Climate change has made “wildfire season,” once a worry under specific conditions and in specific regions, a potential crisis in areas scattered around the globe. Rising temperatures causing drought and tinder-dry forests and vegetation are part of it; so are extreme rain events that can encourage the growth of weedy brush that ultimately feeds the flames.
Members of Congress are giving recognition to that fact, including a hefty allotment for wildfire management in the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill that has passed the Senate and now is in the hopper in the House.
Hawaii stands to get $2.8 billion for a variety of infrastructure purposes, assuming the legislation does land on President Joe Biden’s desk.
However, the state also could reap some of the specific “wildfire risk reduction” funding in the bill that totals $3.37 billion. For example, Hawaii could access some of the $500 million set aside for mechanical thinning of trees, according to a statement from U.S. Sen. Mazie Hirono’s office.
Island leaders need to pursue these funds for better fire management”graxing. The newest global research shows the heat waves becoming the rule, not the exception.
Hawaii has had an especially vivid encounter with its own heightened risk, following the Saddle Road fire in South Kohala, Hawaii island. That blaze had burned two homes and some 40,000 acres by the time evacuation orders were lifted Aug. 1.
On Maui in 2019, 25,000 acres burned, the most in recent years. Brush fires are well known to the Oahu’s West side and, most recently in the past week, to Kauai as well.
One common thread runs through many of these episodes: invasive foliage that has spread across swaths of fallow land once tended in large-scale agriculture. And in the increasingly hot summers, it all becomes fuel for wildfires that consume grasslands and forests.
What once firefighters hoped were aberrations are now considered predictable for the coming years. This week a United Nations report signaled a “code red for humanity” already concerned about climate change.
Forecasts of global temperatures rising past a point warned about by scientists could come true much sooner than expected, by 2030, according to the 3,000-plus-page report from the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Experts now urge aggressive action to curb greenhouse gas emissions to avoid the worst outcomes.
That will take a massive effort on a global scale, but where mitigation is concerned, there are recommended actions to be taken in Hawaii, along with other states.
The report noted that existing sea level rise, and the prospect that extreme events such as heat waves, droughts, floods and storms, will grow worse. In the wildfires context, that means invasive vegetation will proliferate after heavy rains — and then dry out in the heat to catch whatever spark can generate a blaze.
There’s a reasoned advocacy within the state Division of Forestry and Wildlife to seek needed local funding as well as federal support. Michael Walker, state protection forester, said hiring “grazing contractors,” companies that use livestock to feed on unwanted foliage within an electrically fenced area, could reduce fire risks in some areas.
Whatever approaches are deemed best, Hawaii needs to take affirmative action to protect more of its open areas from the devastation of fires. The forecasts, unfortunately, seem clear: The natural conditions for wildfires will be getting much, much worse.
