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Yes, Something Can Be Done About Wildfires

Gregory Scruggs

December 19, 2017 |

The New York Times |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Bend, Oregon

Ventura County, which has been covered in relentless wildfires, can learn a thing or two from its northernly neighbor Deschutes County, which hasn't lost a single house to regular wildfires since 2003. The reason? A comprehensive approach to removing and thinning out trees and other flammable materials around homes.

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Ancestral Pueblo logging practices could save New Mexico pinelands

Maya L. Kapoor

December 11, 2017 |

High Country News |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Santa Fe, New Mexico

As wildfires become increasingly more prevalent and powerful, researchers in New Mexico are turning their attention to mitigation successes from ancestral generations. By implementing some of these methods such as selective logging, the hope is that intentional thinning of forests will lead to similar results.

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Georgia Initiative Brings Business To The Table To Save A Rare Animal

Molly Samuel

December 06, 2017 |

WABE |

Multi-Media |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Georgia

Gopher tortoises might be labelled as endangered under federal law, which brings strict guidelines that businesses want to avoid. Georgia Gopher Tortoise Initiative is dedicated to finding gophers in their natural habitat and protecting the areas they are found in, as well as other methods to help grow the population.

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Day care and mud guards: How health officials are building a firewall against deadly burns

Joanne Silberner

November 30, 2017 |

Public Radio International (PRI) |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: Nepal, Kathmandu

After studying where and how severe burns were happening to people in developing countries like Bangladesh and Nepal, it became clear what was needed for effective prevention. Inexpensive day care got children out of the home during the day when supervision could be lax, and mud walls around ground cooking fires provided additional household safety.

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The Science of Fighting Wildfires Gets a Satellite Boost

Megan Molteni

September 11, 2017 |

Wired |

Multi-Media |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: Canada

Climate change is only worsening the frequency and ferocity of forest fires. Projects such as researching what makes trees more susceptible to fires, and having satellites send images of fires as they happen, in order to help forest services react most effectively, are new ideas being researched and implemented.

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America's ring of fire

Ike Sriskandarajah

June 17, 2017 |

Reveal |

Podcast |

Over 15 Minutes

Response Location: United States, Flagstaff, Arizona

After a wildfire in 2010 burned 15,000 acres outside Flagstaff, triggering evacuations and a fatal landslide, voters approved a $10 million bond issue to transform the local fire department and fire-prevention practices. Part 4 of a package of stories on rampant homebuilding in wildfire-prone forests (starts at 35:25) tells how firefighters spend most of their time cutting trees to thin the forest to mimic its pre-settlement form, when periodic fires were a normal and small-scale threat. Suppressing all fires, letting forests thicken, and building homes in them calls for a new prevention ethos.

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Burning to save Australia's Western Desert

Rachael Hocking

June 14, 2017 |

Al Jazeera |

Multi-Media |

Under 800 Words

Response Location: Australia

After once again being granted rights to their native land, the Martu people are bringing back the bioregenerative technique of small-scale land burning. In the past century, wildfires have ravaged the areas these people call home and has lead to the loss of over 18 species of animal. They hope that imparting this traditional method of ecological maintenance will decrease the number of wildfires and in many cases, the resulting extinction of other animal species.

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Can Metro Detroit's municipalities cooperate?

Ellen Vial

November 14, 2016 |

Model D |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Detroit, Michigan

Faced with insufficient revenue to fund key services like fire departments thanks to state laws limiting tax rates, two communities in Southeast Michigan used another state law to form a regional services authority that levies a property tax to fully fund both cities' fire departments. The authority is looking to mentor other communities on how to do this. Similar regional cooperative agreements are in place at a larger scale in Minneapolis/St. Paul and Pittsburgh addressing things like transportation, regional planning and affordable housing.

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Seeing the forest through the trees?

Matt Hildner

May 29, 2016 |

The Pueblo Chieftain |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Blanca, Colorado

A new timber mill in Costilla County could majorly improve the forest health of the greater region by thinning undergrowth to reduce risk of wildfires, curbing the spread of invasive insects, and decreasing the demand for water in the face of drought. The mill could also create jobs and further economic development for the area.

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Can cutting down trees protect New Mexico's water?

Leah Todd Lin

May 26, 2016 |

High Country News |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Albuquerque, New Mexico

New Mexico adapts an innovative forestry idea from Quito, Ecuador, to prevent unpredictable and untamable forest fires. The application of this idea, called the Rio Grande Water Fund, raises money around the Rio Grande valley to pay for the thinning of overgrown forests on private and public lands. When trees are thinned out in dense areas, it's more difficult for fires to jump from the ground to the tree tops, which inhibits the rapid spreading of flames we've seen in recent years.

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