01:00:00.776 --> 01:00:03.359
(somber music)

01:00:08.060 --> 01:00:10.920
- Tuesday morning, we saw the smoke.

01:00:10.920 --> 01:00:12.780
- [Announcer] Apocalyptic
images of the town

01:00:12.780 --> 01:00:14.050
of Talent, Oregon,

01:00:14.050 --> 01:00:16.810
emerged in the aftermath
of the Almeda Fire.

01:00:16.810 --> 01:00:18.900
- I happened to notice the smoke column

01:00:18.900 --> 01:00:20.570
from Portland and I went up on my roof

01:00:20.570 --> 01:00:22.700
and I went, "Wow, that's
a very impressive column."

01:00:22.700 --> 01:00:24.640
And then I got a call
from a friend of mine

01:00:24.640 --> 01:00:27.093
asking me if I would come
to the Riverside Fire.

01:00:28.600 --> 01:00:30.180
- [Julia] I actually went
down and talked to someone

01:00:30.180 --> 01:00:32.107
at the fire station and they said,

01:00:32.107 --> 01:00:33.690
"These are going fast and they're big

01:00:33.690 --> 01:00:35.287
and you should evacuate."

01:00:37.130 --> 01:00:38.570
- [Man] These evacuations can happen

01:00:38.570 --> 01:00:40.470
in the middle of the night at 1:00 am.

01:00:42.446 --> 01:00:44.100
- [Julia] We saw people standing there

01:00:44.100 --> 01:00:46.730
with all our belongings
on the side of the road.

01:00:46.730 --> 01:00:49.800
- [Woman] We didn't get
out with really anything.

01:00:49.800 --> 01:00:51.193
There was no time.

01:00:52.491 --> 01:00:55.077
- [Man] Never in wildest imagination

01:00:55.077 --> 01:00:57.723
could I ever see anything
like this come to this town.

01:00:58.950 --> 01:01:03.740
- [Man] These fires are bigger and hotter

01:01:03.740 --> 01:01:07.576
and do not resemble your
grandfather's fires.

01:01:07.576 --> 01:01:09.000
(helicopter chuffing)

01:01:09.000 --> 01:01:11.613
- For all of us, this has
hit very close to home.

01:01:13.928 --> 01:01:17.750
I was fishing with my
children on McKenzie River.

01:01:17.750 --> 01:01:19.740
We had to get off the river early

01:01:19.740 --> 01:01:21.483
because the winds were picking up.

01:01:22.690 --> 01:01:25.120
And then to see the next morning that

01:01:25.120 --> 01:01:27.720
that community that you were just with

01:01:27.720 --> 01:01:29.050
how it was devastated.

01:01:29.050 --> 01:01:31.510
It left a sickening feeling in me

01:01:31.510 --> 01:01:33.580
that I frankly hadn't experienced.

01:01:33.580 --> 01:01:35.503
It hit very, very close to home.

01:01:36.420 --> 01:01:39.403
- [Woman 2] It's reduced
to two feet of rubble.

01:01:40.510 --> 01:01:43.720
- [Man] I saw cars that
were completely melted.

01:01:43.720 --> 01:01:45.853
Fires leap a river.

01:01:46.920 --> 01:01:48.810
So, no, we'd never seen
anything like this.

01:01:48.810 --> 01:01:52.010
We've never seen winds
move this way before.

01:01:52.010 --> 01:01:53.420
- We're mourning for our community,

01:01:53.420 --> 01:01:55.200
for the loss that we've all suffered here.

01:01:55.200 --> 01:01:57.000
And especially those that lost everything,

01:01:57.000 --> 01:01:58.940
there's really not worse to describing.

01:01:58.940 --> 01:02:00.810
Kind of takes your breath away.

01:02:00.810 --> 01:02:02.770
- The conditions that
brought this together,

01:02:02.770 --> 01:02:05.890
been in the making for
probably about four decades.

01:02:05.890 --> 01:02:07.590
It's not gonna go away in a hurry.

01:02:08.680 --> 01:02:10.730
We've gotta turn the corner on this soon.

01:02:20.200 --> 01:02:21.840
- [Announcer] We wanna check
in on our breaking news

01:02:21.840 --> 01:02:23.170
on the Eagle Creek Fire.

01:02:23.170 --> 01:02:24.333
- [Announcer 2] You're talking about fire

01:02:24.333 --> 01:02:25.166
that turned the labor day weekend

01:02:25.166 --> 01:02:27.084
into a nightmare for a lot of people.

01:02:27.084 --> 01:02:29.070
- [Man] Probably very
dry out there, very warm.

01:02:29.070 --> 01:02:32.193
And so we knew the
conditions were vulnerable.

01:02:33.549 --> 01:02:34.500
(birds chirping)

01:02:34.500 --> 01:02:37.150
- Wow, what a treat to be
able to walk up in here.

01:02:40.456 --> 01:02:42.850
(crow cawing)

01:02:42.850 --> 01:02:44.690
Even with this intensity though,

01:02:44.690 --> 01:02:46.570
it didn't cross that threshold

01:02:46.570 --> 01:02:48.283
or did completely torch out.

01:02:53.840 --> 01:02:55.230
The forest is wonderful.

01:02:55.230 --> 01:02:57.130
I love it. That's why
I went into forestry.

01:02:57.130 --> 01:03:01.960
It is the trees and the whole life system

01:03:01.960 --> 01:03:03.423
that the trees represent.

01:03:04.770 --> 01:03:06.670
It is timber. It is carbon.

01:03:06.670 --> 01:03:09.090
It is biomass. It is fiber.

01:03:09.090 --> 01:03:10.033
It is money.

01:03:11.950 --> 01:03:15.630
It's also watersheds and our water supply.

01:03:15.630 --> 01:03:17.690
It is recreational opportunities.

01:03:17.690 --> 01:03:21.920
It's scenery, it's spiritual
renewal, it's wildlife habitat.

01:03:21.920 --> 01:03:25.310
It is all these things at once.

01:03:25.310 --> 01:03:26.393
And it's also fuel.

01:03:27.460 --> 01:03:29.240
It's fuel that is going to burn

01:03:29.240 --> 01:03:32.653
and the probabilities
are increasing with time.

01:03:43.310 --> 01:03:46.740
But the damaged trees are
good wildlife habitat.

01:03:46.740 --> 01:03:48.770
We were pointing out some of the snags

01:03:48.770 --> 01:03:51.653
where there's already
primary cavity nesters.

01:03:53.610 --> 01:03:56.283
Big openings will even host bears.

01:03:57.930 --> 01:03:59.127
Somebody has got a nest.

01:03:59.127 --> 01:04:01.730
- [Woman] I noticed that
too, isn't it beautiful?

01:04:01.730 --> 01:04:05.030
- I think we can walk
through any fire like this

01:04:05.030 --> 01:04:08.030
and point out the things
that we generally agree about

01:04:08.030 --> 01:04:09.988
that are good.

01:04:09.988 --> 01:04:11.730
And some that are just natural, it's okay,

01:04:11.730 --> 01:04:13.430
maybe it's not what I would change.

01:04:13.430 --> 01:04:15.880
And then some areas where we
could pretty universally agree

01:04:15.880 --> 01:04:19.173
that fire had a bad effect on it.

01:04:20.510 --> 01:04:24.950
My rule of thumb is to
go to that prehistory

01:04:24.950 --> 01:04:28.040
and the working knowledge of fire ecology

01:04:28.040 --> 01:04:30.930
that really has emerged a
lot over the last few decades

01:04:30.930 --> 01:04:34.920
about how fire is a
natural part of the system

01:04:34.920 --> 01:04:36.990
and it does some very
valuable things in terms

01:04:36.990 --> 01:04:40.040
of reducing the fuel
level, recycling nutrients,

01:04:40.040 --> 01:04:41.090
stimulating growth.

01:04:41.090 --> 01:04:42.260
We have to remember that,

01:04:42.260 --> 01:04:44.030
yes, fire is a great destroyer,

01:04:44.030 --> 01:04:45.633
but it's also a great creator.

01:04:49.970 --> 01:04:51.090
- I think, historically,

01:04:51.090 --> 01:04:53.570
it's helpful to imagine
three kinds of fires.

01:04:53.570 --> 01:04:56.520
One called first fire
is sort of natural fire.

01:04:56.520 --> 01:04:57.980
And this is what's been on the planet

01:04:57.980 --> 01:05:00.193
as long as plants have been on land.

01:05:01.400 --> 01:05:03.400
It's caused overwhelmingly by lightning.

01:05:04.330 --> 01:05:06.860
And then the second
fire comes when species

01:05:06.860 --> 01:05:08.930
actually capture fire

01:05:08.930 --> 01:05:11.340
and begin to manipulate it.

01:05:11.340 --> 01:05:14.610
So they're competing with
that first natural fire

01:05:14.610 --> 01:05:18.280
because they're looking at the same fuels,

01:05:18.280 --> 01:05:20.350
the same living landscape,

01:05:20.350 --> 01:05:21.530
but that still has limits

01:05:21.530 --> 01:05:23.940
because you're within an ecological box

01:05:24.880 --> 01:05:27.630
and you can't burn what you can't grow.

01:05:27.630 --> 01:05:29.780
And if you overburn or burn badly,

01:05:29.780 --> 01:05:32.693
then you harm the search for more fuels.

01:05:33.710 --> 01:05:35.780
Well, fire is power in many ways.

01:05:35.780 --> 01:05:37.870
And so we needed more stuff to burn

01:05:37.870 --> 01:05:41.940
and we found it by going
into the geologic past.

01:05:41.940 --> 01:05:44.700
These were once living landscapes
that have now fossilized.

01:05:44.700 --> 01:05:47.270
And nickel and oil and gas and so forth,

01:05:47.270 --> 01:05:49.830
all of our fossil biomass or fossil fuels.

01:05:49.830 --> 01:05:51.850
So we've brought it up to the surface.

01:05:51.850 --> 01:05:53.910
We burned it where it interacts

01:05:53.910 --> 01:05:56.060
with all the fires in
the living landscape.

01:05:56.060 --> 01:05:59.513
And then its effluent goes
on to the geologic future.

01:06:02.200 --> 01:06:06.520
That interaction where
first and second fire

01:06:06.520 --> 01:06:08.600
and living landscapes
is having to interact

01:06:08.600 --> 01:06:11.870
with third fire from
burning lithic landscape

01:06:11.870 --> 01:06:14.810
is really the fundamental narrative

01:06:14.810 --> 01:06:16.673
now for fire on the planet.

01:06:18.020 --> 01:06:20.680
- [Announcer] Oregon governor
Kate Brown told CBS News

01:06:20.680 --> 01:06:22.760
over the weekend that drought conditions,

01:06:22.760 --> 01:06:26.187
extreme temperatures and
high winds, created the quote

01:06:26.187 --> 01:06:29.500
"Perfect firestorm for
the blazes to grow."

01:06:29.500 --> 01:06:30.417
Adding quote,

01:06:30.417 --> 01:06:32.410
"This is a wake-up call for all of us

01:06:32.410 --> 01:06:33.830
that we've got to do everything

01:06:33.830 --> 01:06:37.670
in our power to tackle climate change."

01:06:37.670 --> 01:06:39.630
- The current research
that we're working on

01:06:39.630 --> 01:06:42.240
is to do with the relationship
of climate to fire.

01:06:42.240 --> 01:06:45.120
And often the media hasn't
done a sufficient job

01:06:45.120 --> 01:06:47.670
in distinguishing between
two totally different

01:06:47.670 --> 01:06:48.623
types of fires.

01:06:50.330 --> 01:06:53.430
This is a landscape that
historically had fires

01:06:53.430 --> 01:06:56.210
at maybe 20 to 30 year intervals

01:06:56.210 --> 01:06:59.120
through much of the
forested lands in the West.

01:06:59.120 --> 01:07:01.190
And these lands have now gone

01:07:01.190 --> 01:07:03.560
for well over a century without fire.

01:07:03.560 --> 01:07:05.930
Those forests have
accumulated lots of fuels

01:07:05.930 --> 01:07:09.140
and that's what ultimately
drives those fire events.

01:07:09.140 --> 01:07:11.680
Whereas in the Western part of the state,

01:07:11.680 --> 01:07:14.363
we see what we call wind dominated fires.

01:07:15.407 --> 01:07:18.530
- Fire that started over in
Ashland in a grassy field

01:07:18.530 --> 01:07:21.460
and it moved to the
40, 45 mile hour winds.

01:07:21.460 --> 01:07:22.293
What are you going to do?

01:07:22.293 --> 01:07:24.720
Cut all the grass down to keep
everything completely green,

01:07:24.720 --> 01:07:27.810
have everything be steel and concrete?

01:07:27.810 --> 01:07:30.460
If it's a firestorm at
45 mile an hour winds,

01:07:30.460 --> 01:07:31.320
you can clean your gutters

01:07:31.320 --> 01:07:32.587
out of all your leaves that you want,

01:07:32.587 --> 01:07:33.800
it's not gonna make a difference.

01:07:33.800 --> 01:07:34.950
It's a firestorm.

01:07:34.950 --> 01:07:36.280
Fire breathing down your back.

01:07:36.280 --> 01:07:38.270
What's gonna stop that? Nothing.

01:07:38.270 --> 01:07:39.750
- [Man] I'm out of here.

01:07:39.750 --> 01:07:41.333
- It was really hard wind it...

01:07:41.333 --> 01:07:43.840
That was so hard, but Michael was upstairs

01:07:43.840 --> 01:07:47.590
and it blew off the cover of his bed

01:07:47.590 --> 01:07:49.790
that had never happened before

01:07:49.790 --> 01:07:51.994
because he always slept
with the windows open.

01:07:51.994 --> 01:07:54.190
(crow cowing)

01:07:54.190 --> 01:07:55.720
- [Micheal] Beautiful but scary.

01:07:55.720 --> 01:07:56.953
- Yeah, scary.

01:07:58.430 --> 01:07:59.856
- [Micheal] You have to see this.

01:07:59.856 --> 01:08:00.697
This doesn't do it justice.

01:08:00.697 --> 01:08:03.950
It's all over. This color.

01:08:03.950 --> 01:08:05.120
- We got a phone call.

01:08:05.120 --> 01:08:06.620
They give you like 1, 2, 3.

01:08:06.620 --> 01:08:07.910
Ready, set, go, basically.

01:08:07.910 --> 01:08:09.950
And then they called us
in what's number two.

01:08:09.950 --> 01:08:12.270
And it was like, I don't know,
three, four in the afternoon.

01:08:12.270 --> 01:08:13.137
And they said,

01:08:13.137 --> 01:08:16.270
"It is happening so fast.
You might not get a three."

01:08:16.270 --> 01:08:17.103
And I thought,

01:08:17.103 --> 01:08:19.150
"I don't wanna sleep here knowing that

01:08:19.150 --> 01:08:20.300
the fire could come through."

01:08:20.300 --> 01:08:22.303
So we went to my daughter's that night.

01:08:24.640 --> 01:08:26.430
Every night we would call our phone

01:08:26.430 --> 01:08:28.453
to see if the house was still there.

01:08:29.950 --> 01:08:31.330
The answering machine would go on

01:08:31.330 --> 01:08:32.430
then we knew the house was there.

01:08:32.430 --> 01:08:36.330
And then one night, I think
it was Friday or Saturday,

01:08:36.330 --> 01:08:37.934
we called it and it was busy.

01:08:37.934 --> 01:08:40.517
(somber music)

01:08:45.050 --> 01:08:48.413
So this is where our house was.

01:08:50.210 --> 01:08:51.593
- Didn't really sink in.

01:08:52.630 --> 01:08:55.267
Yeah, we've just lost
our house and you think,

01:08:55.267 --> 01:08:58.400
"Okay, well the land
is still there, right?"

01:08:58.400 --> 01:09:02.650
So you gotta come up here
and then you realize this...

01:09:02.650 --> 01:09:04.950
You start to think of the scale.

01:09:04.950 --> 01:09:08.363
Wow, it's all no good.
It's all just reduced.

01:09:11.800 --> 01:09:14.610
The environment is for
our number one thing.

01:09:14.610 --> 01:09:16.260
- Love of the land.

01:09:16.260 --> 01:09:17.630
We love this place.

01:09:17.630 --> 01:09:19.273
We've been here 32 years. So.

01:09:20.220 --> 01:09:21.067
A lot of people told us,

01:09:21.067 --> 01:09:22.530
"You should take all the trees

01:09:22.530 --> 01:09:23.970
from 100 feet around the house."

01:09:23.970 --> 01:09:25.217
And we're just like,

01:09:25.217 --> 01:09:27.740
"We moved into the woods for the trees."

01:09:27.740 --> 01:09:29.590
And yes, the fire could come,

01:09:29.590 --> 01:09:32.639
but I really don't wanna
live in a clear cut.

01:09:32.639 --> 01:09:33.587
(laughing)

01:09:33.587 --> 01:09:34.420
- But here we are.

01:09:34.420 --> 01:09:37.087
- Here we are.
(laughing)

01:09:39.350 --> 01:09:41.670
- Some people attribute
much of the problem

01:09:41.670 --> 01:09:43.030
to climate change.

01:09:43.030 --> 01:09:45.940
We need to recognize that climate change

01:09:45.940 --> 01:09:47.650
is likely to have different impacts

01:09:47.650 --> 01:09:50.060
on different parts of our landscape.

01:09:50.060 --> 01:09:51.800
Some years are hotter and drier

01:09:51.800 --> 01:09:54.910
and much more likely to carry a fire,

01:09:54.910 --> 01:09:58.970
which we interpret to mean
that if the climate warms,

01:09:58.970 --> 01:10:02.480
those forests are likely to
see worse fires in the future.

01:10:02.480 --> 01:10:05.720
But we need to keep in mind,
it's not all about climate,

01:10:05.720 --> 01:10:08.143
it's also this fuel accumulation problem.

01:10:10.210 --> 01:10:14.200
- The forest here was a
time bomb waiting to go off.

01:10:14.200 --> 01:10:16.610
It would burn every now and
then, every couple of years.

01:10:16.610 --> 01:10:18.620
I've said it, watch it.

01:10:18.620 --> 01:10:22.240
With that rake, you roll
that fire down the hill,

01:10:22.240 --> 01:10:24.740
you end up with a swath,

01:10:24.740 --> 01:10:27.170
you put that out and you go start again.

01:10:27.170 --> 01:10:28.370
It's time consuming.

01:10:28.370 --> 01:10:30.580
One guy cannot do it.

01:10:30.580 --> 01:10:33.380
60 acres we've got here. It's too much.

01:10:33.380 --> 01:10:35.383
So we're part of the problem.

01:10:35.383 --> 01:10:37.466
I gotta acknowledge that.

01:10:38.702 --> 01:10:40.420
- When you have an overstocked forest,

01:10:40.420 --> 01:10:43.130
if you think about every
tree as being a straw,

01:10:43.130 --> 01:10:46.040
and they're all sucking
down the water table,

01:10:46.040 --> 01:10:48.130
as you get more trees on the landscape

01:10:48.130 --> 01:10:51.140
and you get more straws
sucking down your water table,

01:10:51.140 --> 01:10:53.130
the trees are also more stressed

01:10:53.130 --> 01:10:54.730
because in that system that is getting

01:10:54.730 --> 01:10:56.500
the same amount of rain that it used to,

01:10:56.500 --> 01:10:59.030
the vegetation is sucking
it down more quickly,

01:10:59.030 --> 01:11:02.500
so they're living without
moisture for longer per tree.

01:11:02.500 --> 01:11:05.723
And then they're more susceptible
to an extreme fire event.

01:11:07.490 --> 01:11:09.340
- As we modify fuels,

01:11:09.340 --> 01:11:13.260
this projection of increased
area burning due to climate

01:11:13.260 --> 01:11:15.513
may not manifest itself in the future.

01:11:17.090 --> 01:11:20.220
It reminds me of this
comment that the newscaster

01:11:20.220 --> 01:11:22.890
Eric Sevareid used to say in the 1960s,

01:11:22.890 --> 01:11:25.620
most problems begin as solutions

01:11:25.620 --> 01:11:28.700
and the solution was we
needed to keep fire out

01:11:28.700 --> 01:11:30.520
of the forest and it's ultimately created

01:11:30.520 --> 01:11:33.703
a worse problem for fire in
those forested landscapes.

01:11:41.070 --> 01:11:43.300
- Settlers picked up some practices

01:11:43.300 --> 01:11:44.800
from the Native Americans.

01:11:44.800 --> 01:11:47.480
There was plenty of land
conversion and burning associated

01:11:47.480 --> 01:11:50.240
with setting up agricultural
crops and grazing lands,

01:11:50.240 --> 01:11:52.840
but the forest reserves
were seen differently.

01:11:52.840 --> 01:11:55.890
And so that brings us to 1900, 1910,

01:11:55.890 --> 01:11:57.390
the origins of the forest service,

01:11:57.390 --> 01:11:59.750
the set aside of four service lands,

01:11:59.750 --> 01:12:02.970
which are actually were
originally called reserves,

01:12:02.970 --> 01:12:06.220
because of the anticipation
that with westward expansion,

01:12:06.220 --> 01:12:09.100
we were ultimately gonna run out of trees.

01:12:09.100 --> 01:12:11.350
And then the big 1910 fires,

01:12:11.350 --> 01:12:14.560
3 million acres in the course of 10 days,

01:12:14.560 --> 01:12:17.680
catalyzed a movement in the United States

01:12:17.680 --> 01:12:21.083
in the broader society,
but also in law and policy.

01:12:22.180 --> 01:12:25.260
It became fundamental part
of the forest service mission

01:12:25.260 --> 01:12:27.880
to suppress fire in order
to protect the forest.

01:12:27.880 --> 01:12:30.000
And that was a guiding philosophy

01:12:30.000 --> 01:12:32.040
and set of policies for many decades,

01:12:32.040 --> 01:12:33.450
including the early part of my career

01:12:33.450 --> 01:12:34.800
when I was a firefighter

01:12:34.800 --> 01:12:37.913
and I worked at actively suppressing fire.

01:12:39.240 --> 01:12:41.200
But here in the last few decades,

01:12:41.200 --> 01:12:45.500
I began to see how the
impact of fire suppression

01:12:45.500 --> 01:12:48.810
has influenced this issue
of fuels accumulation,

01:12:48.810 --> 01:12:50.330
and how that has intersected

01:12:50.330 --> 01:12:53.033
with having more humans out in the forest.

01:12:56.450 --> 01:12:58.430
- [Announcer] Although
fire season has just begun,

01:12:58.430 --> 01:13:00.620
the organization scorched hasn't forgotten

01:13:00.620 --> 01:13:02.010
about last year's.

01:13:02.010 --> 01:13:02.843
- It's terrible.

01:13:02.843 --> 01:13:05.670
It is so hard on people's lungs.

01:13:05.670 --> 01:13:07.510
- [Announcer] The group says
these smoke-filled summers

01:13:07.510 --> 01:13:09.350
do not have to be the new normal.

01:13:09.350 --> 01:13:12.300
- The solution is we need
better forest management.

01:13:12.300 --> 01:13:14.020
- This is a bipartisan issue.

01:13:14.020 --> 01:13:18.450
This is something that people
that of all walks of life

01:13:18.450 --> 01:13:21.107
should be able to embrace
because we all breathe air.

01:13:21.107 --> 01:13:22.980
- They're talking about
forest, clean up your forest.

01:13:22.980 --> 01:13:25.690
You won't have forest fires, clean 'em.

01:13:25.690 --> 01:13:28.640
See, you don't have four feet of leaves

01:13:28.640 --> 01:13:32.100
and broken trees that have
sit there for 25 years,

01:13:32.100 --> 01:13:36.060
try cleaning the floor of the forest.

01:13:36.060 --> 01:13:37.900
You won't have forest fires.

01:13:37.900 --> 01:13:39.280
- [Announcer] They hope with more rallies

01:13:39.280 --> 01:13:40.680
and marches like this,

01:13:40.680 --> 01:13:43.860
the Oregon legislature hears
them and begins making changes.

01:13:43.860 --> 01:13:46.850
- People see the fires on TV day after day

01:13:46.850 --> 01:13:48.880
for weeks this summer,

01:13:48.880 --> 01:13:53.200
we've got a chance to really
build a kind of new ethic

01:13:53.200 --> 01:13:55.630
that links together smart climate science

01:13:55.630 --> 01:13:57.347
with smart forestry science.

01:13:57.347 --> 01:14:00.560
But the biggest challenge is

01:14:00.560 --> 01:14:04.500
to keep everybody's attention focused on

01:14:04.500 --> 01:14:07.103
what I hope will be a
transformational moment.

01:14:10.520 --> 01:14:14.750
- A fire regime is the
role that fires play

01:14:14.750 --> 01:14:16.150
within an ecosystem,

01:14:16.150 --> 01:14:18.880
relating both to how frequently

01:14:18.880 --> 01:14:21.980
a particular ecosystem might burn,

01:14:21.980 --> 01:14:23.240
but also when it burns,

01:14:23.240 --> 01:14:26.330
how severe those fires are
in terms of the intensity

01:14:26.330 --> 01:14:28.843
of individual fire and the consequences.

01:14:29.870 --> 01:14:31.750
So when you add up the frequency

01:14:31.750 --> 01:14:34.730
and the severity together
that helps us to characterize

01:14:34.730 --> 01:14:36.640
what the fire regime would be

01:14:36.640 --> 01:14:39.013
for a particular type of forest ecosystem.

01:14:41.320 --> 01:14:44.430
While we know we've been having
these record wildfire years,

01:14:44.430 --> 01:14:47.240
we compared contemporary
wildfire and forest

01:14:47.240 --> 01:14:50.180
across the Northwest to
our best understanding

01:14:50.180 --> 01:14:52.660
and models of historic fire regimes

01:14:52.660 --> 01:14:55.490
before a Euro-American settlement.

01:14:55.490 --> 01:14:57.830
So what we found when
he made that comparison

01:14:57.830 --> 01:14:59.160
was despite the fact, again,

01:14:59.160 --> 01:15:00.990
that we've had these
record wildfire years,

01:15:00.990 --> 01:15:05.500
we still have a tremendous
deficit over the last 32 years

01:15:05.500 --> 01:15:07.210
compared to what we would have expected

01:15:07.210 --> 01:15:09.702
under a historical fire regime.

01:15:09.702 --> 01:15:13.035
(gentle brooding music)

01:15:14.622 --> 01:15:16.327
- The forest is our living room, right?

01:15:16.327 --> 01:15:19.570
People have jobs there,
people go and play.

01:15:19.570 --> 01:15:22.560
We have a tourism industry
that depends on it.

01:15:22.560 --> 01:15:25.150
And these forests are right
on the edge of our town.

01:15:25.150 --> 01:15:27.590
The prevailing winds come from the West.

01:15:27.590 --> 01:15:30.030
So anytime there's a lightning strike

01:15:30.030 --> 01:15:32.810
and a fire starts in the Cascades,

01:15:32.810 --> 01:15:34.540
it's gonna come our direction

01:15:34.540 --> 01:15:36.040
'cause we live on the East flank

01:15:36.040 --> 01:15:38.280
right of the Cascade Mountain range.

01:15:38.280 --> 01:15:39.700
And it's scary, frankly,

01:15:39.700 --> 01:15:42.070
because we have so many people now living

01:15:42.070 --> 01:15:45.810
in the WUI, in the
wildland urban interface,

01:15:45.810 --> 01:15:48.190
that's always a big one
to get your mouth around.

01:15:48.190 --> 01:15:50.350
And so how do we keep people safe?

01:15:50.350 --> 01:15:52.950
How do we keep the fires
from running into our town?

01:15:54.530 --> 01:15:57.110
- When we talk about wildfire
as a threat to communities,

01:15:57.110 --> 01:15:58.470
I think it's important to remember

01:15:58.470 --> 01:16:02.190
that this isn't a forest
problem or an ecosystem problem.

01:16:02.190 --> 01:16:04.890
It's a home ignition problem
is what it comes down to.

01:16:08.282 --> 01:16:11.532
(gentle pensive music)

01:16:12.660 --> 01:16:15.380
There's clear steps you can
take to try to prepare a home,

01:16:15.380 --> 01:16:17.030
to make it less likely to burn,

01:16:17.030 --> 01:16:18.800
in the event that there is a fire,

01:16:18.800 --> 01:16:22.610
but that takes either your own effort,

01:16:22.610 --> 01:16:24.540
which is harder for some folks.

01:16:24.540 --> 01:16:27.280
Say you're disabled or elderly,

01:16:27.280 --> 01:16:29.560
or it takes resources to harden a home

01:16:29.560 --> 01:16:32.110
and make it less likely
that it'll catch fire

01:16:32.110 --> 01:16:34.433
and that's resources
that not everybody has.

01:16:36.060 --> 01:16:38.070
- Home hardening really matters.

01:16:38.070 --> 01:16:39.850
Higher value homes,

01:16:39.850 --> 01:16:43.050
whether it has double pane
windows and covered eaves

01:16:43.050 --> 01:16:44.230
and things like that,

01:16:44.230 --> 01:16:45.740
even when you control for those things,

01:16:45.740 --> 01:16:46.820
a higher value home,

01:16:46.820 --> 01:16:50.523
on average is gonna have a
lower chance of destruction.

01:16:51.670 --> 01:16:55.240
Mobile homes are far more
likely to be destroyed,

01:16:55.240 --> 01:16:58.020
and those tend to be
disproportionately occupied

01:16:58.020 --> 01:16:59.050
by lower income people.

01:16:59.050 --> 01:17:02.783
So for sure, there's an
equity question there.

01:17:04.900 --> 01:17:08.230
- Something close to one in
three Americans now lives

01:17:08.230 --> 01:17:10.960
where people in natural
areas kind of intersect.

01:17:10.960 --> 01:17:14.430
And that puts a lot of
Americans at risk for fire.

01:17:14.430 --> 01:17:16.367
Of these millions of
Americans that are living out

01:17:16.367 --> 01:17:19.470
and in places where fire has
historically been present.

01:17:19.470 --> 01:17:22.740
12 million of them are what
we would consider vulnerable.

01:17:22.740 --> 01:17:27.720
Lower and median household
incomes, elderly folks,

01:17:27.720 --> 01:17:30.600
high concentrations of
folks who are disabled,

01:17:30.600 --> 01:17:33.570
higher concentrations of
renters of folks who don't speak

01:17:33.570 --> 01:17:35.870
English as their primary
language in the home.

01:17:37.080 --> 01:17:39.530
Folks who have obstacles that make it

01:17:39.530 --> 01:17:42.290
more challenging to prepare for fire.

01:17:42.290 --> 01:17:45.130
It's really important
that government agencies,

01:17:45.130 --> 01:17:48.150
that communities make
those proactive steps

01:17:48.150 --> 01:17:51.790
to determine what the
risks are that they face.

01:17:51.790 --> 01:17:55.330
And then really help
design plans that make sure

01:17:55.330 --> 01:17:58.223
that everybody is able to
repair in an equitable way.

01:18:01.860 --> 01:18:04.550
- I thought we were Firewise. (chuckles)

01:18:04.550 --> 01:18:07.660
But that doesn't mean
that we're not vulnerable

01:18:07.660 --> 01:18:08.883
in some fashion.

01:18:10.600 --> 01:18:12.630
I'm the mayor of Mill City.

01:18:12.630 --> 01:18:14.937
I'm on my eighth term as
the mayor of Mill City

01:18:14.937 --> 01:18:17.680
and I'm actually up for
reelection this year,

01:18:17.680 --> 01:18:18.640
we're running on a post.

01:18:18.640 --> 01:18:21.173
So it looks like I'll
be doing a ninth term.

01:18:23.590 --> 01:18:25.500
When I graduated from high school,

01:18:25.500 --> 01:18:28.260
a lot of people went
right to work in the woods

01:18:28.260 --> 01:18:29.540
or in the mills.

01:18:29.540 --> 01:18:31.280
I went to work in the mills myself.

01:18:31.280 --> 01:18:33.503
I worked in the mills for 12 years.

01:18:35.050 --> 01:18:37.230
With the downturn of the timber industry,

01:18:37.230 --> 01:18:39.993
we became a little bit more
of a bedroom community.

01:18:41.050 --> 01:18:43.890
A lot of the families moved out.

01:18:43.890 --> 01:18:45.240
The morale went down,

01:18:45.240 --> 01:18:47.910
the school enrollment went down,

01:18:47.910 --> 01:18:50.460
the whole feel of the town did,

01:18:50.460 --> 01:18:51.740
I wanna say go downhill.

01:18:51.740 --> 01:18:56.740
So it's my feeling that you're
on a spiral all the time

01:18:57.160 --> 01:19:00.235
and you're either spiraling
up or you're going down.

01:19:00.235 --> 01:19:02.063
Things never stay the same.

01:19:03.210 --> 01:19:07.720
Things have turned around a
little bit with the economy.

01:19:07.720 --> 01:19:10.840
A lot of people are moving back into town,

01:19:10.840 --> 01:19:13.620
got a couple of new little subdivisions.

01:19:13.620 --> 01:19:17.360
And those are people that are
gonna mostly be commuters.

01:19:17.360 --> 01:19:20.610
They realize the value of
living in a rural area,

01:19:20.610 --> 01:19:22.793
small town and community.

01:19:25.580 --> 01:19:29.500
- The most dangerous kind of
development you could have

01:19:29.500 --> 01:19:34.040
would be to take an isolated
new cluster of development,

01:19:34.040 --> 01:19:35.550
put it out in the wildland

01:19:35.550 --> 01:19:37.733
and then put high density houses there.

01:19:40.110 --> 01:19:44.300
I started looking at this
land use question in 1999.

01:19:44.300 --> 01:19:46.317
And when I first came out and said,

01:19:46.317 --> 01:19:48.190
"This development pattern seems

01:19:48.190 --> 01:19:51.590
to be a really big deal
in terms of fire risk."

01:19:51.590 --> 01:19:55.520
And people were kind of like,
"Are you crazy?" (chuckles)

01:19:55.520 --> 01:19:57.300
We can't talk about development and land.

01:19:57.300 --> 01:19:58.133
It's like, no.

01:19:59.530 --> 01:20:02.080
We have strong property rights

01:20:02.080 --> 01:20:05.063
and people should be allowed
to build wherever they want.

01:20:06.040 --> 01:20:08.980
And now you read the
headlines in the papers

01:20:08.980 --> 01:20:11.560
and people are talking about it.

01:20:11.560 --> 01:20:14.790
People are aware that it's a problem.

01:20:14.790 --> 01:20:18.590
And to me, that is a hugely positive step

01:20:18.590 --> 01:20:20.383
compared to what we used to have.

01:20:22.380 --> 01:20:24.550
- [Austin] There is a movement towards

01:20:24.550 --> 01:20:26.720
including fire safe principles

01:20:26.720 --> 01:20:29.970
into various levels of municipal code.

01:20:29.970 --> 01:20:33.150
And that includes subdivision
ordinances and codes.

01:20:33.150 --> 01:20:35.160
They're important in terms of

01:20:35.160 --> 01:20:38.630
the likelihood of flammability,
the likelihood of spread,

01:20:38.630 --> 01:20:42.543
they're also really important
in terms of emergency access.

01:20:43.810 --> 01:20:46.590
- There are other issues
though, that people talk about.

01:20:46.590 --> 01:20:49.260
The more you develop
out into wildland areas,

01:20:49.260 --> 01:20:51.220
the more you take the power lines out

01:20:51.220 --> 01:20:53.620
into those fire-prone areas.

01:20:53.620 --> 01:20:54.510
We need to study it.

01:20:54.510 --> 01:20:58.640
We need to say, why is
it that how power lines

01:20:58.640 --> 01:21:02.333
consistently keep being the
source of these massive losses?

01:21:08.100 --> 01:21:09.410
- Since the year 2000,

01:21:09.410 --> 01:21:11.820
we've had half a million acres burn

01:21:11.820 --> 01:21:14.030
from power line ignited fires,

01:21:14.030 --> 01:21:15.970
and that's five times more

01:21:15.970 --> 01:21:18.270
than the amount of acres burned

01:21:18.270 --> 01:21:20.490
in the previous 20 years from power lines.

01:21:20.490 --> 01:21:23.040
So there's no question,
power line ignited fires

01:21:23.040 --> 01:21:24.703
are greatly increasing.

01:21:26.470 --> 01:21:29.380
As I see it, there's two
possible explanations.

01:21:29.380 --> 01:21:32.010
Some have maintained it's because

01:21:32.010 --> 01:21:34.810
there's a lack of adequate maintenance

01:21:34.810 --> 01:21:38.160
by some of the power
companies historically.

01:21:38.160 --> 01:21:41.810
And now the step of
maintenance is coming due

01:21:41.810 --> 01:21:44.320
and they're now having to pay for it.

01:21:44.320 --> 01:21:47.170
The other hypothesis is the fact

01:21:47.170 --> 01:21:50.180
that populations are expanding,

01:21:50.180 --> 01:21:52.980
and as populations expand,
development expands,

01:21:52.980 --> 01:21:56.000
and as development expands,
power lines expand.

01:21:56.000 --> 01:21:58.530
So it could just be a numbers thing.

01:21:58.530 --> 01:22:00.530
The more power lines out on the landscape,

01:22:00.530 --> 01:22:03.710
the greater chance that
one of those will fail

01:22:03.710 --> 01:22:06.063
during an extreme wind event.

01:22:09.026 --> 01:22:10.340
- The weather the day of the fire,

01:22:10.340 --> 01:22:13.563
we had winds that peaked
between two and 6:00 am.

01:22:15.990 --> 01:22:17.100
How you doing?

01:22:17.100 --> 01:22:18.450
Thank you, good to see you.

01:22:19.320 --> 01:22:20.153
This is Paradise.

01:22:20.153 --> 01:22:21.840
It is kind of triangular in shape.

01:22:21.840 --> 01:22:24.110
It has four main roads, Pentz road,

01:22:24.110 --> 01:22:26.060
running North, North, South.

01:22:26.060 --> 01:22:27.480
We are right here right now.

01:22:27.480 --> 01:22:31.477
We're gonna go across Pearson
Road, which is right here.

01:22:31.477 --> 01:22:33.169
And we're going to go
past our station eight,

01:22:33.169 --> 01:22:34.453
staff currently.

01:22:36.180 --> 01:22:38.390
- Well, we certainly
come off a real hard run,

01:22:38.390 --> 01:22:40.930
the last few years of
catastrophic wildfire,

01:22:40.930 --> 01:22:44.197
specifically burning into
the wildland urban interface.

01:22:45.150 --> 01:22:48.440
- We could debate endlessly
the perfect Nomex glove

01:22:48.440 --> 01:22:50.450
or the perfect Pulaski.

01:22:50.450 --> 01:22:52.040
But the fact is that when you take a look

01:22:52.040 --> 01:22:53.700
at a community like Paradise,

01:22:53.700 --> 01:22:56.620
as firefighters, we have
to think larger scale.

01:22:56.620 --> 01:22:57.970
You have to think about land use.

01:22:57.970 --> 01:22:59.907
You have to think about transportation.

01:22:59.907 --> 01:23:01.640
You have to think about skinny streets

01:23:01.640 --> 01:23:04.303
and all the aspects that
go into making a community.

01:23:05.761 --> 01:23:07.780
- So again, still mostly
residential through here,

01:23:07.780 --> 01:23:10.490
about 87% of the residential structures

01:23:10.490 --> 01:23:11.840
were destroyed in the fire.

01:23:12.870 --> 01:23:14.880
In the roadway, and you
can see remanence of it.

01:23:14.880 --> 01:23:17.670
We're driving over it right there.

01:23:17.670 --> 01:23:21.130
- We were faced with
evacuating about 35,000 people

01:23:21.130 --> 01:23:23.780
within the first four or
five hours of the fire.

01:23:23.780 --> 01:23:26.480
And I'm very confident
that the evacuation plans

01:23:26.480 --> 01:23:29.120
that we had, ultimately save lives.

01:23:29.120 --> 01:23:32.413
That's not to take away from
the 86 lives that were lost.

01:23:33.549 --> 01:23:37.090
(helicopter chuffing)

01:23:37.090 --> 01:23:39.540
- There's no one single easy fix.

01:23:39.540 --> 01:23:42.090
This has got a dozen facets to it.

01:23:42.090 --> 01:23:43.510
All of them are complicated.

01:23:43.510 --> 01:23:45.450
As I heard someone in the crowd
say just a few minutes ago,

01:23:45.450 --> 01:23:47.560
all the easy things have been done.

01:23:47.560 --> 01:23:51.820
And so the job here for
us is fire professionals,

01:23:51.820 --> 01:23:54.060
insurance professionals, policy people,

01:23:54.060 --> 01:23:55.800
administrators, legislators,

01:23:55.800 --> 01:23:57.410
is to really roll up our sleeves

01:23:57.410 --> 01:23:59.250
and look at how do we knit together

01:23:59.250 --> 01:24:01.680
the emerging technologies
that can help us,

01:24:01.680 --> 01:24:04.810
not forget some of the old
school things that work

01:24:04.810 --> 01:24:06.570
and make sure that we pull those together,

01:24:06.570 --> 01:24:07.860
and we've gotta turn the corner on this

01:24:07.860 --> 01:24:10.405
the next five, six years.

01:24:10.405 --> 01:24:12.267
(crows cawing)

01:24:12.267 --> 01:24:16.150
(gentle pensive music)

01:24:16.150 --> 01:24:18.240
- It's gonna take a long, long time

01:24:18.240 --> 01:24:20.000
for a community like Paradise

01:24:20.000 --> 01:24:22.710
to return back to what it used to be.

01:24:22.710 --> 01:24:24.660
I have no idea how long it's gonna take.

01:24:24.660 --> 01:24:25.590
It's anybody's guess.

01:24:25.590 --> 01:24:27.370
'Cause it's unprecedented, right?

01:24:27.370 --> 01:24:29.010
A whole community, essentially,

01:24:29.010 --> 01:24:30.993
being almost obliterated.

01:24:37.210 --> 01:24:39.940
Paradise was actually fairly well-prepared

01:24:39.940 --> 01:24:42.890
compared to a lot of other
communities in advance.

01:24:42.890 --> 01:24:45.130
They had done a fair amount of planning,

01:24:45.130 --> 01:24:46.980
but it wasn't enough.

01:24:46.980 --> 01:24:48.000
And I think what it's showing

01:24:48.000 --> 01:24:50.890
is that the level of planning
and the level of intervention

01:24:50.890 --> 01:24:55.090
that has to happen in these
highly flammable communities

01:24:55.090 --> 01:24:57.410
in the face of climate change,

01:24:57.410 --> 01:24:59.070
in the face of spreading development,

01:24:59.070 --> 01:25:02.660
is much higher than
anyone ever anticipated.

01:25:02.660 --> 01:25:05.290
And it's gonna go beyond
what the standard practices

01:25:05.290 --> 01:25:08.560
right now for fire safe planning.

01:25:08.560 --> 01:25:10.773
So I think we're setting a new normal.

01:25:16.800 --> 01:25:18.580
- I just came off the White River Fire

01:25:18.580 --> 01:25:20.550
and I was at home taking RNR

01:25:20.550 --> 01:25:22.567
so that I can go down
to California on a fire.

01:25:22.567 --> 01:25:24.520
And then I got a call
from a friend of mine

01:25:24.520 --> 01:25:26.960
asking me if I would come
to the Riverside Fire.

01:25:26.960 --> 01:25:30.063
Just ran 15 miles and it's
gonna be headings for Estacada.

01:25:31.260 --> 01:25:34.780
The entire fire perimeter
is something like 780 miles,

01:25:34.780 --> 01:25:36.993
basically from Portland to Salt Lake City.

01:25:38.110 --> 01:25:39.410
It's a lot of area to cover.

01:25:39.410 --> 01:25:42.440
So we break them up into
different divisions.

01:25:42.440 --> 01:25:46.100
This is the Riverside Fire, and
then the Beachie Creek Fire,

01:25:46.100 --> 01:25:48.403
and then the Lionshead Fire.

01:25:48.403 --> 01:25:50.630
The Riverside Fire was wind driven.

01:25:50.630 --> 01:25:53.440
This fire went through at about 24 miles

01:25:53.440 --> 01:25:55.500
and that was in a 30 hour time span.

01:25:55.500 --> 01:25:57.540
Impressive fire behavior and fire run

01:25:57.540 --> 01:25:59.140
for such a short period of time.

01:26:00.330 --> 01:26:04.230
The Beachie Creek Fire
started on August 16th

01:26:04.230 --> 01:26:06.670
in the Opal Creek Wilderness.

01:26:06.670 --> 01:26:09.670
It was a very rugged remote area.

01:26:09.670 --> 01:26:11.920
We weren't able to get resources in there,

01:26:11.920 --> 01:26:14.220
any firefighters safely on the ground.

01:26:14.220 --> 01:26:15.520
And this was in heavy timber.

01:26:15.520 --> 01:26:17.090
So the locals had not seen

01:26:17.090 --> 01:26:19.373
this kind of fire behavior really ever.

01:26:20.860 --> 01:26:24.090
We're gonna take Highway
22 towards the Detroit.

01:26:24.090 --> 01:26:26.640
These communities were heavily impacted.

01:26:26.640 --> 01:26:28.390
There are a lot of destruction.

01:26:28.390 --> 01:26:29.670
In total between the two,

01:26:29.670 --> 01:26:32.400
there are almost 500 residents destroyed

01:26:32.400 --> 01:26:33.983
just along this area.

01:26:37.977 --> 01:26:39.200
(tense music)

01:26:39.200 --> 01:26:41.700
- My wife was watching Facebook.

01:26:41.700 --> 01:26:44.880
She told me that Potato Hill was on fire.

01:26:44.880 --> 01:26:46.630
And then the next thing she sees,

01:26:46.630 --> 01:26:49.293
there's a field on fire
outside of Mill City.

01:26:50.420 --> 01:26:51.253
About that time,

01:26:51.253 --> 01:26:53.474
a couple of fire trucks
rolled past my house,

01:26:53.474 --> 01:26:55.150
(siren wailing)

01:26:55.150 --> 01:26:58.470
and then it went to the
level three evacuation.

01:26:58.470 --> 01:27:01.630
And so it was telling
everybody to get out.

01:27:01.630 --> 01:27:03.243
It's time to pack up and leave.

01:27:04.240 --> 01:27:07.410
There was one widow lady
that lives here in town,

01:27:07.410 --> 01:27:08.960
that I went over to her house

01:27:08.960 --> 01:27:11.080
and she didn't even know
anything was going on.

01:27:11.080 --> 01:27:14.823
So I helped her load her car
and sent her down the road.

01:27:16.100 --> 01:27:17.210
Folks it's hard to believe,

01:27:17.210 --> 01:27:19.210
but it's three o'clock in the afternoon.

01:27:21.110 --> 01:27:21.993
It's dark.

01:27:23.090 --> 01:27:25.830
When I left it, it was very smoky,

01:27:25.830 --> 01:27:28.640
but there's no fires really

01:27:28.640 --> 01:27:30.800
that I could see on
the north side of town.

01:27:30.800 --> 01:27:33.490
But when I left just at the city limits,

01:27:33.490 --> 01:27:35.960
it was a tunnel of flame to drive through

01:27:35.960 --> 01:27:37.563
for about four miles.

01:27:38.460 --> 01:27:41.580
Look at all this burning
stuff in the roadway.

01:27:41.580 --> 01:27:43.936
I am driving through the fire, folks.

01:27:43.936 --> 01:27:46.670
This is nuts.

01:27:46.670 --> 01:27:49.463
This is absolutely... That's
all I can feel the heat.

01:27:50.500 --> 01:27:51.333
Wow!

01:27:52.970 --> 01:27:56.653
All the Riverfront homes just
outside of town were on fire.

01:27:57.670 --> 01:28:00.023
Unbelievable. It was just so surreal.

01:28:01.010 --> 01:28:03.710
All the trees there were candlestick.

01:28:03.710 --> 01:28:05.171
I wasn't frightened.

01:28:05.171 --> 01:28:07.403
Just more of in disbelief.

01:28:08.430 --> 01:28:10.073
Crazy, crazy.

01:28:11.105 --> 01:28:13.363
Oh, mercy sakes.

01:28:15.510 --> 01:28:19.100
So I drove around to go to the north side.

01:28:19.100 --> 01:28:21.490
That's where it really sunk in

01:28:21.490 --> 01:28:25.140
because I had to drive up to
Gates across the river there,

01:28:25.140 --> 01:28:27.570
and Gates was actively on fire.

01:28:27.570 --> 01:28:32.100
So I saw the potential
for the total devastation.

01:28:32.100 --> 01:28:37.100
That's when the fear of what
danger really was set into me.

01:28:39.950 --> 01:28:41.170
What can you do?

01:28:41.170 --> 01:28:43.530
I drove on through, I
checked what was going on

01:28:43.530 --> 01:28:45.360
with the reservoir.

01:28:45.360 --> 01:28:47.540
The reservoir was not in danger.

01:28:47.540 --> 01:28:50.110
Although the fire was nearby.

01:28:50.110 --> 01:28:51.310
Right there on the hillside,

01:28:51.310 --> 01:28:53.910
that's our million gallon reservoir.

01:28:53.910 --> 01:28:56.220
To the right of it, you can't
see through the trees there,

01:28:56.220 --> 01:28:58.950
that's where the
neighborhood is that burned.

01:28:58.950 --> 01:29:00.810
We lost our generator.

01:29:00.810 --> 01:29:02.080
The motor was running.

01:29:02.080 --> 01:29:04.660
However, the surges and stuff

01:29:04.660 --> 01:29:06.320
blew out a circuit board on it.

01:29:06.320 --> 01:29:09.973
So electronics are not reliable.

01:29:10.990 --> 01:29:14.480
I would not want the power
company to turn off the power

01:29:14.480 --> 01:29:17.070
every time they thought
the wind was gonna blow.

01:29:17.070 --> 01:29:19.550
I would not have been able
to get the pumps going again

01:29:19.550 --> 01:29:23.580
for Mill City whose water
system was supplying water

01:29:23.580 --> 01:29:27.010
to Gates and Lyons, as well as Mill City

01:29:27.010 --> 01:29:29.050
for fighting the fires.

01:29:29.050 --> 01:29:31.360
- I don't think it's necessarily bad

01:29:31.360 --> 01:29:33.310
to be turning the power off,

01:29:33.310 --> 01:29:37.950
because if you could prevent a campfire,

01:29:37.950 --> 01:29:41.075
you just saved 85 lives.

01:29:41.075 --> 01:29:45.387
The issue with it is how
it's being carried out.

01:29:47.430 --> 01:29:49.470
- If they deactivated the power

01:29:49.470 --> 01:29:53.200
with our people have had the
ability to fight the fires

01:29:53.200 --> 01:29:54.163
the way they did.

01:29:56.140 --> 01:29:58.715
What worries me is when
the pendulum swings,

01:29:58.715 --> 01:30:01.103
it always goes to the far side.

01:30:02.580 --> 01:30:05.170
I hope as it swings back the other way

01:30:05.170 --> 01:30:06.713
that it finds a balance.

01:30:10.740 --> 01:30:13.310
- If there's a useful
historical analogy here,

01:30:13.310 --> 01:30:15.050
and that's the railroads.

01:30:15.050 --> 01:30:17.280
In the 19th, early 20th century,

01:30:17.280 --> 01:30:19.590
most of these horrific mega fires

01:30:19.590 --> 01:30:23.150
were the result of
sparks from locomotives.

01:30:23.150 --> 01:30:25.530
And they were finding fuel

01:30:25.530 --> 01:30:28.520
because the railroad had
opened up the countryside,

01:30:28.520 --> 01:30:30.563
leaving lots of debris around.

01:30:31.460 --> 01:30:34.150
And railroads were a
huge economic presence,

01:30:34.150 --> 01:30:35.877
massive infrastructure issue,

01:30:35.877 --> 01:30:38.730
and of course, lots and
lots of political clout.

01:30:38.730 --> 01:30:40.783
Well, we solved the railroad problem.

01:30:41.660 --> 01:30:43.870
They still start fires, but not very many.

01:30:43.870 --> 01:30:46.520
And so I think that we can
learn from that experience.

01:30:46.520 --> 01:30:49.410
Okay, what combination
of things did it take?

01:30:49.410 --> 01:30:52.310
We could apply a comparable
suite of techniques

01:30:52.310 --> 01:30:56.250
to bring the power line fire
situation under control.

01:30:56.250 --> 01:30:59.070
Clearly, part of that is if
we had other sources of power

01:30:59.070 --> 01:31:02.200
like solar local, that
could be stored locally,

01:31:02.200 --> 01:31:03.570
then you could turn the power off

01:31:03.570 --> 01:31:06.160
and you wouldn't disrupt
millions of lives.

01:31:06.160 --> 01:31:08.210
So we could solve a couple of things

01:31:08.210 --> 01:31:10.333
by rethinking our power system.

01:31:13.410 --> 01:31:15.330
- The fire can hit you anywhere.

01:31:15.330 --> 01:31:17.750
It's just all the elements were there.

01:31:17.750 --> 01:31:22.050
The forests being not
cleaned up with the wind,

01:31:22.050 --> 01:31:25.040
with the drought kind
of situation we'd had.

01:31:25.040 --> 01:31:27.410
So everything came together
for the perfect storm,

01:31:27.410 --> 01:31:28.613
I guess you'd call it.

01:31:30.170 --> 01:31:33.920
People are anxious to get
back to their own communities

01:31:33.920 --> 01:31:35.580
and get the rebuild started

01:31:35.580 --> 01:31:38.380
and get their lives back together.

01:31:38.380 --> 01:31:43.090
But that could take two to five
years in a lot of the cases.

01:31:43.090 --> 01:31:44.280
I know of some places

01:31:44.280 --> 01:31:46.850
where the folks have already cleaned up

01:31:46.850 --> 01:31:48.900
and they're looking to rebuild,

01:31:48.900 --> 01:31:51.820
and those folks will be the
first ones back, obviously,

01:31:51.820 --> 01:31:54.080
but there's some that
have not even begun yet

01:31:54.080 --> 01:31:56.530
because they don't have
the resources to do that.

01:32:00.940 --> 01:32:02.790
- It's tough talking about moving on

01:32:02.790 --> 01:32:03.623
long-term at this point,

01:32:03.623 --> 01:32:05.310
because we're really trying to take care

01:32:05.310 --> 01:32:06.760
of short term needs.

01:32:06.760 --> 01:32:09.040
Long-term it's gonna
take a while to recover

01:32:09.040 --> 01:32:10.350
and it's never gonna be the same,

01:32:10.350 --> 01:32:12.720
like Eason Thai right here behind me,

01:32:12.720 --> 01:32:14.740
great Thai restaurant here in the valley.

01:32:14.740 --> 01:32:16.790
Platones, A Top of Tea,
and other businesses

01:32:16.790 --> 01:32:18.840
that people love to go to

01:32:18.840 --> 01:32:20.187
and it's part of the culture
here in the community.

01:32:20.187 --> 01:32:21.480
The mobile home parks,

01:32:21.480 --> 01:32:25.110
some of them contained
really low income residents

01:32:25.110 --> 01:32:26.900
and they don't have the
resources to rebuild.

01:32:26.900 --> 01:32:28.890
They don't have insurance
on their mobile homes.

01:32:28.890 --> 01:32:29.723
What are they gonna do?

01:32:29.723 --> 01:32:31.590
I think it's inevitable that many of them

01:32:31.590 --> 01:32:33.750
are going to leave our
area, unfortunately,

01:32:33.750 --> 01:32:34.833
and find housing.

01:32:36.040 --> 01:32:38.040
- My husband and I are on social security.

01:32:38.040 --> 01:32:39.793
The rent here is really high.

01:32:40.650 --> 01:32:42.930
We don't make enough to do that.

01:32:42.930 --> 01:32:45.850
So I don't know, we had insurance.

01:32:45.850 --> 01:32:48.810
So we'll just see. We're gonna go visit.

01:32:48.810 --> 01:32:52.410
My daughter's paying a
way to go out to Iowa

01:32:52.410 --> 01:32:54.860
and we'll see what the
options are out there too.

01:32:56.870 --> 01:33:01.710
- Where to build is not a
scientifically answered question

01:33:01.710 --> 01:33:04.450
because it's not just the science of fire,

01:33:04.450 --> 01:33:09.150
it's economic sociology,
the cost of housing,

01:33:09.150 --> 01:33:12.113
all the political questions
that go associated with it.

01:33:13.580 --> 01:33:16.670
- We have to remember that
most mortgage originators

01:33:16.670 --> 01:33:18.510
require homeowners insurance,

01:33:18.510 --> 01:33:21.550
which covers fire to
qualify for a home loan.

01:33:21.550 --> 01:33:24.390
And so if the insurance is not available,

01:33:24.390 --> 01:33:26.700
then suddenly you have large areas

01:33:26.700 --> 01:33:30.430
where potentially nobody
can get a mortgage.

01:33:30.430 --> 01:33:33.320
That means probably only
the wealthiest people

01:33:33.320 --> 01:33:34.590
will be living there.

01:33:34.590 --> 01:33:36.040
So there are big implications

01:33:36.040 --> 01:33:38.150
for the change in insurance availability.

01:33:38.150 --> 01:33:40.870
And nobody really knows
where that's gonna go.

01:33:40.870 --> 01:33:42.620
It's anybody's guess at this point.

01:33:51.300 --> 01:33:52.360
- [Man] Good evening, everyone.

01:33:52.360 --> 01:33:55.510
And I think we have most
different everybody in here.

01:33:55.510 --> 01:33:57.190
- On the liability side,

01:33:57.190 --> 01:33:58.890
and then teaching in so many claims

01:33:58.890 --> 01:34:01.630
after the campfire that
they filed for bankruptcy,

01:34:01.630 --> 01:34:05.000
PGD admitted that their equipment cost

01:34:05.000 --> 01:34:06.860
these 24 separate fires.

01:34:06.860 --> 01:34:07.693
They said,

01:34:07.693 --> 01:34:09.410
"We admit it was our lines.

01:34:09.410 --> 01:34:11.700
It was our equipment
that caused these fires

01:34:11.700 --> 01:34:13.477
but we're not responsible."

01:34:15.130 --> 01:34:17.170
- If they're responsible
then they should learn

01:34:17.170 --> 01:34:18.860
because it's not the money

01:34:18.860 --> 01:34:21.890
it's your life is totally upside down.

01:34:21.890 --> 01:34:24.230
And I'm lucky, I have places to go to.

01:34:24.230 --> 01:34:25.330
A lot of people don't.

01:34:28.068 --> 01:34:31.100
We just started from nothing and built it.

01:34:31.100 --> 01:34:32.980
So we didn't have...

01:34:32.980 --> 01:34:34.300
We didn't need to get insurance

01:34:34.300 --> 01:34:35.300
and couldn't really afford it.

01:34:35.300 --> 01:34:37.370
I've never really had that much money.

01:34:37.370 --> 01:34:40.050
There's a lot off the
land, our burden and stuff.

01:34:40.050 --> 01:34:41.633
A lot of people did, but we didn't.

01:34:42.572 --> 01:34:45.072
(piano music)

01:34:46.850 --> 01:34:49.930
My husband is 70, but he's going ho.

01:34:49.930 --> 01:34:52.670
So he wants to do it out of stone his time

01:34:52.670 --> 01:34:54.912
and at a quicker method.

01:34:54.912 --> 01:34:58.750
- This is the cob and this is the wire

01:34:58.750 --> 01:34:59.980
that was on the back of here.

01:34:59.980 --> 01:35:01.650
See? So that was like that.

01:35:01.650 --> 01:35:04.150
But it's totally fireproof.

01:35:04.150 --> 01:35:05.430
This is the outside, obviously.

01:35:05.430 --> 01:35:07.700
You can see my brush strokes.

01:35:07.700 --> 01:35:08.950
It didn't burn.

01:35:08.950 --> 01:35:09.980
- And he's retired now.

01:35:09.980 --> 01:35:12.210
So I mean, he did all
the building himself.

01:35:12.210 --> 01:35:13.310
We didn't have anybody help.

01:35:13.310 --> 01:35:17.090
And he did that in a while
he was working too, so.

01:35:17.090 --> 01:35:18.310
Hopefully this will go...

01:35:18.310 --> 01:35:20.910
We have a lot of people
that said they will help us.

01:35:21.970 --> 01:35:23.300
He's been sleeping in a tent.

01:35:23.300 --> 01:35:25.090
I'm not so hardcore.

01:35:25.090 --> 01:35:26.700
I'm 69, just...

01:35:29.410 --> 01:35:31.653
This space right here was the fireplace.

01:35:33.283 --> 01:35:34.116
- Yeah.

01:35:34.116 --> 01:35:34.949
- A little bit.

01:35:34.949 --> 01:35:36.980
And the dining room was over there.

01:35:36.980 --> 01:35:39.520
So he built this house totally by himself.

01:35:39.520 --> 01:35:40.370
- Piano was here.

01:35:41.530 --> 01:35:42.670
The drum kit was here.

01:35:42.670 --> 01:35:44.340
- It was a pretty small place,

01:35:44.340 --> 01:35:47.150
but we crammed the drums and
the piano in there. (chuckles)

01:35:47.150 --> 01:35:48.260
I miss my piano.

01:35:48.260 --> 01:35:50.270
- We didn't have insurance.

01:35:50.270 --> 01:35:53.650
And I don't see an insurance
company helping us.

01:35:53.650 --> 01:35:55.820
- I would call it more ironic

01:35:55.820 --> 01:35:56.860
that we're off the grid

01:35:56.860 --> 01:36:00.623
and then our house is
caused by electricity.

01:36:02.840 --> 01:36:05.057
Because so often we would talk
to people and they'd be like,

01:36:05.057 --> 01:36:06.550
"Oh yeah, the power is out."

01:36:06.550 --> 01:36:08.635
We're like, "We don't know."

01:36:08.635 --> 01:36:10.123
We got our own power.

01:36:11.290 --> 01:36:15.520
Since the fire, we have been
living at a friend's house.

01:36:15.520 --> 01:36:16.940
And then we come here in the daytime,

01:36:16.940 --> 01:36:19.420
work on trying to get up here permanently.

01:36:19.420 --> 01:36:20.910
We have a trailer parked at the bottom

01:36:20.910 --> 01:36:23.023
that we're trying to
get someone to pull up.

01:36:25.150 --> 01:36:26.610
Five minutes after he heard about it,

01:36:26.610 --> 01:36:30.330
he said, "Next time we're
gonna build with stone."

01:36:30.330 --> 01:36:33.240
And I was like, "I
don't wanna start over."

01:36:33.240 --> 01:36:35.400
But what are our choices?

01:36:35.400 --> 01:36:37.330
And we love it here.

01:36:37.330 --> 01:36:38.163
We're gonna make it work.

01:36:38.163 --> 01:36:39.320
The trailer will come up

01:36:39.320 --> 01:36:41.360
and we'll be in the tiny home and...

01:36:42.274 --> 01:36:44.150
- I have great faith in the lawyers,

01:36:44.150 --> 01:36:46.520
which is a hard thing for me to say.

01:36:46.520 --> 01:36:48.580
- What we're hoping is
when we get enough money

01:36:48.580 --> 01:36:51.290
from the lawsuit that we'll be able

01:36:51.290 --> 01:36:53.083
to have help building this.

01:36:54.069 --> 01:36:55.950
That's one thing that
this fire has showed us

01:36:55.950 --> 01:37:00.010
that there's just so many people
out there wanting to help.

01:37:00.010 --> 01:37:02.000
- We're receiving help from people

01:37:02.000 --> 01:37:04.423
we wouldn't usually even communicate with

01:37:04.423 --> 01:37:05.930
because of their...

01:37:08.120 --> 01:37:09.930
I don't want to say their way is wrong.

01:37:09.930 --> 01:37:11.830
I'm just saying it's extremely different

01:37:11.830 --> 01:37:13.533
from our viewpoint, okay?

01:37:14.375 --> 01:37:18.300
- But we've...
- They've been incredible.

01:37:18.300 --> 01:37:19.720
- Politics is out the window.

01:37:19.720 --> 01:37:21.260
It's not even raised.

01:37:21.260 --> 01:37:25.313
And it's awesome what's happened.

01:37:27.055 --> 01:37:29.972
(orchestral music)

01:37:31.856 --> 01:37:34.157
- Oregon like California,
like most other states.

01:37:34.157 --> 01:37:36.320
And the good Lord just did not wire us

01:37:36.320 --> 01:37:38.680
to be prepared or look for our lives

01:37:38.680 --> 01:37:41.120
from a 50 foot wall fire.

01:37:41.120 --> 01:37:41.953
Trust me.

01:37:41.953 --> 01:37:44.953
But I tell you, if you were
anywhere close to this fire,

01:37:46.510 --> 01:37:49.213
you have demons that you
want to have to file.

01:37:50.430 --> 01:37:52.920
And it will not go away
until you work on it.

01:37:52.920 --> 01:37:55.010
So get into a group,

01:37:55.010 --> 01:37:58.210
seek counseling,
psychologist, psychiatrist,

01:37:58.210 --> 01:38:00.143
priest, church groups.

01:38:01.000 --> 01:38:03.310
Treat it like your job.

01:38:03.310 --> 01:38:04.143
The more you work on it,

01:38:04.143 --> 01:38:06.723
the more you get yourself
back psychologically.

01:38:13.473 --> 01:38:16.170
- I think the best thing
that can be done to really

01:38:16.170 --> 01:38:20.310
make the WUI safer in
addition to smart planning

01:38:20.310 --> 01:38:25.310
and development codes is to
strategically treat the fuels

01:38:25.920 --> 01:38:27.490
at the likely source of the fire,

01:38:27.490 --> 01:38:30.470
which means going into
the wildlands themselves

01:38:30.470 --> 01:38:32.863
and doing strategic field treatments.

01:38:41.200 --> 01:38:43.840
- We have developed a suppression culture

01:38:43.840 --> 01:38:46.250
and we put fires out
because fire is scary,

01:38:46.250 --> 01:38:48.270
fire is dangerous fires, fire is bad.

01:38:48.270 --> 01:38:51.320
But actually, fire is
really good. (chuckles)

01:38:51.320 --> 01:38:54.700
For especially these
fire adapted landscapes.

01:38:54.700 --> 01:38:56.070
Like in California,

01:38:56.070 --> 01:39:00.050
this was such a big part of
how these landscapes formed.

01:39:00.050 --> 01:39:03.430
It just makes sense that
this is the solution.

01:39:03.430 --> 01:39:06.670
People have been doing this
for thousands of years, right?

01:39:06.670 --> 01:39:09.640
Indigenous cultures have been doing this

01:39:09.640 --> 01:39:11.860
for time immemorial.

01:39:11.860 --> 01:39:13.280
This is really exciting.

01:39:13.280 --> 01:39:14.570
I'm Lyndsey Lacheck,

01:39:14.570 --> 01:39:17.490
I work for the Shasta Valley
Resource Conservation district.

01:39:17.490 --> 01:39:20.910
To start a prescribed burn association,

01:39:20.910 --> 01:39:25.840
to help get more local
capacity for prescribed fire.

01:39:25.840 --> 01:39:30.410
We have a huge fire
experience here with the tribe

01:39:30.410 --> 01:39:32.530
and Mickwick and weed fire.

01:39:32.530 --> 01:39:34.583
Feel free to ask questions.

01:39:36.910 --> 01:39:40.870
I'm kind of having to
unlearn how I do fire

01:39:40.870 --> 01:39:43.943
to make it more accessible to people.

01:39:45.300 --> 01:39:47.800
Safety is our number one priority.

01:39:47.800 --> 01:39:50.360
The whole reason why we wanna
get more prescribed fire

01:39:50.360 --> 01:39:52.990
on the ground is to
protect our communities

01:39:52.990 --> 01:39:55.423
from wildfire and reduce wildfire risk.

01:39:56.700 --> 01:40:00.020
During a wildfire, it
does kind of look like...

01:40:00.020 --> 01:40:01.090
There's engines going this way

01:40:01.090 --> 01:40:03.226
and there's people all over the place.

01:40:03.226 --> 01:40:06.540
And I mean to somebody who has
no idea about what that is,

01:40:06.540 --> 01:40:08.433
it probably just looks chaotic.

01:40:09.970 --> 01:40:14.870
We put on a training and taught
people some of the basics.

01:40:14.870 --> 01:40:16.640
A lot of the feedback from people

01:40:16.640 --> 01:40:19.887
who had no experience in fire was,

01:40:19.887 --> 01:40:22.717
"I didn't realize how
organized at all was."

01:40:23.630 --> 01:40:26.030
And that was really interesting to me

01:40:26.030 --> 01:40:29.690
because it's extremely organized.

01:40:29.690 --> 01:40:33.040
The structure of it, it's
very kind of militarized,

01:40:33.040 --> 01:40:35.400
there's people in charge
and then you branch down

01:40:35.400 --> 01:40:36.270
and then there's crews.

01:40:36.270 --> 01:40:40.843
And so this morning we met
at this landowner's property.

01:40:41.900 --> 01:40:45.160
This is gonna be a first entry fire

01:40:45.160 --> 01:40:46.710
since it's been planted.

01:40:46.710 --> 01:40:48.770
And then the intention is that we'll get

01:40:48.770 --> 01:40:50.700
kind of the fuel down

01:40:50.700 --> 01:40:53.690
so that he can come
back in subsequent years

01:40:53.690 --> 01:40:56.560
and continue of frequent return interval

01:40:56.560 --> 01:40:58.880
and not have to deal with as
much of the hazardous fuels

01:40:58.880 --> 01:40:59.713
that are here.

01:41:03.110 --> 01:41:04.820
- We know that we're
going to have wildfire

01:41:04.820 --> 01:41:06.950
and that there's no question about that.

01:41:06.950 --> 01:41:09.990
And so we want to ensure that by promoting

01:41:09.990 --> 01:41:12.730
and re-introducing that
important low-severity

01:41:12.730 --> 01:41:14.640
and mild-severity fired today,

01:41:14.640 --> 01:41:17.230
especially as we think
toward a warmer climate

01:41:17.230 --> 01:41:20.180
and we have longer and dryer fire seasons,

01:41:20.180 --> 01:41:23.590
we can help have our forest
ecosystems on a trajectory

01:41:23.590 --> 01:41:24.830
that into the future,

01:41:24.830 --> 01:41:27.251
they can remain as stable as possible.

01:41:27.251 --> 01:41:29.834
(gentle music)

01:41:30.670 --> 01:41:34.160
- It just comes back
to stewardship, right?

01:41:34.160 --> 01:41:38.520
I'm motivated to get more
prescribed fire on the ground

01:41:38.520 --> 01:41:41.650
because I think that it's one
of the most important tools

01:41:41.650 --> 01:41:44.683
that we have to be good
stewards of our land.

01:41:47.440 --> 01:41:50.080
- I think it's a prime
opportunity to create jobs

01:41:50.080 --> 01:41:52.410
in those hard hit rural communities.

01:41:52.410 --> 01:41:56.220
Under my 21st century
civilian conservation corp,

01:41:56.220 --> 01:42:01.040
we could put thousands and
thousands of young people to work

01:42:01.040 --> 01:42:03.860
who would go in and
help resource dependent,

01:42:03.860 --> 01:42:06.080
communities with forest treatments,

01:42:06.080 --> 01:42:10.660
something that workers and
loggers will benefit from.

01:42:10.660 --> 01:42:13.750
Make homes and dwellings
more fire resilient,

01:42:13.750 --> 01:42:15.190
which is very important

01:42:15.190 --> 01:42:16.710
because of the public health problems

01:42:16.710 --> 01:42:18.830
associated with all this smoke.

01:42:18.830 --> 01:42:22.310
And also give us a chance to really look

01:42:22.310 --> 01:42:26.040
to the future so that as
these young people get skills,

01:42:26.040 --> 01:42:28.500
they can come back and look to employment

01:42:28.500 --> 01:42:30.500
in rural communities.

01:42:30.500 --> 01:42:34.490
- It's gonna require
resources to deal with this,

01:42:34.490 --> 01:42:37.380
but the cost of inaction
is so much greater

01:42:37.380 --> 01:42:41.170
than the cost of action
that every Oregonian

01:42:41.170 --> 01:42:44.030
should be motivated to be
making these investments

01:42:44.030 --> 01:42:45.980
because without them,

01:42:45.980 --> 01:42:49.240
we're gonna see continuing siphoning away

01:42:49.240 --> 01:42:50.470
about public revenues

01:42:50.470 --> 01:42:53.183
and frankly, impacts to
our economic development.

01:42:54.490 --> 01:42:57.500
- This year, we did two
very large prescribed burns

01:42:57.500 --> 01:42:59.980
for the first time in
a long time in Oregon.

01:42:59.980 --> 01:43:03.300
We had a 6,000 acre burn on
the Ochoco National Forest.

01:43:03.300 --> 01:43:06.940
And just under 9,000 acres
was burned in a couple of days

01:43:06.940 --> 01:43:09.030
on the Fremont-Winema National Forest.

01:43:09.030 --> 01:43:11.920
So we're starting to see
a shift in how we think

01:43:11.920 --> 01:43:13.163
about the trade-offs.

01:43:14.540 --> 01:43:16.680
There's the pay now, pay me later concept

01:43:16.680 --> 01:43:20.260
where even if we might
impact a community for a day

01:43:20.260 --> 01:43:21.260
with some smoke,

01:43:21.260 --> 01:43:23.600
but we have warning
and we let people know,

01:43:23.600 --> 01:43:25.700
and we can help the sensitive populations

01:43:25.700 --> 01:43:28.393
find a place to be out of the smoke.

01:43:30.050 --> 01:43:34.320
The trade-off is that for
a month or more of smoke

01:43:34.320 --> 01:43:37.210
during a period of a lot of fire activity.

01:43:37.210 --> 01:43:38.960
I think after the last few fire seasons,

01:43:38.960 --> 01:43:41.310
people are coming to a
different understanding.

01:43:43.180 --> 01:43:46.480
- This is dramatically different.

01:43:46.480 --> 01:43:51.480
I can't recall a time in
my 50 years in Oregon,

01:43:53.790 --> 01:43:57.160
where I saw the kind of smoke

01:43:57.160 --> 01:43:59.750
that we were faced with this summer

01:43:59.750 --> 01:44:02.650
affecting the metropolitan area

01:44:02.650 --> 01:44:05.990
as dramatically as it did.

01:44:05.990 --> 01:44:07.000
This is different.

01:44:07.000 --> 01:44:09.060
I think people realize it is.

01:44:09.060 --> 01:44:10.580
Now we need political leadership

01:44:10.580 --> 01:44:13.090
with the will step up and
do something about it.

01:44:13.090 --> 01:44:16.300
(somber music)

01:44:16.300 --> 01:44:20.980
- How do we as a state and
region and as a community

01:44:20.980 --> 01:44:24.560
and just as individuals
adapt to this new normal?

01:44:24.560 --> 01:44:28.170
And how do we work
together to really reduce

01:44:28.170 --> 01:44:29.890
the risk for all of us?

01:44:29.890 --> 01:44:32.850
To reduce the risk of
losing our playground?

01:44:32.850 --> 01:44:37.253
To losing this huge economic resource?

01:44:38.420 --> 01:44:41.990
It's really dependent on
everybody understanding

01:44:41.990 --> 01:44:44.530
and being okay with it.

01:44:44.530 --> 01:44:47.090
So if the mountain bikers are screaming

01:44:47.090 --> 01:44:50.600
and taking a logging sail to
court, then we're nowhere.

01:44:50.600 --> 01:44:52.020
Same with the environmentalist,

01:44:52.020 --> 01:44:54.280
the people who really
care about the wildlife,

01:44:54.280 --> 01:44:56.880
the people who just wanna
be out in nature alone.

01:44:56.880 --> 01:45:00.430
I mean, all these people and value sets,

01:45:00.430 --> 01:45:01.940
we gotta get them all on board

01:45:01.940 --> 01:45:03.500
and we all have to get
them on the same page

01:45:03.500 --> 01:45:05.390
or nothing will happen.

01:45:05.390 --> 01:45:09.150
And if we do nothing then the opportunity

01:45:09.150 --> 01:45:11.100
for a catastrophic fire,

01:45:11.100 --> 01:45:14.743
like they experienced in
Paradise is increasingly likely.

01:45:17.420 --> 01:45:20.019
It's a lot but this is our new world.

01:45:20.019 --> 01:45:22.519
(piano music)

01:45:24.060 --> 01:45:26.480
- If climate change is being underwritten

01:45:26.480 --> 01:45:29.230
by our combustion practices,

01:45:29.230 --> 01:45:31.810
our binge burning of fossil fuels,

01:45:31.810 --> 01:45:33.310
then contemporary climate history

01:45:33.310 --> 01:45:35.343
is a subfield of fire history.

01:45:36.190 --> 01:45:39.850
We're creating a fire rage
equivalent to the ice ages

01:45:39.850 --> 01:45:40.893
of the place to see.

01:45:43.050 --> 01:45:44.240
You're not gonna stop the wind,

01:45:44.240 --> 01:45:46.800
you're not gonna flatten the mountains.

01:45:46.800 --> 01:45:50.143
Stuffs gonna grow and you're
gonna have explosive fires.

01:45:51.060 --> 01:45:53.430
And we've expected our firefighting core

01:45:53.430 --> 01:45:56.150
to stand between and buffer that.

01:45:56.150 --> 01:45:58.120
And I think we may be reaching the point

01:45:58.120 --> 01:46:00.893
where we can pretend
that's going to happen.

01:46:02.330 --> 01:46:04.730
It's a hugely expensive model.

01:46:04.730 --> 01:46:06.640
And one way California can afford it is

01:46:06.640 --> 01:46:09.100
because they rely on inmate crews.

01:46:09.100 --> 01:46:12.113
It's hard to see other states
being able to afford that.

01:46:14.720 --> 01:46:16.610
- Wildfire is one of those factors

01:46:16.610 --> 01:46:18.060
that's really shaped the west into

01:46:18.060 --> 01:46:20.010
the kind of landscape that people love.

01:46:21.430 --> 01:46:23.790
Folks need to understand
the history of fire

01:46:23.790 --> 01:46:25.940
in the places that they love

01:46:25.940 --> 01:46:29.020
and take those steps to protect themselves

01:46:29.020 --> 01:46:31.803
and to minimize the
risks that others face.

01:46:32.973 --> 01:46:35.900
(birds chirping)

01:46:35.900 --> 01:46:40.900
- To see this story unfolding
up close and personal.

01:46:41.340 --> 01:46:44.800
The mix of unburned areas,
lightly burned areas,

01:46:44.800 --> 01:46:47.460
different patch sizes of high severity.

01:46:47.460 --> 01:46:49.270
What it looks like on
this side of the drainage,

01:46:49.270 --> 01:46:50.820
what it looks like on
that side of the drainage,

01:46:50.820 --> 01:46:52.490
what it looks like down next to the creek,

01:46:52.490 --> 01:46:55.120
what it looks like up on the ridge top's.

01:46:55.120 --> 01:46:58.140
That just reflects that
very natural pattern

01:46:58.140 --> 01:47:01.263
that has been the case for 15,000 years.

01:47:02.250 --> 01:47:04.860
And so I look forward to coming into here

01:47:04.860 --> 01:47:06.400
over the rest of my career

01:47:06.400 --> 01:47:11.400
and seeing that model of
regrowth and resurgence,

01:47:11.600 --> 01:47:13.643
the creative side of fire.

01:47:15.260 --> 01:47:20.260
For decades, this is gonna
be the most dynamic period

01:47:20.510 --> 01:47:22.360
in the development of the forest.

01:47:22.360 --> 01:47:26.530
And what wins, during this stage

01:47:26.530 --> 01:47:28.260
will fundamentally determine

01:47:28.260 --> 01:47:31.037
what we have 100 or 200 years from now.

01:47:38.753 --> 01:47:43.753
(water sloshing)
(birds chirping)

01:47:44.879 --> 01:47:47.379
(crow cawing)

01:47:51.175 --> 01:47:56.175
(closing music)
(crow cowing)