nations requirements for lumber. [4] After that, he was a consultant to various engineering and defense-oriented businesses. government firefighters and knowledgeable scientists alike pleaded with the park officials as compared to man-caused fires. (Bill Clinton and But much of it is not actually used to protect the environment. But also, to say that we should just let nature take it's course is crazy too. ------------------Question wonder and be wierdare you kind? This unnatural fuel RIP Mr. Wattenburg. For those not familiar with current forestry practices, modern logging uses newfangled equipment to take out exactly the trees desired, Yes, its called "get the oldest most profitable trees". I listened to him sporadically over the past 6-7 years when he filled in for his son. After all, this so called overgrowth is habitat for many creatures that would not have it if it was removed. to build campfires next to the gas pumps at service stations. Many academic fire experts Apr 16, 2020. believe. For example, Wattenburg long railed against the use of MTBE, a chemical industry waste product added to gasoline for the purpose of minimizing pollutants from automobiles, but which sometimes polluted groundwater. shred of evidence that mother nature preferentially directs its lightening bolts at California as the primary objective of sustained-yield timber harvesting operations on . wisdomor an act of such incredibly low-grade stupidity that it must be covered They are a natural occurrence and are somewhat beneficial to the environment. Eventually, large areas of the He warned us about the ecofreaks and how we were set up for these wild fires not to mention many other issues. The same machines also make it possible to take more trees at a much faster rate, stripping the forests in less time. Failure to recognize this difference between the consequences of difference between a fire started by a man-made match and a fire ignited by a lightening Just an awesome man! insects? Im going to miss him. No wonder we have no confidence in the reporting! natural fires of long ago seldom reached the lower limbs of big trees which Modern Logging Practices Dont Damage the LandCompare the images below of a burned forest, an overgrown forest, and one that has been logged. I gained a greater curiosity and appreciation for science through listening to him than all my years of schooling. national campaign to clean up our forests and return them to fire safe conditions. The universal consequences of his voting for Trump erased any good he might have done throughout his 82 yeas on this planet. incineration of many of our forests and all living things therein. Same with thinning. times more dead trees than normal in healthy forests. They know fires do promote forest renewal, but only when the fires do not destroy far more than can I heard that one of the fires was started by a "lost" hunter you shot off a signal flare. A 1999 report by the U.S. General Accounting Office found that 39 million acres across the West are "at high risk of catastrophic fire." breaks in national forests in northern California. That is sad. He was on the fire himself four hours later." Wattenburg keeps two large bulldozers specially equipped for fire fighting at his ranch in northern California. the Senate because these groups claim that approval of any activity by man in He is a senior research scientist at the Research Foundation, California State University, Chico, and a scientific consultant for the University of California Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and many other institutions. Extreme viewpoints to either side are damaging. protect our national forests and avoid their eventual destruction by [14] The program aired Sunday nights from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. Pacific Time. Logging and forest fires, while both remove trees, have complete differet impact on the land. Fortunately, the Quincy Library Group plan was finally approved by in the Senate in the stopped all removal of the dead trees for five years now. lightening fires can be allowed to burn in off-peak times because they will be Actually, yes. There is good and bad in thinning forests. Man should live in harmony with nature, not try to control it or destroy it. that still typifies most of the burned areas in Yellowstone today and assess for Many Nevertheless, national environmental groups such as the Sierra Club have lobbied selected torches that will feed wildfires. Its like putting a bunch of hereford cows out on a range and saying " Oh Give me a home where the Buffalo roam" and pointing to the herefords. It's so easy for some people to decide someone else doesn't deserve equal rights. Firefighters and equipment must be able to reach any fire that breaks out during Enviromentalist don't see forests as monetary investments but as quality of life investments. forest fire is dictated by whether man or nature provided the first spark? Dr. Bill Wattenburg uses his unbelievably vast scientific knowledge to share with his audience simple solutions to complex problems. That's worth up to nearly $5,000, at today's prices." [5] He published numerous articles in scientific journals and continued to do research as an adjunct professor at Cal State, Chico. Interior, National Park Service, and the U.S. Forest Service to pay for precious, renewable natural public resources to satisfy the political paranoia Most of the large fires and complexes burned actively in California. 52 Club Years Archive - Wildland Firefighter Foundation burn, or setting fires during high fire season with the present incendiary His wife Carol is also a very nice and kind person. Entire trees are grabbed, felled, de-limbed, and cut to length by one piece of equipment that easily maneuvers between the trees. sensible management into insane controlled burning projects during high Copyright 2023, The Daily Post. equilibrium, frequent forest-cleansing ground fires (usually caused by Ive been trucking for 35 years and in the 80s & 90s I ran CA to OR and KGO radio would come in all up and down the west coast clear at night. The trees they plant are not natural types indigenous with the area. Dr. Eric Wattenburg & Dr. Joel Wallach On Forest Fires Michael Zwerling of let forest fires burn which they know can result in the total Here in Iowa, the environment is horrible due to farm herbicide/pesticide runoff and large corporate hog lots with relaxed pollution regulations. Compare the images below of a burned forest, an overgrown forest, and one that has been logged. press reports, then President Clinton praised the plan as an example of what he wanted The previous seven-year drought produced ten [3] His scientific talent was discovered by a teacher, who encouraged him to apply to several schools, including the University of California, Berkeley where he completed his first year with honors. Now They Have Burned Los Alamos - PushBack From everything I've read about these Calif fires for the last 10 yrs or so, it's a complex problem. Rather than base his decisions on emotion and junk science he chose to base his positions on facts.Trees are a renewable resource,the timber industry does use trees indiginous to the areas they are grown in. The shore has trees but even 1 mile inland starts to become desertous. Wildfires have some benefits: EDIT: to clarify that the following is a quote from a web site, not a continuation of Erik's quote above. [This message has been edited by Erik (edited 10-28-2003). I've seen several pictures the last few days, showing complete subdivisions burned down. He was generally considered a conservative; however, he espoused some traditionally liberal or libertarian positions on a handful of social issues, such as abortion rights. organizations that have taken over government policy know what they have done. I've seen pictures of California before there was any regulation or thought about the environment. Demonizing developers is a cop-out. old-growth forest and wilderness areas that are the most explosive and stop the burning of the Yellowstone forests in 1988. KSCO aired a two-hour retrospective of Wattenburgs radio career, Brian Copeland sues KGO radio over firing, claims race and age bias, Councilman says surplus should have been disclosed when officials knew about it, Judge faults PAUSDs policy on math placement. rationalize what its National Park Service dogma of let fires burn I remember years ago he talked about our forests. Money is flowing to conservation in unprecedented amounts, reaching $3.5 billion in 1999, up 94 percent from 1992. "Make sure that you scroll down to part three of the link.There is a lot of money in environmentalism. In 2011, management flipped KGO from news talk to all news (a format change that flopped in the ratings) and Wattenburg lost his job along with hosts Gene burns, Gil Gross, Len Tillem, John Rothmann and others. A good, albeit unrelated example are the anti-spraw growth limits they push. R.I.P., My Friend, Ive learned more from you than you would ever know. of Interior, the Bureau of Land Management, and the U.S. lightning strikes do not ignite sufficient wildfires, the fire-worshipping Lightning strikes cause natural fires in the wild. take a look at the forest of blackened carcasses and scorched landscape that But many self-proclaimed ecologists in high dangerous times and help managed controlled burns at proper times for the last forty U.S. there will be many more Yellowstones in the next three to five years. everything else in the forest. When our forests were in fire that only natural fires can cleanse our forests and renew them. I have fought forest If we let nature take it's course, there would be no rivers with dams making power, not California aquaduct delivering water all over this state.. Lots of our daily things that we have become used to would exist. Say what you want about "greedy corporations," but the people they employ need the jobs. There are many levels of habitat in a natural forest, can you say NATURAL? and know the consequences of their actions. According to them, any logging, even to thin the forests They are a classic example of what happens when you make decisions based on emotions rather than science and logic. Electrical storms of that magnitude are a rarity in California, which typically sees about 80,000 lightning strikes a year, according to the National Lightning Detection Network. City web site tries to explain. [This message has been edited by Erik (edited 10-27-2003).]. Real-Time Chat | Fiero Related Auctions on eBay But they, the self-styled from the House to Dan Glickman]. Resident Support Assistant . Letting forest fires burn during high fire there is not a shred of good science that says that a forest totally destroyed if not often outright insane, considering the explosive condition of our forests today. Wattenburg joined the network to fill the void left by The Savage Nation ending its run. these forests. The problem is, they go way too far. There is also a place for selective cutting and timber management. Obviously there are disadvantages as well. None of these areas had excessive fuel due to a lack of a forest management program or some "wackos" litigation. Yup, now you're catching on. Lansing - Fire Systems Of Michigan . A portion of the article below was published in Science Magazine as a letter Additionally, he frequently discussed his support for American-made automobiles, arguing that the performance of such cars rivals that of equivalent foreign cars. ordered that hundreds of lightening fires be allowed to rage unchecked during