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Your Call

What Factors Contribute To Deadly Wildfires & How Should They Be Managed?

Courtesy of Don Hankins
A cultural burn in 2015 in the Big Chico Creek Ecological Reserve in California.

On this edition of Your Call, we’re discussing the factors that are contributing to wildfires across the West. More than five million acres have already burned in California, Oregon and Washington.

According to the Los Angeles Times, fires are burning more populated areas and damage is increasing.Fire officials blame everything from lightning storms, development in fire prone areas, land management, fire suppression, and climate change. Prior to the colonization of the West, Indigenous tribes burned more than four million acres a year. What will it take to change the way fires are managed in the coming years?

Guests:

Don Hankins, pyrogeographer, professor of Geography & Planning at California State University at Chico, and Plains Miwok fire expert

Dr. Timothy Ingalsbee, executive director of Firefighters United for Safety, Ethics & Ecology, former wildland firefighter for the US Forest Service and National Park Service, and a certified senior wildland fire ecologist

Web Resources: 

The Los Angeles Times, Priya Krishnakumar and Swetha Kannan: The worst fire season ever. Again. 

Cap Radio,Ezra David Romero: The Racist Removal Of Native Americans In California Is Often Missing From Wildfire Discussions, Experts Say 

The Guardian, Bill Tripp: Our land was taken. But we still hold the knowledge of how to stop mega-fires

The Nib, Xulin Wang: Prescribed Burn

 

The Conversation: The world's best fire management system is in northern Australia

Rose Aguilar has been the host of Your Call since 2006. She became a regular media roundtable guest in 2001. In 2019, the San Francisco Press Club named Your Call the best public affairs program. In 2017, The Nation named it the most valuable local radio show.