- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
UC Berkeley Cooperative Extension fire ecology specialist Max Moritz told a Bloomberg.com reporter that the wildfire raging in Santa Barbara County caught forest experts by surprise.
“It is very early, the plants still appear to be quite full of moisture, and when you look at the ferocity of this wind condition, that’s when you say it is surprising,” he was quoted in the story.
Moritz said overzealous fire suppression cannot be blamed for the devastating inferno that has already burned 75 homes and forced the evacuation of tens of thousands of residents.
“There isn’t any such...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
Scientists at UC Riverside will apply compost to wildfire-ravaged land after the flames have been doused to determine whether it helps reduce erosion and water pollution and restore vegetation. The project is one of several to be undertaken with funding from the California Integrated Waste Management Board aimed at finding uses for what is expected to be an abundance of compost made from organic waste diverted from landfills, according to a story in the April issue of BioCycle.
The Waste Management Board plans to cut the amount of organic materials now going to landfills by half in the next 10 years. Meeting that...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
The Bay Area National Public Radio affiliate KQED posted "reporter's notes" on the Quest portion of its Web site yesterday featuring comments from UC Berkeley fire ecology specialist Max Moritz about recently published research that predicts changes in world wildfire patterns due to climate change. Quest is a KQED multimedia series exploring Northern California science, environment and nature.
In the written notes, reporter Craig Miller explained that Moritz and a team of researchers found that climate change won't cause a rise in wildfire everywhere in the world.
In audio interview excerpts,...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
Interest in using goats to clear unwanted vegetation on rangeland is growing in popularity, according to UC Cooperative Extension livestock farm advisor Roger Ingram. In a Sacramento Bee story published today, Ingram confirmed writer Ramon Coronado's central thesis: Goats can be a green answer to wildfire prevention.
Coronado reported that more than 60 people attended a recent forum where Ingram discussed the pros and cons of using goats instead of machinery, chemicals and weed whackers.
The use of goats for weed abatement has drawbacks, however. Here are some of the concerns:
- Left unchecked, the animals can overgraze,...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
The devastating wind-driven Angora Fire of 2007, which destroyed 254 homes near Lake Tahoe, left behind fertile ground for the growth of community spirit. Evidence of that is a new community garden being developed on land where the home of Owen Evans stood since 1978, according to a story in the North Lake Tahoe Bonanza. The home was one of Angora's casualties, but before he died of congestive heart failure in December, Evans decided his lot should be turned into a community garden.
“His passion was the environment,” his daughter was quoted in the...
