — Stewart McMorrow
When it comes to controlling a blaze, there are a few methods that have stood the test of time, and are proven to be effective in keeping fire intensity at bay. When forests go unkempt, the dead leaves, fallen limbs, and other natural debris begins to build on the forest floor. This buildup is called “fuel”.
In the absence of property and people, the natural fires would burn often, and at lesser intensity, effectively eating up the buildup before it becomes sufficient enough to become an inferno.
Since people are not going anywhere anytime soon, many of these areas require an intentional approach to keep them safe.
- Controlled burns (Setting planned fires to maintain the health of a forest)
- Prescribed fire (Planned fire considering public safety and weather conditions)
- Back burning (Controlled fires to eliminate the fuel in the path of a wildfire)
- Fuel reduction (Targeted burning of land to control fire behavior)
- Burnouts (When a moving fire runs out of “fuel” — it slows down and can stop)
Throughout our conversation, Stewart made reference to these methods of carefully calculating an area. They are all different ways of burning what needs to be burned in a controlled manner. These methods mimic the cycles that forests need to stay healthy, or stop already burning fires in their tracks before they cause major damage.
“There are a lot of forest managers that have been implementing prescribed burns for a long time — and native tribes that have implemented them for thousands of years.
We [organizations like the Wildfire and Forest Reslience Task Force] are trying to bring them back to communities like the tribes who still have that long standing knowledge of how it is beneficial for the landscapes that they and their ancestors used to live on.” — Stewart
Fired up for FireWatch
With forests and families at stake, there are few that will dispute that we as a community — as a country — need to take action, NOW.
The idea for FIREWATCH.fund began as a rallying cry — a direct-response to the changing landscape of California that our team members grew up enjoying, that provides funding for ongoing projects of vital importance to the future of the land.
In recent years, many of these luscious landscapes have been reduced to decimated dystopian barren plots. The forests need our help.
In our outreach, we searched high and low for professionals to provide us guidance to ensure that our efforts would be effective, and really get to the root of what needs to be done to make a measurable impact.
He continued to say:
“It’s a learning experience, and people need to know that if they’re investing that the funding is going to go directly to work. If a forest is being manipulated in a positive way, it’s going to affect everyone.
So as a citizen of the state, if a forest burns down it’s not just damaging that landscape, it’s damaging my ecosystem.
We need to see a more dedicated long term equity stake in relationship to individuals who have the ability to make a difference — And every individual has some ability to make a difference in an area that they care about.”
