???One reason why we have the fires in California is global warming,???

[travelinman]

?One reason why we have the fires in California is global warming,? Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) told reporters Tuesday, stressing the need to pass the Democrats? comprehensive energy package.


California Coastal Commission
Natural History of Fire & Flood Cycles
Prepared by Jack Ainsworth & Troy Alan Doss as a presentation to the Post-Fire Hazard Assessment Planning and Mitigation Workshop at the University of California, Santa Barbara, August 18, 1995


"...many people do not understand the ecological and scientific concepts behind fire. For many, fire remains a fearsome, destructive force that can and should be controlled at all costs. Smokey Bear's simple, time-honored "only you" fire prevention message has been so successful that any complex talk about the healthy, natural role of fire gets lost, ignored or denied by broad internal and external audiences."
from the Federal Wildland Fire Management Policy & Program Review, Draft Report - June 9, 1995
The July/August 1995 issue of Sierra magazine featured an article entitled "Only You Can Postpone Forest Fires". Although the message of this title may falsely incriminate Smokey Bear for the current pyrotechnic state of America's wildlands, it does imply an important fact; our wildland vegetation burns. It burns periodically, and must burn in order to survive. In much of California, the problem is not so much the fact that it burns but that all too many people chose to build within it, surrounded by what many consider to be a sea of gasoline. A combination of ignorance and several million years of evolution have combined to create a deadly situation along the serene and scenic battlefront commonly referred to as the 'wildland/urban interface'. The situation has been further exacerbated by over a hundred years of fire suppression where man has tried to control nature, usually with disastrous results.

Fire is an essential part of most wildland ecosystems. In Mediterranean climates around the world, plant species have adapted to a point that they would not exist without the presence of fire. Wildland fires spawn a period of rebirth and vigor in post-fire environments by removing dead materials and by releasing nutrients back to the environment that are locked up in mature plants and organic litter. Many fire prone habitats exist around the globe, however, this paper will focus on the Mediterranean climate of Southern California, and its associated plant communities. Further emphasis shall be placed on the Santa Monica Mountains region where the fire/flood cycle has existed for millions of years, and where impacts of living in the wildland/urban interface have been so clearly illustrated following the Green Meadow and Old Topanga Firestorms of 1993. However, it should be noted that the fire/flood cycle is not unique to the Santa Monica Mountains, and that much of California and the West is under the influence of this cycle as well, although some differences will occur due to habitat type, and the environmental conditions and other factors present.


more here

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ October 24, 2007 10:41 AM: Message edited by: travelinman ]</font>

[Beachcomber]

CALIFORNIA FIRES ... BUSH'S FAULT. OF COURSE!
by Neil Boortz
10-24-07

Well, you knew this just had to happen. Fires are devastating California from North of Los Angeles down to San Diego. Hundreds of thousands of people have had to flee their homes. Disaster is an understatement. So along comes MoveOn Moonbat Senator Barbara Boxer to announce who is to blame. And who would that be? Why none other than George Bush. It would seem that President Bush has taken the time off from killing children and becoming amused as our servicemen are killed in Iraq to plot these fire strategies for California. And just how is this all Bush's fault? Why, he sent all of those California National Guardsmen to Iraq .... For his amusement, of course.

It must be really strange to have such a bizarre woman representing you in the U.S. Senate.

This will just be the beginning. Look for more and more Democrats to lay the blame for the California fires .. and the failure to contain them .. on Bush. Hey .. it's what Democrats do.

But the Harry Reid isn't much better. You knew that this had to happen sooner or later also. Reid is blaming the fires on global warming. There is, of course, no scientific proof whatsoever of this ... nor is there any evidence ... but as long as you have a natural disaster on your hands, you might as well find a way to use it to push your agenda. So ... global warming it is!

The truth is that these fires .. well, not the fires themselves, but the severity of the fires .. can be blamed on whacko environmentalists. Every time someone in California suggests thinning out the brush that fuels these fires you have some environmentalist screaming about kangaroo rats or field mice or some such nonsense. I can remember many years ago there was a community outside of Los Angeles that wanted to clear the brush that abutted their homes. The environmental moonbats said no .. they went to court and managed to prevent the creation of a fire break. One homeowner told the eco-radicals to take a hike, and created his firebreak anyway. While the tree huggers were fuming, along came the fire. Can you guess which was the only home in the neighborhood that didn't burn down?

Now ... I know I'm not the first person to have thought of this. Do you remember about four years ago ... there was a report that some Al Qaeda detainees had said something about starting fires in a Western state? Here's the story from USA Today, dated July 11, 2003. Well ... doesn't it seam just the least bit curious that all of these fires from north of Los Angeles to San Diego erupted at pretty much the same time? No, I'm not saying they were started by terrorists. I am saying that if terrorists had decided to set the fires it would have been a pretty easy task ... and there is some history here.

[Lew]

As you all know, I am a champion of science and critical thinking. Of reason, and logic, of connecting the dots....

And I am never ceased to be amazed at the mixing of science with politics. Some Democrats have attacked Bush for being an "anti-science" President. And they're correct; I have never heard one thing out of the man's mouth that ever hinted of being based upon good science.

Yet these are the same people who tried to tie-in asbestosis to the WTC clean-up (by the way, saying you can contract asbestosis from short-term exposure to it is like saying you can get lung cancer from smoking one carton of cigarettes). Now we have brush fires (which occur out west with great regularity, maybe this year is worse than others) being tied to "global warming," itself an unsettled theory.

Of course, lest I sound like I'm letting the Republicans off the hook.....just as I'm not surprised to hear the Dems break out the global warming rap, it was almost equally predictable that conservatives would work terrorism into it. Even if (and that's a big IF) a terrorist organization started these fires on purpose, we're still talking about something that has occurred naturally on countless occasions (and will naturally occur in the future).

And all of this is fine and good except we have half a million people fleeing their homes, and I give props to those out there who are actually trying to do something about the crisis at hand.

[travelinman]

Oct 24, 8:57 PM (ET)

By JEREMIAH MARQUEZ

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Federal agents joined the search for evidence Wednesday in brush-covered Orange County hills where an arsonist is believed to have ignited one of the wildfires devastating Southern California.

In San Bernardino County, a man suspected of starting a small fire was arrested and another man was shot to death by police after he fled officers who approached to see if he might be trying to set a fire.

Wildfires, burning in seven counties, had destroyed about 1,500 homes and caused more than a half-million people to flee since the first blaze began late Saturday. At least two - in Orange and Riverside counties - have been linked to arson.

Throughout the region, authorities stepped up patrols in hopes of preventing copycat fires and looting. In San Diego County, sheriff's officials have reported scattered instances of looting in fire zones. Two people have been arrested.

Orange County officials converged on a remote area of bone-dry brush where a 19,200-acre wildfire has destroyed nine homes. They were aided by special teams from the FBI and federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. The federal government planned to send more agents from around the country to help with the probe.

Investigators taped off an area they called a crime scene, took photos, collected evidence and recorded map coordinates, according to ATF Special Agent Susan Raichel. Authorities believe the fire had been set because they found three different ignition points within a short distance - a common sign of arson.

A $70,000 reward was offered for information leading to an arrest in the case.