- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
When raging wildfires threaten homes in California, UC Cooperative Extension wood durability advisor Steve Quarles commands rapt attention. He reached many thousands of the state's residents with an interview that aired yesterday on All Things Considered and on today's Morning Edition.
Capital Public Radio's Steve Milne produced the spot to examine whether homeowners can live safely in wildland areas and whether creating a “defensible space” around the home is enough.
Quarles told him the design of the home and materials used in construction play a critical role in protecting homes from fire. Non-combustible roof and siding,...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
A wildfire policy that has met with some success in Australia - in which trained homeowners stay and defend their own homes in the face of a wildfire - is not popular with California firefighters, but some UC experts believe it has a place in the Golden State.
According to a story in the San Jose Mercury-News today, the California Professional Firefighters have dubbed the program "Stay and Die."
When homeowners refuse to evacuate, firefighters use this scary tactic: "If they stay, we'll gather personal information from them, such as dental records, so we can identify them in the event we...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
Under any of six models of climate change, in 100 years there will be no new trees in Joshua Tree National Park and a significant number of existing trees will be dead, according to a recent Riverside Press-Enterprise story. The climate models, developed by Ken Cole, a biologist and geologist with the U.S. Geological Survey in Flagstaff, Ariz., and plant ecologist Kirsten Ironside of Northern Arizona University, suggest a temperature increase of seven degrees.
Joshua Trees were prolific and widespread 11,000 years ago, Cole told newspaper reporter Janet Zimmerman. Their seeds were carried long distances from Mexico to...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
While federal agencies are faulted in a recent study for not doing enough to reduce the fire hazard in areas where forest and chaparal wildland abuts human-inhabited communities, another study points to the greater importance of the homeowners themselves in reducing fire danger.
The Healthy Forests Restoration Act of 2002 was supposed to cut annual fire-fighting expenses by, for example, thinning forests, eliminating ladder fuels and creating buffers, according to an Associated Press story that was circulated yesterday. However, federal agencies have fallen short of the Act's goals.
Some scientists are now saying more effort...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
An array of scientists are working together to help the U.S. Forest Service determine the best way to ensure the long-term health of California forests. One aspect of the wide-ranging effort - called the Sierra Nevada Adaptive Management Project or SNAMP - is to define a healthy forest. UC Berkeley scientist John Battles is leading a group of researchers who have been extracting core samples from thousands of trees in the Sugar Pine and Nelder Gove areas over the past two years to analyze their health.
A recent public field trip in the experimental area was covered by Sierra Star reporter Jill Coppler. Her article said people...