Wildfires change, impact Northwest

Emma Bloomfield, For the Review
September 15, 2015

Did anyone else see the glowing skies, and smell the intense smoke emitting from our forests this summer?

I sure did, and my first thought after looking outside was that the apocalypse had begun.

This year’s wildfire season has sure been a tough one with dozens of fires raging through the Pacific Northwest.

It’s also dangerous as more people are moving into fire-prone areas.

The attraction of Central and Eastern Oregon is climbing as it’s cities continually grow and spread. This is a problem for the safety of our population.

Some of the biggest possible causes of the fires are cutting down our old growth forests and climate change.

New growth forests are much more susceptible to fire than old growth because of the resilience they have built up over the years.

This puts our people in danger, and our cities as well.

Not only is deforestation a problem that contributes to these wildfires, climate change is also a major contributor.
With changing temperature and weather patterns our forests are catching fire easier and more often.
Not to mention the fact that we are currently in a drought period and have little water to control these fires. With normal precipitation levels this year it would seem that there isn’t a drought, but there has been a significant drop in snowpack due to the higher than normal temperatures.

This has affected our water supply and means of irrigation that depend on the normal amount of snowpack we get each year.

Along with there being little water, the U.S Forest Service is receiving reduced funding. As their funding goes down for fire prevention measures, and the fires continue to rage on, the price of fighting these fires is becoming increasingly expensive.

From this has come the most destructive wildfire season in recent history.

I think that we can change the course of our forests by leaving our old growth forests alone and going green, or at least cutting down our emissions.

I am not saying that we have to leave all of our forests alone because we have already destroyed so much of them.

Instead, we can create new ways of protecting ourselves and the environment by educating people about fire safety and implementing ideas such as dividing lines between new and old growth forests to attempt to stop fires from spreading even farther.

We can also advocate for more funding for the U.S. Forest Service preventative measures.

We are entering a new age for man kind and if we do not make a change soon, it is just going to start getting worse for us, and our planet.