EDITORIAL: California’s choice: Let it burn, or figure out how to fight these deadly fires

Nov. 16--The Camp Fire has claimed some 63 victims, and the search continues for hundreds more who are missing.

The Tubbs Fire, near Santa Rosa, killed 22 in 2017. Mudslides following the Thomas Fire in Southern California killed 20 people last year. A few months ago, seven people perished in the Carr Fire in Redding. Nearly 9,000 firefighters are battling blazes in Malibu and Butte County.

Californians are anxious. And with our attention fixed on Paradise, we wonder: Who will be next?

Scientists predict extreme fire danger across much of the West will become the new normal by the middle of the 21st century, per a recent report by the U.S Forest Service. Jerry Brown, California's outgoing governor, says we're already living in the new abnormal.

Our hearts have gone out to those who have lost family, friends, pets and homes. One of the most-read stories on modBee.com this week is about how to help, and there's no question your support is needed and appreciated. But when it comes to tangible steps that will reduce tragedies, we face a long road.

State and federal agencies, environmentalists, farmers, timber companies and homeowners must take seats at the same table. We need a clear understanding of risks and tradeoffs and we need strategies to reduce the likelihood of more catastrophes.

There is room for optimism.

"Sometimes out of catastrophe comes greater unity," Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke told The Sacramento Bee's Dale Kasler on Wednesday in Butte County. We should "learn how to do this together," said Gov. Brown.

There are plenty of places to dig in:

-- Forest management must improve. We've been talking about this for decades, but this much we know: Thinning forests, saves forests. We're not recommending enormous clear cuts, but what's worse? Arguing over a few hundred acres of clear-cut or watching 100,000 acres at time go up in smoke?

Key to any management plan are California's sawmills. Thirty years ago there were 150; now there are 29. The milling capacity is 1.9 billion board-feet of lumber a year, but production the past few years has been 15 to 20 percent below that. A few mills, like the one at Chinese Camp, have been retrofitted to turn smaller-diameter trees into 2-by-4s. But most were built for larger, old-growth trees. Reinvestment is needed, but so are more sensible rules.

There are 100 million beetle-destroyed trees turning the Southern and Central Sierra into giant stands of kindling. Even if we can find enough loggers to cut them down what happens to the wood? It turns mushy after a few years and has no value even as biomass fuel. Left to stand, it feeds fire.

-- How do we build more fire resistance into our communities? The areas burning now aren't old-growth forest, but the chaparral areas of dry brush and oak which allow fire to move fast. Does that change our calculations of defensible space? Should building -- or rebuilding -- be allowed in such fire-prone areas? Why spend millions on a mansion in the hills if we put lives at risk to protect it? Can homeowners or homeowners' associations accept responsibility for the risk that comes with a view of beautiful, old-growth trees out the kitchen window? As homeowners, we must take responsibility for maintaining and expanding defensible space.

Just as such homes carry additional insurance premiums, should owners also pay fees for the costs of defending them?

-- Evacuation routes are often inadequate. What would help -- community sirens, reverse 911 calls, social-media alerts, forced evacuation? Would additional roads through forested areas -- those built to facilitate logging -- speed evacuation?

-- Breathing the smoke from these fires is dangerous. Period. The chemicals and particulates it contains worsen virtually every respiratory condition; often severely. Look out your window, and realize we all are in danger from these fires. This, too, must be addressed.

-- Most human-caused fires start near roadways and power lines. Some power lines can be buried; others cannot. How about mandatory routine thinning of fuels growing beneath lines and beside roads? That would give first-responders a chance to stop a fire faster. Thinning 500 feet on either side of a road creates a workable firebreak capable of slowing a fire's advance.

Private landowners, environmentalists, the federal and state governments, our incoming governor and lawmakers all have roles and responsibilities. One of Gavin Newsom's first priorities as governor must be to convene an inclusive and thoroughly serious fire summit with clear direction and hard deadlines.

We have responsibilities, too. We must demand the change that comes only by working together -- all sides giving a little to achieve much.

If we do not, California will continue to burn. Our homes, our friends and our families will continue to face these horrifying risks.

This editorial was crafted by opinion editors in McClatchy's five California newsrooms: The Sacramento Bee, The Fresno Bee, The Modesto Bee, The Merced Sun-Star and The Tribune in San Luis Obispo. It appears in all five print editions and online.

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