Comment Log Display

Almost 100,000 acres have already been burned in Siskiyou County.
The three large fires in Western Siskiyou County have been burning
for more than a month and are no where near containment. They may
burn into fall. At the time of this writing, 1,032,722 total acres
have burned in California this summer and 717,304 or 70 percent
were fires on federally 
managed land. * 
   
According to a study on greenhouse gas emissions from fire,
the Angora fire was estimated to have emitted 46.2 tons of
greenhouse gases per acre.
(http://www.calforestfoundation.org/pdf/FCEM-2.pdf ) That 
would mean the California fires may have emitted 47.7 million tons
of greenhouse gases so far. The EPA estimates that an average car
driven 15,000 miles annually produces 6.5 tons of carbon emissions
annually. That means that the fires could 
have produced emissions about the equivalent of 7.3 million cars.
The study also indicated that if thinning, reduction of ladder and
other fuels had been done in the forests where the Angora fires
occurred, emissions could have been dropped to 
12 tons per acre, instead of 46.2. 
 
In 2006, the State of California passed AB 32, which requires the
California Air Resources Board (CARB) to develop regulations and
marketing mechanisms to reduce California’s greenhouse gas
emissions by 25 percent by 2020. Mandatory caps on emissions from
industry and other sources will begin in 2012. A draft scoping
plan is available now at http://www.arb.ca.gov/cc/cc.htm It would
seem to me that a comprehensive and aggressive strategy to reduce
fuels on our National Forests would not only protect the health
and safety of forest communities, cost less in the long run in
comparison to fire suppression, but make substantial strides in
accomplishing greenhouse emission reduction goals under AB 32.

[* Reference for citations
http://www.fire.ca.gov/index_incidents.php  
http://165.221.39.44/state/5/