The Green

It seems possible that something is wrong with the fire prevention methods in California. The raging fires recently swept through large portions of forest and in some aerial photos looked more like a lava flow than a burning forest. The Center for Biological Diversity and their expert staff of scientists has recommended a few strategies for the next fires to be mitigated.

They made a series of recommendations, as you will read below.

* Development within fire-prone natural [www.sundancechannel.com] lands should be discouraged.

* Fire-protection funding and incentives should be provided to encourage retrofitting or remodeling existing homes and the creation of defensible space in the immediate vicinity of communities and homes. Funding should also be provided to purchase and conserve [www.sundancechannel.com] private land in fire-prone areas.

* Vegetation [www.sundancechannel.com] management for fire protection should be focused near the edge of communities and homes, not remote areas.

* Forests should be restored and managed by thinning small trees and shrubs, protecting large valuable wildlife trees and snags, prescribed burning, and removing grazing.

* Prescribed fire should be discontinued in chaparral except as needed for defensible space in the immediate vicinity of communities and homes.

* Chaparral should be restored in areas that have been replaced with flammable exotic invasive weeds.

* Burned areas should not be seeded. Most seed mixes contain nonnative weeds.

* The significant economic values of chaparral and other native vegetation [www.sundancechannel.com] to people should be recognized, including protection of reservoirs, water quality, soils, and air quality.

For more information about this story, visit the Environmental News Network [www.enn.com].