Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
(Video of smoke plumes, helicopters, fire)
IN THE SUMMER OF 2013, IT WAS IMPOSSIBLE TO IGNORE… THE WATER HAD NOT ARRIVED, AND IDAHO
WAS ON FIRE.
(Dramatic shots of fire)
TO SOME THIS WAS HARDLY A SURPRISE. IT HAD BEEN BUILDING FOR AWHILE
JENNIFER PIERCE STUDIES CLIMATE AND THE HISTORY
OF FIRE. SHE GATHERS EVIDENCE AT THE SOURCE OF HISTORICAL FIRES IN IDAHO GOING BACK ALMOST
10,000-YEARS.
Jennifer Pierce: “So I look for evidence of these past fires by digging up small pieces
of charcoal buried in sediments and I date that charcoal and that gives me a longer history
of fire.”
PIERCE SAYS FIRE WAS RARE FROM THE 1400’S UP TO THE 1900’S. A BIG FIRE HAPPENED ABOUT
EVERY 200 TO 400-YEARS. BUT BY THE 1980’S, SOMETHING HAD CHANGED. MASSIVE WILDFIRES LIKE
THE 1988 YELLOWSTONE FIRE HAD BECOME MORE COMMON.
Jennifer Pierce: Starting again in about about
1985, there was an increase in the size and severity of fires throughout the western U.S.”
Jennifer Pierce: “and the cause of those
large fires is overwhelmingly climate. When you look at the data – those large fires
are burning again throughout a range of eco-systems regardless of prior management.”
THE CLOSE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CLIMATE, FIRE,
AND WATER IS NO SURPRISE.
John Abatzoglou: “Climate really defines us as Idahoans and climate provides a template
for a lot of the resources, our water resources, our land resources, forestry, agriculture,
energy, tourism, recreation. All those really come back to water in the end.”
CLIMATE DICTATES HOW MUCH WATER FALLS FROM
THE SKY… AND WHAT HAPPENS TO THE WATER ON THE GROUND.
HOTTER TEMPERATURES…A CHANGING WATER CYCLE…MORE
FIRE.
BUT WHILE CLIMATE CHANGE IS A CONCERN TO MOST SCIENTISTS. PROFESSOR OF FORESTRY JAY O’LAUGHLIN
HAS FOCUSED HIS ATTENTION ON THE THINGS WE MIGHT DO TO REDUCE THE IMPACT OF MORE FREQUENT
FIRES.
Jay O’Laughlin: “We’ve altered the fire regime in many of our forests by not allowing
fires to burn.” “and that does have some consequences that come with it. Because the
next fire is going to be bigger because you’ve accumulated more fuel.”
Jay O’Laughlin: “Fuel management is really the key here. By allowing our managers to
do active fuel management to create conditions that will make our forests and our watersheds
more resilient.”
MORE THAN 60-PERCENT OF IDAHO IS FEDERALLY OWNED AND MANAGED. THE PROCEDURE TO HARVEST
TIMBER IN NATIONAL FORESTS IS PLAGUED BY RED TAPE AND A MULTI-YEAR PROCESS SAYS O’LAUGHLIN.
AND THAT RESULTS IN FIRES THAT HAVE PLENTY OF FUEL TO BURN.
Jay O’Laughlin: “One of those impacts that we care deeply about is water quality.
And water quality is impacted by sediment.”
ONE EXAMPLE IS THE BIG WOOD RIVER A WEEK AFTER THE BEAVER CREEK FIRE IN CENTRAL IDAHO. AND
CERTAIN PLANT SPECIES WON’T HAVE TIME TO REBOUND…LAYING THE GROUNDWORK FOR OTHER
PLANT SPECIES. TAKE CHEATGRASS FOR EXAMPLE, A FAST GROWING PLANT THAT OFFERS FUEL TO NEW
FIRES. IN THE SCIENCE WORLD – IT’S CALLED TYPE CONVERSION.
Jennifer Pierce: “That has certainly already
starting to take place where forests that have burned, for example in the southwest
are not being replaced by trees, they are being replaced by shrubs. A real concern of
mine is that if there is a fire in the Boise front – will the trees up at Bogus grow
back?”
Jennifer Pierce: “These are trees that germinate during the little ice age, a time characterized
by cooler climates than today and our current climate may not be suitable for trees.”
UNIVERSITY OF IDAHO PROFESSOR JOHN ABATZOGLOU
SAYS THIS IS JUST ONE WAY CLIMATE WILL CHANGE THE STATE IN SOME DRAMATIC WAYS.
HIS RESEARCH MODELS PREDICT A POTENTIAL 7
TO 10 DEGREE TEMPERATURE INCREASE IN POPULATED AREAS OF IDAHO BY THE END OF THE 21ST CENTURY.
John Abatzoglou: “The summer temperatures
of McCall would be a lot like the current summer temperatures are today in Boise. And
for Boise, if we consider what the summer temperature might look like in Boise by the
end of the 21st Century. And if we think about where we would have to go today to find summer
temperatures like that – we would have to go quite some distance, thousands of miles
of miles away, outside the Pacific Northwest.”
IMAGINE PUSHING IDAHO DOWN 2,000 FEET. PLACES LIKE IDAHO CITY, KETCHUM AND SALMON WOULD
ALL HAVE CLIMATES SIMILAR TO TWIN FALLS AND BOISE TODAY.
John Abatzaglou: “One thing that we do see
from these modeled projections are an increase in precipitation during our cooler months
and a decrease in the warmer months. So that’s basically the rich getting richer and the
poorer getting poorer in terms of amplifying the seasonality of precipitation.”
(Sound of water falling over waterfall)