MORE ON FOREST THINNING FOR WILDFIRE RESISTANCE (OR NOT)
A Deeper Look by Dominick DellaSala
My wife Jenny and I are currently in Cabo Pulmo on the southern Baja Peninsula exploring the only coral reef system in the Gulf of California. As the climate crisis worsens with no resolution in sight, we wanted to take the opportunity to see it before its potential demise. Therefore, I will not be submitting a full article this quarter, but instead, I would like to direct you to an excellent presentation by one of the Pacific Northwest’s preeminent forest ecologists and climate scientists, Dominick DellaSala, Chief Scientist with Wild Heritage, a Project of Earth Island Institute, that he recently gave to his local League of Women Voters chapter. You can find it here.
Fire killed trees along a Forest Service road in the Archie Creek Fire
Passcode: H7n7r.t6.
Dominick is a long-time friend and supporter of Umpqua Watersheds and has twice been the keynote speaker at our annual banquet. He reaches similar conclusions to the ones I did in my last 100 Valleys article:
We both agree that because of the increase in extreme fire weather brought on by what many scientists are now referring to as the “climate emergency”, thinning is no panacea for protecting our ancient natural heritage. Dominick’s talk presents great graphics to support his arguments, and is a “must see” for those interested in going deeper into the research.
Thanks to Dominick for allowing me to make his excellent research available to our readers in an engaging and well documented presentation.
Ken Carloni, Restoration Chair
