The Death of Photojournalism, in full color. Me Backpedalling Big Time.

[Alan Edward Klein]

Let's put this years fire season in perspective. According to the USDA Forest Service in 1930 approximately 50 million acres burned in wildfires, while this year it will be around 10 million acres. In no way am I trying to ignore the devastation and losses felt by those on the west coast. Nor am I discounting those firefighters working hard to save life and property. What makes modern fires so devastating is just how many people live in the wild land/urban interface. People like to live in the woods. What might have once been hunting or line shacks are now multimillion dollar homes in fairly dense neighborhoods.

Every year (except this covid-19 year) my fire department in Sublette County (Wyoming) trains with BLM and Forest service firefighters to better integrate on initial attacks and fire fighting strategies. We always hold these trainings in important communities that typify the wild land/urban interface. Every year we cover the same problems: narrow roads!, limited water sources, poor home owner fire mitigation, and short-sighted home owners associations that restrict tree cutting close to homes. It is amazing how much land management around the home and neighborhoods can protect homes. My guess is that insurance companies will be the drivers to address the problems I listed.

A second factor is historical fire management practices by the Forest Service and short sighted viewpoints by some environmental groups (my personal opinion). Managed grazing, logging, and fires (letting more acres burn) can all be helpful devices to reducing under story growth and deadfall accumulation, as well as, contribute to road maintenance. I don't know about what the forests are like where you live, but most near me are dead fall messes with unnaturally close tree spacings (or so I'm told by range management experts). Grazing can be helpful, too. I've seen running fires stop dead at a forest grassy areas because it had been recently grazed by cattle. Grazing should not be eliminated but managed better. Right now out west we have a three way firing squads of ranchers, environmental groups, and federal land managers, all to the detriment of what each group wants to see - healthy rangelands and forests.

It seems like simple construction codes like flame proof roofs and siding would go a long way.

 

[Sirius Glass]

It seems like simple construction codes like flame proof roofs and siding would go a long way.

+1

 

[Alan Edward Klein]

The Aborigines have been in Australia for 65,000 years and are the oldest continuous civilization [the Neanderthal started cave paintings 14,000 years ago.]. The Aborigines had been doing controlled burns over 40,000 years ago. Thus Australia did not have these large burns over the 65,000 year period until only very recently with the European take over. Controlled burns are small slow burning fires that do not get very hot. The mega fires burn very hot and sterilize the soil for decades. Obviously the Aborigines were doing something right. Read about controlled burns and other things the Aborigines did in Dark Emu: Black Seeds: Agriculture or Accident? by Bruce Pascoe https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Emu_(book)

New Jersey does controlled burning of brush a few miles from my home in a fairly populated area. They burn into the wind so it moves slowly and they can control it. It's not in major woods.

 

[Alan Edward Klein]

The other advantage of NJ and the east is we get a lot of rain. Even though homes may be surrounded by lots of woods and trees and brush, the climate is wetter than the west especially California which gets very hot and dry during long periods of every year. New York's Catskills and Adirondacks (6 million acres) and the Appalachians have huge forests. But you don't hear of these kinds of fires which hit the west every year.

 

[wyofilm]

It seems like simple construction codes like flame proof roofs and siding would go a long way.

You are right, especially with the roof, but so much more has to be done. Fire wood stacked near (or against the house), above ground porches used as storage of fuel, firewood, lumber, solvents, etc., trees close to the house. Trees close to the house should at least limbed at least six feet off the ground. How many houses in the west have you seen up slope of a forest. Without mitigation that house is a goner when fire starts running up the hill.

You might be surprised just how many firefighters are detailed to structure protection ahead of an approaching wild land fire. Such crews will come in and physically move away from houses things like wood stacked under/on porches or near houses, cut down threatening trees, limb trees to above six feet, install sprinklers around the house. I've been on such crews.

Home owners could and should do ALL of these things to protect their homes. It is remarkable to see a single home undamaged in a neighborhood of destroyed homes.

 

[Vaughn]

It seems like simple construction codes like flame proof roofs and siding would go a long way.

That gets you going about 10 mph when the fire is coming at you at 60 mph.

Fires are hot enough to cause spontaneous combustion inside, even if you have flame-proof material covering your structure on the outside. It does not have to be contact with actual flames, but the super-heated air in front of the flames.

But also important is no vents into attic via the eves that will allow embers into the attic. No shade trees and shrubbery within 100 feet of your house. Constant fuel removal. A min. of 1000 gallons of water stored, and so on. And a lot of luck.

Locally where I worked for the USFS, CalFire (then CDF) tried to mark properties that kept up their safe zones and those which did not...with the idea the crews would know how to react and also know which ones they have a chance in saving. They used colored reflectors on mailboxes, etc. Once the locals figured it out, they removed the ones signifying no safe zone and put safe zone reflectors on their mailboxes. This was in the 80s -- now aerial imaging probably replaces the need.

Alan...you are right there. Granted I have only been in the Great Smokey Mountains once and in the summer, but it being wet is one thing I remember! Wetter than the redwoods in the summer, for sure. But they evacuated people living in the redwoods along the Eel River this past week as the Western Zone of the August Complex Fire worked its way towards them. They can go back home, but are on high alert...probably pretty high, too, with all the cannabis up in flames.

 

[Sirius Glass]

The other advantage of NJ and the east is we get a lot of rain. Even though homes may be surrounded by lots of woods and trees and brush, the climate is wetter than the west especially California which gets very hot and dry during long periods of every year. New York's Catskills and Adirondacks (6 million acres) and the Appalachians have huge forests. But you don't hear of these kinds of fires which hit the west every year.

The east coast is not going through serial climatic droughts. If they were a fire in the Appalachians would burn to the Atlantic Ocean.

 

[DREW WILEY]

Don't speak too soon. The main difference between the West and the East is the pine beetle, which doesn't die during warmer winter's, hence massive dead pine forests and giant fires even in Alberta, Canada. If those beetles get to the East, everything might change. What are ordinarily quite wet areas of Oregon burned this year. There are all kinds of unquestionable symptoms of accelerated global warming, including 90% of the glaciers I once knew now completely gone. There have been giant fires in Siberia. People were just let back in what was once my living room view of the San Joaquin Canyon. What survived were areas that had already burnt in the last two or three decades. Fortunately, most of that country is uninhabited. But when you're talking about a thermocumulus cloud 50,000 ft high generating internal fire tornadoes that can uproot large trees and incinerate them mid-air, that's a function of very steep terrain and wind patterns. In that case, a 20 foot wide fire break won't help much; maybe a 20 mile break, maybe not. Smaller fire tornadoes up toward the ski resort took out brand new lakeside houses almost instantly. My former property did fine, although that whole area itself had to be evacuated for weeks. A tiny shift in the wind, and hell can be at your doorstep. Finally blue sky today, so me, all the kittens n cats, even the tree squirrels, are lounging in the back yard enjoying it.

 

[Vaughn]

The large fires up here are in forests not hit by beetles. manyfactors.

 

[wiltw]

And then, on top of the beetles killing trees, we have records over the past 20 years, showing significant increase in number of drought years



resulting in this...

 

[Sirius Glass]

Don't speak too soon. The main difference between the West and the East is the pine beetle, which doesn't die during warmer winter's, hence massive dead pine forests and giant fires even in Alberta, Canada. If those beetles get to the East, everything might change. What are ordinarily quite wet areas of Oregon burned this year. There are all kinds of unquestionable symptoms of accelerated global warming, including 90% of the glaciers I once knew now completely gone. There have been giant fires in Siberia. People were just let back in what was once my living room view of the San Joaquin Canyon. What survived were areas that had already burnt in the last two or three decades. Fortunately, most of that country is uninhabited. But when you're talking about a thermocumulus cloud 50,000 ft high generating internal fire tornadoes that can uproot large trees and incinerate them mid-air, that's a function of very steep terrain and wind patterns. In that case, a 20 foot wide fire break won't help much; maybe a 20 mile break, maybe not. Smaller fire tornadoes up toward the ski resort took out brand new lakeside houses almost instantly. My former property did fine, although that whole area itself had to be evacuated for weeks. A tiny shift in the wind, and hell can be at your doorstep. Finally blue sky today, so me, all the kittens n cats, even the tree squirrels, are lounging in the back yard enjoying it.

Not beetles, drought.

 

[Sirius Glass]

Oh, and we do not rake our forests.

 

[BradS]

Oh, and we do not rake our forests.

especially not our NATIONAL forests...

 

[wiltw]

Not beetles, drought.

Here is what the United States Drought Monitor has to say about drought in the West

"West
Hot and dry continues to be the theme of the region and also the monsoon season that was minimal at best, all of which is providing the conduit for continued deterioration in the region. Over the last 6 months, Arizona and California have had their warmest April–September period ever in 126 years, with New Mexico and Nevada the 2nd warmest. During that same 6-month period, Utah and Arizona have also had their driest period ever, with New Mexico having their 2nd and Colorado their 3rd driest. In Arizona, the new established record for statewide precipitation was greater than 2 inches drier than the previous record. During the current week, temperatures were warmest along the coast, where departures were 5-10 degrees above normal for the week. Drought intensified and expanded over southeast Montana and into northwest Wyoming where moderate, severe, and extreme drought all increased in coverage. A new area of moderate drought was introduced in southwest Wyoming and into southeast Idaho. Western Colorado and eastern Utah had large expansions of exceptional drought, and this also went into northwest New Mexico. Extreme drought also expanded over north central Colorado. Western and northern New Mexico as well as northeast Arizona had severe and extreme drought expand while a new area of extreme drought was introduced in eastern portions of New Mexico. In southern Arizona, extreme and exceptional drought also expanded in coverage. In Idaho, abnormally dry conditions and moderate drought expanded over the southeast and southwest portions of the state as well as into southeast Oregon. Central and northeast Oregon also had expansion of severe and extreme drought this week."​

 

[MattKing]

Colder temperatures keep beetles in check.
Warmer temperatures encouraged beetle infestation.

 

[Vaughn]

There is already too high of a water demand on many Sierra forests due to slopes/drainages that are too heavily stocked with trees (due to lack of fire, and to commercial logging practices). In a drought situation, there is less water for the already stressed trees. Climate change in the form of higher average temperatures move existing trees out of their optimal growing conditions or zones. Both weakens the trees, allowing the beetles to attack. This is basic forest science stuff.

Curious to find out how the fires affected the beetle populations...for now and in the long run.

My original remark about the lack of beetle damage up here was to illustrate that one does not have to have massive beetle damage to have massive fires.

 

[Bill Burk]

While the fire photos by journalist are impressive, the ones which got my emotions flowing are the pictures tagged to burned building pins.

https://calfire-forestry.maps.arcgi...19677.6073,-13142541.8878,4523937.7139,102100

 

[Mick Fagan]

Bill, I agree, that is an interesting and emotional way of looking at things. The maps don't have contour lines but the background shadowing implies/helps to understand the terrain. In some areas if you go in close, (I went in to 100m) at that scale you can sort of see the hills where on one side everything is gone, on the other side, everything appears to be there. Like in my country, the wind direction and the terrain you are situated on, can be the major factor.

Mick.

 

[Mainecoonmaniac]

The fires out here in California are terrible...and I find that many of the still images I am seeing of fires here and elsewhere are just as terrible, from a photojournalistic viewpoint.

Way too much image manipulation. It is as if the media has decided the hell with reality (and photojounalisms ethics) and goes with what will draw the viewers' eyes to their news feed.

I have fought a few wildland fires and have a good idea of what they look like.

Edited to add -- sorry for the drama of the Post title, but I think I will keep it up there. Photojournalism is in a lot more trouble than moving a slider in Photoshop.

Photojournalism as we knew it is dead. Newspapers are dying. Our local paper, the Sacramento Bee is moving out of their building to save money because the parent company McClatchy Newspaper went bankrupt. As for retouching pics, it’s verboten. Sac Bee has fired a photographer for photo manipulations.
https://nppa.org/news/3190
Newspapers are using “citizen journalists” pictures paying little. Also, some reporters are given IPhones instead of using a photographer. The photojournalist that remain are shooting and editing videos. Not to sound unsympathetic, it is what it is. Video killed the Radio Star. Internet killed the newspaper.

 

[Bill Burk]

Bill, I agree, that is an interesting and emotional way of looking at things. The maps don't have contour lines but the background shadowing implies/helps to understand the terrain. In some areas if you go in close, (I went in to 100m) at that scale you can sort of see the hills where on one side everything is gone, on the other side, everything appears to be there. Like in my country, the wind direction and the terrain you are situated on, can be the major factor.

Mick.

Did you click any of the red markers and then the image? The surveyors took photos of the destroyed buildings.

 

[MartinCrabtree]

The population (and agriculture) of he west outstrips the water supply. We have abused our resources for hundreds of years and we will continue to pay that bill forever. The Colorado River has not consistently flowed into the Gulf of California for over 50 years due to drawdown for human use. We fail to look forward when making big decisions.

 

[DREW WILEY]

The West is all about water availability, and the water it once had was routinely and unrealistically allocated; and now that water resource is diminishing as average snowpacks get less and less in the mountains, with some ups and downs of course, but overall less and less. The most obvious symptom is to look at topo maps made a few decades ago and note all the glaciers - most are now completely gone. But I saw that happening with my own eyes. I'm particularly aware of water distribution issues because my own father worked on a number of the great dam projects of the West, and was a key inspector of the Central Vally Project here in California around the time I was born, which turned the State into the most profitable agricultural land in the entire world. Now you've got suburban sprawl over farmland, competing for the same limited water. The classic book, Cadillac Desert, describes key features of the reckless water policy of the West, while the older Land of Little Rain by Mary Austin documented the Owens's Valley water war much earlier. But all of this can be succinctly summed up in the phrase, "Water flows toward money". Common sense has never had much to do with it. But it sorta held equilibrium for awhile. Now that climate change has begun to seriously accelerate, things are going to get a lot more complicated, perhaps much faster than populations can adjust to the new reality.

 

[DREW WILEY]

Vaughn - Ironically, catastrophic fire is the only thing that can stop the beetles now. They once bothered mostly pine species which had very limited lifespans anyway, like tamarack (lodgepole pine). In much of the West, lodgepole forms groves in high meadows. The trees get old and weak, beetles attack, lightning hits and selectively burns dead trees, opening up the meadow, and starting the cycle all over again as new trees rise. The beetles were just helpers in a natural normal ecosystem. But now with warmer winters, the beetles survive en masse during winter, and their populations have exploded into vast swaths of pine forest weakened by drought. Ponderosa pine and sugar pine have been decimated too. But as one gets into Canada, higher latitude replaces higher altitude, and you get vast areas of susceptible tamarack forest, and not just pocket meadows.
And everywhere in the West that there are pines, they're mostly dead and rust colored. The exceptions are pitchy low elevation and desert pines, like digger pine and pinyon pines, and timberline species like limber and foxtail pine, where it's still too cold for the beetles. Firs, hemlocks, spruce, and redwoods are not affected by the beetles per se, but might very well fall victim within severe pine fires themselves. Giant sequoias are quite fire resistant, but are beginning to suffer from drought as the quality of the surrounding ecosystem diminishes. Healthy forests not only need water, but collect it in a manner that disrupted forest does not. (Vaughn is a forester and already knows all this - I'm just stating it for wider readership).

 

[Vaughn]

Another disease we are having problems with is Sudden Oak Death -- lots of dead tan oak among the redwoods and in drier areas, too. Coastal redwoods need fire, too.

 

[DREW WILEY]

Yes, the recent Pt Reyes fire involved some sudden oak death trees. But since this fungal disease seems to be spread artificially, mainly by livestock or people, along only the most popular trails in that case, it wasn't much of a factor back in the forest itself, which was still damp and healthy due to all the coastal fog. Rather, in that case, the issue was mostly just the natural burn cycle of the very dense pitchy stands of Bishop pine, and how that freak summer lightning storm got to them. What burnt was quite predictable - it was the portion of Bishop pine that didn't burn in the adjacent fire twenty years before. But that was very different from most of our recent Cal fires.
And again, for sake of explanation to out-of-state folks, a great deal of lower-elevation California brush more inland is what we classify as chaparral, and similarly is naturally and genetically engineered to burn at regular cycles of about 40 years of so. Since this brush is adjacent downhill from the beetle-affected mid-elevation pine forests above, in what is called the Transition Zone, you've got quite a cocktail for disaster. For millennia, native Americans thinned the brush using fire to keep meadows and trails open, and improve habitat for deer and certain plant food species. That all built up under modern fire suppression policy, to the point that when it now burns, it does so catastrophically. Add to that the problem of suburban sprawl into the city/brush interface, with all its roads and tentacles not only splitting up and disrupting the ecosystem, but risking far more opportunities for human fire accidents, and it's no wonder. But there again, not only does water flow toward money, so does development, and the majority of inland developers aren't much interested in anything other than what turns them a quick buck. For many years, I've only half-jokingly stated that the two main sources left of the Central Valley economy are developer bribes and orchard removal fees.