Does creating fire break lines work to control forest fires?

In summary: The fire started because the Calif refused to clear fire break lines. If they clear the fire break lines, the fire will stop.It makes sense to me, sure, you chop down a lot of trees to create the fire break, BUT isn't the fire now burning more trees as it's out of control and still burning?The fire is burning more trees because it's out of control.Should this be under the name of conservation to cut the trees to create the fire break lines to preserve the forest.It should be under the name of conservation to create the fire break lines to preserve the forest.
  • #1
yungman
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I really don't want to get into politics, I am sick and tired of smelling and breathing the smoke from the forest fire in N Calif even I am living in the silicon valley. Trump said because Calif refuse to clear fire break lines, clear the debriefs, then once the fire started, there is no break. That they need to create fire break lines to stop the fire as there's nothing to burn in the line area and will stop the fire.

It makes sense to me, sure, you chop down a lot of trees to create the fire break, BUT isn't the fire now burning more trees as it's out of control and still burning? Should this be under the name of conservation to cut the trees to create the fire break lines to preserve the forest. And people lost their lives in out of control fire.

I am sure the burning creates a whole held of a lot more green house gas than people can imagine. More animal dies including endangered species. At least if you create the fire break line when there's no fire in the winter time, you can take your time to clear everything and do it the right way instead of letting it burn out of control. To me, this is really preserving the environment.

This fire is not the first time, it sure not going to be the last time. It's like every year we have that problem.

I'll let people that know the science of this comment.
 
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  • #2
yungman said:
That they need to create fire break lines to stop the fire as there's nothing to burn in the line area and will stop the fire.

That is an approved method to stop ground fires and prevent them form turning into a crown fire. But if the fire gets out of control fire break lines don't help enymore.
 
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  • #3
DrStupid said:
That is an approved method to stop ground fires and prevent them form turning into a crown fire. But if the fire gets out of control fire break lines don't help enymore.
So why don't they do it in Calif during the off season? It must be a lot cheaper than trying to put out the fire that is out of control every year. When it's not an emergency, people can plan where to put the break and take the time to make it so it won't jump. Save lives, save the forest, save the animals and save the air.

This should be non political to any side, we all want this. Anyone actually calculate how much CO2 and ash produced due to the fire every year? Must be really bad as it's choking in Silicon Valley when the fire is so far away. It's been quite a few days already, pollution must be really bad in a wide area.
 
  • #4
yungman said:
So why don't they do it in Calif during the off season?
Because they don't know ahead of time where the fires will start and spread.
 
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  • #5
yungman said:
When it's not an emergency, people can plan where to put the break and take the time to make it so it won't jump. Save lives, save the forest, save the animals and save the air.
Would a road classify as a fire break?
Fires jump across that distance.

Besides the width of the fire break, how many should there be for say a 1000 square mile area.
What does one do - mow the vegetation down like a lawn, or turn over the soil every so often that nothing grows. I would think that in and of itself it can get quite expensive for a large area to be maintained.
One would have to grid out the terrain as the fire may travel east-west, north south depending upon the wind blows. To be successful, if you calculate it, up to third to a half the wilderness may have to become fire breaks, disrupting the flora and fauna of the area. Species would die out by the method, as many live under the cover of the brush and trees that are already there, and can have tendency to avoid open areas. Rather than saving the forest and the animals that are living under the present eco-system, the fire-break method could/would change the dynamics, with new winners and losers emerging.
It also is not evident, but speculative with good probability, that depending upon the method used to ensure no fire is ever a run-away, the whole are could become erosion susceptible leading to a total collapse.

As for the CO2 thing - after the fire, the vegetation grows back in time. Fires are pretty much CO2 neutral.

In my opinion anyways.
 
  • #6
yungman said:
I really don't want to get into politics... Trump said...
If you don't want to go politics, then just don't mix in politicians. Especially a Trmp.

yungman said:
This fire is not the first time, it sure not going to be the last time. It's like every year we have that problem.

Exactly. The problem is not the fire itself, but:
- there are more people affected
- due the climate change and the missing water the recovery is slower.
- you mixed in Trmp and with the climate change part together it makes quite a backstab.

If an ecosystem works with fires then people living there must control the fire somehow, and this part cannot be spared by whatever green ideology.
On the other side: if that ecosystem is in the transition from bush to desert, then controlling the fire won't mean much.
 
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  • #7
yungman said:
So why don't they do it in Calif during the off season?

It has already been mentioned that the region is too large for an area-wide protection by fire breaks. But even if they would do that, it wouldn't help much in the current situation. As the fires are caused by lightning strikes into bone-dry forests they probably started not only on the ground but also in the crowns.
 
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  • #8
yungman said:
So why don't they do it in Calif during the off season?
California is a huge state with lots of wildland. What you suggest is economically unfeasible. It is also either not enough, to prevent fires, or too much from an environmental/quality of life point of view.

There aren't a lot of wild fires in Manhattan, but that doesn't mean that we can or should make everything look like Manhattan to prevent fires.
 
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  • #9
yungman said:
I really don't want to get into politics, I am sick and tired of smelling and breathing the smoke from the forest fire in N Calif even I am living in the silicon valley. Trump said because Calif refuse to clear fire break lines, clear the debriefs, then once the fire started, there is no break. That they need to create fire break lines to stop the fire as there's nothing to burn in the line area and will stop the fire.
No, let's not get into politics. So I'll tread lightly here.

Even Trump's most ardent supporters would admit that he really has no expertise in the area of fire prevention and control. He does however, have a lot a press access. He also has a history of speaking imprecisely. So, if you really want to know about wild-land fires, you may want to look for a better source than him. After all, we are a nation of specialists in terms of knowledge and experience. I would say the same of any politician from any party (unless of course they actually studied fire science). Nancy Pelosi, Lindsey Graham, Mitch McConnell, Joe Biden, Barack Obama, Ted Cruz, Hillary Clinton... They all know nothing about this subject compared to the kind of expertise you can find online from credible sources.
 
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  • #10
Point: landowner management stupidity will undo any reasonable fire breaks. An egregious example:

http://talltimbers.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Oswaldetal2000_op.pdf

This is a US site loaded with very educated individuals that "perpetrated" very poor forest and vegetation management practices at the Los Alamos National Laboratories. The result was that the Dome Fire damaged laboratory buildings, infrastructure and many private homes. In spite of lots of roads and fire breaks.

LANL managers were obsessed with site security mostly. Oddly fire protection is an element of security. But they did not think so. BTW: they do now.

They made the mistake of letting lots of large trees grow very close to buildings. The surrounding National Forest had roads and lots of fire breaks, with unintentional fire breaks at the labs because of lab roads everywhere. Huge areas burned anyway. I guess shade trees and ornamentals were more important.

Homeowners and fee patent land occupants in the US do exactly the same thing. They want trees and shrubs very near houses. Bad idea. "It is my land and I can do what I want"

The point is the people on the land actually encourage fires to crown. If your neighbor does something in poor judgement, like leave the forest untouched in their back yard, when a fire comes through, you lose your property as well.
 
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  • #11
DrStupid said:
It has already been mentioned that the region is too large for an area-wide protection by fire breaks. But even if they would do that, it wouldn't help much in the current situation. As the fires are caused by lightning strikes into bone-dry forests they probably started not only on the ground but also in the crowns.
The large number of lightning strikes, in dry air, seems to be a key factor in the mass of fires in California. In addition to the lightning strikes, apparently the recent Winter was quite dry, which raised concerns for wild fire.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/lightn...th-nearly-12000-strikes-in-a-week-2020-08-22/
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/03/03/climate/dry-california.html

In the Pacific Northwest, i.e., Oregon, Washington and Idaho, clear cutting forests has dried large tracts of land, and often, when there is replanting, the trees are fast growing pines, which are much more susceptible to fire and burn hotter than indigenous trees like the Western Larch (Larix occidentalis).

https://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/boise/learning/nature-science/?cid=fsed_009765
https://www.fs.fed.us/database/feis/plants/tree/larocc/all.html
https://www.fs.fed.us/database/feis/pdfs/other/FireResistRegen.pdf

I don't know the situation with California forests, but they seem to be drier these days, and the climate in California seems to be warmer and drier than in the past, which seems to be the case in Oregon and Washington as well.
 
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  • #12
256bits said:
Would a road classify as a fire break?
Fires jump across that distance.

Besides the width of the fire break, how many should there be for say a 1000 square mile area.
What does one do - mow the vegetation down like a lawn, or turn over the soil every so often that nothing grows. I would think that in and of itself it can get quite expensive for a large area to be maintained.
One would have to grid out the terrain as the fire may travel east-west, north south depending upon the wind blows. To be successful, if you calculate it, up to third to a half the wilderness may have to become fire breaks, disrupting the flora and fauna of the area. Species would die out by the method, as many live under the cover of the brush and trees that are already there, and can have tendency to avoid open areas. Rather than saving the forest and the animals that are living under the present eco-system, the fire-break method could/would change the dynamics, with new winners and losers emerging.
It also is not evident, but speculative with good probability, that depending upon the method used to ensure no fire is ever a run-away, the whole are could become erosion susceptible leading to a total collapse.

As for the CO2 thing - after the fire, the vegetation grows back in time. Fires are pretty much CO2 neutral.

In my opinion anyways.
I don't believe fire break will need to take almost half the vegetation. I would be surprised it take 10% or so.

With wild fire, species will die also, and wild fire is almost a yearly event.

I am sure even with fire break, fire can jump, BUT with fire break, fire truck and emergency vehicles can go to the hot spot much easier compare to reach the fire in the forest.

I have no scientific way to proof anything, that's why I ask here. Anyone ever stop and calculate this? Or just go by their political believes? Honestly, I never even think about this until I have to be choking for days smelling the smoke from like 100 miles away. How about human's health? Not just the trees and the animals. People do die in the fire like this time.
 
  • #13
DaveE said:
No, let's not get into politics. So I'll tread lightly here.

Even Trump's most ardent supporters would admit that he really has no expertise in the area of fire prevention and control. He does however, have a lot a press access. He also has a history of speaking imprecisely. So, if you really want to know about wild-land fires, you may want to look for a better source than him. After all, we are a nation of specialists in terms of knowledge and experience. I would say the same of any politician from any party (unless of course they actually studied fire science). Nancy Pelosi, Lindsey Graham, Mitch McConnell, Joe Biden, Barack Obama, Ted Cruz, Hillary Clinton... They all know nothing about this subject compared to the kind of expertise you can find online from credible sources.
That's why I post here, looking for some solid scientific theory. Anyone actually sat down and calculate how much fire breaks has to be? cost, pollution, affect of wild lives, human lives? Cost of putting out fire in the wild vs with fire breaks where you can get to the fire much easier and faster?
 
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  • #15
yungman said:
I don't believe fire break will need to take almost half the vegetation. I would be surprised it take 10% or so
Absolutely sure of the fire not spreading, or just hoping that it would slow the spread of the fire.
The embers that get carried away by the wind ( note that the fire itself heats air which rises, new air rushes in and the embers are carried up to 1000 to 5000 feet away ).
 
  • #17
Genava said:
Clearly, controlled burns are more difficult to carry out that people imagine.
A proper controlled burn requires that moisture in the forest floor litter be not too high or low, the atmospheric humidity be greater than a certain value, and wind less than a value. The exact numbers are site dependent.

My brother has been burn boss for controlled burns for 20 years now. Controlled burns are used in Wisconsin to maintain land in its pre-industrial age prairie or savanna state.
 
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  • #18
The State of California's Legislative Analyst's (they only have one?) office has a report on wildfires here: https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4172

I knew it was complex, but not how complex. For example, I was unaware that the acres per year burned is well below the historical average. In any event, it's not as simple as "chop down a couple of trees and we won't have this problem"
 
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  • #20
jim mcnamara said:
the link is broken

In the words of Inspector Clouseau, "not any more".
 
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  • #21
Fire breaks are the primary bush fire defense strategy in Australia, however they only work in combination with air and ground crews.

If a fire is on the ground, that is burning the dead fall material, that is comparatively less intense heat and lower risk of embers breaching a fire break. However, when a fire gets into the crown, the heat is greatly intensified. Radiant heat causes adjacent trees volatilize water and oil into the air. The pressure within the wood can cause timber to explode, adding fuel to the super heated air.

There is so much volatilized combustible material in the air that the fire just jumps tree to tree through the air. The heat causes very very strong convection winds that fan the fire to extreme ferocity. Trees are consumed in seconds and the fire front moves through the forest very rapidly. Embers are carried up by convection and blown downwind to land in forest starting new fires several kilometres ahead of the most intense fire zone, preparing conditions for its transmission. These spot fires are the main target for air bombing and if conditions are safe enough for ground crews.

There is simply no effective way to attack the intense canopy fire directly. The only hope of stopping such a fire is to starve it of fuel, reducing it's intensity. Natural features such as wide rivers or major roads can create enough of a fuel break to allow fire crews to deal with the ember attack spot fires. If the fire break is sufficiently wide, the ferocity of the fire front can be reduced enough for fire crews to succeed in stopping the fire. However, the chances of success depends greatly on the weather.

Fire crews try to limit the width of the fire front and hope for a change in the weather. If the wind changes say 90 degrees to blow along the fire front, the most intense front is now at the downwind end and crews are better able to limit the spread along the old front, keeping the intense area as small as possible. If the wind reverses 180 degrees, even better.

So yes, fire breaks are an important part of fire control strategy but they are not everything and there is no guarantee of success. These fires are just so intense, fierce and huge, there is no way to attack them directly. Just limit them as much as possible and hope and pray (if so inclined) for a lucky break.
 
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  • #22
Another 330,000 acres burned in Ca the last 24hrs. Got to have a better way then just let it burn like this. The fire season is not even over yet.
 
  • #23
A fire just burned through a town (Blue River, OR) about 30-40 miles away from where I live.
It was a wind driven fire through a dried out timber area, going the length of a valley.
As of earlier today it was 0% contained. Ignition source unknown.
Not much you can do about that.

Maybe reverse global warming, but not a quick fix.
 
  • #24
2.5millions acres burned this time all together. This morning, the sky looks like dust at 7pm right now.

I know fire break done in off season needs to clear a lot of forest, but 2.5M acres burned just for this fire! That's a lot of fire break! People's home are destroyed, don't know how many people will die as it's not contained. How many wild lives will die? How many trees will be destroyed? How much it costed to put out this fire, just this time, and the season is not even over yet? Politicians are just sitting there doing nothing, sitting on their hands season after season and let the fire repeat year after year.

Add up all the human lives, forest, homes, cost of fighting fire time after time, creating real fire breaks might NOT be as expensive as it sounds. Honestly, my feeling is Ca doesn't want to cut trees in the name of saving the trees. You tell me. It will never end and the Earth suffers.
 
  • #25
BillTre said:
A fire just burned through a town (Blue River, OR) about 30-40 miles away from where I live.
It was a wind driven fire through a dried out timber area, going the length of a valley.
As of earlier today it was 0% contained. Ignition source unknown.
Not much you can do about that.

Maybe reverse global warming, but not a quick fix.
I think the news said it was a party that started the fire. Why people want to live in the forest is beyond me. Just like people living in 7th Ave in San Francisco because of the view. 1989 earthquake made them to be the part of the view.

It will have another fire again and again. Only thing positive about this fire is...I don't think the same spot will burn any time soon...It's burned already.
 
  • #26
yungman said:
I think the news said it was a party that started the fire.
I think that was a different fire. There are many.
The cause of one fire out of many (maybe 30 or 40) is not of particular importance to an overall fire suppression strategy.

yungman said:
Why people want to live in the forest is beyond me.
Its usually quiet pleasant to live in a forest or wooded area. I have done that.
Its not so nice when everything is on fire.

An analogous view would be: "Why would anyone want to live in particular areas near the ocean since a Tsunami could wipe you out (with less warning than a forest fire)?".

I think it has already been pretty well explained in this thread why fire breaks are of only limited use in some of these conditions, especially when high winds are involved.
 
  • #27
BillTre said:
Maybe reverse global warming, but not a quick fix.

Be careful about drawing conclusions. The acreage lost to fire in recent years is below the historical average. One might argue we need even more global warming! :wink:

The reasons that fires have gotten more destructive over time are many and complex. Poor forest management has been raised as an issue, and this is certainly coupled with politics. Nobody wants to vote to cut down trees. Another one is increased construction, particularly housing, in at-risk areas previously left undeveloped. And the skyrocketing cost of real estate doesn't help: a fire causing $x of damage today might have caused only $x/2 a few years ago.
 
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  • #28
The drying of the general climate in Oregon has been greater recently (last 10 years or so) than previously.
There are many climate indicators of this, like formerly very plentiful slugs being replaced by less numerous snails (which are more desiccation resistant).
Snow fall and snow pack is also reduced in the mountains.

Vanadium 50 said:
Nobody wants to vote to cut down trees.
There are lots of people in Oregon who would love to cut down more trees. Its called the timber industry and it is politically strong around here. I see lots of Timber Unity signs in the rural areas I travel.

Vanadium 50 said:
Another one is increased construction, particularly housing, in at-risk areas previously left undeveloped. And the skyrocketing cost of real estate doesn't help: a fire causing $x of damage today might have caused only $x/2 a few years ago.
This seems to me to be more a cause of increased damage resulting in money loss rather than, a cause of fires. However, human density should have an effect since with more people there is more opportunity for human caused accidents.
 
  • #29
BillTre said:
I think that was a different fire. There are many.
The cause of one fire out of many (maybe 30 or 40) is not of particular importance to an overall fire suppression strategy.Its usually quiet pleasant to live in a forest or wooded area. I have done that.
Its not so nice when everything is on fire.

An analogous view would be: "Why would anyone want to live in particular areas near the ocean since a Tsunami could wipe you out (with less warning than a forest fire)?".

I think it has already been pretty well explained in this thread why fire breaks are of only limited use in some of these conditions, especially when high winds are involved.
I am sure it's a whole hell of a lot easier where fire fighter can go the the fire break and wait for the amber to breach and put them out. Say it's not 100%, just say it's 80% contain by fire break, it's better than 0% contain like now and over and over and over.

Yes, I believe home owner is RESPONSIBLE for their own lives in choosing where to live also. I never said I feel sorry for them either.
 
  • #30
BillTre said:
This seems to me to be more a cause of increased damage resulting in money loss rather than, a cause of fires

Yes, that's true, but it factors into impact. The same fire that would have had a given impact years past will have a larger impact today.
 
  • #31
BillTre said:
......There are lots of people in Oregon who would love to cut down more trees. Its called the timber industry and it is politically strong around here. I see lots of Timber Unity signs in the rural areas I travel.......
Good, design the fire break, then give them license to cut trees along the fire break free. Saving money! They can keep the trees as long as they do it for free. demand they to pull the stumps so it's totally clear. Use the money saved to set up look out along the fire break lines for fast response.

But that's too sensible for the politicians.Anyone live in the bayarea? Look out the window now, it's scary, the sky is orange color like sunset. This is NOT the same fire when I started this thread.
 
  • #32
yungman said:
Good, design the fire break, then give them license to cut trees along the fire break free. Saving money!
That's not how things work, at least in the biggest forests that are managed by the US Forestry Service (under the Dept. of Agriculture). These agencies don't pay logging companies, so your claim of saving money isn't true.
yungman said:
They can keep the trees as long as they do it for free. demand they to pull the stumps so it's totally clear. Use the money saved to set up look out along the fire break lines for fast response.
Logging outfits don't usually pull stumps, as it takes more effort and requires specialized equipment. Leaving a stump in a fire break is not going to greatly increase the risk of fire jumping across the break.

Setting up lookouts along thousands of miles of fire breaks isn't financially feasible. How would you pay for it? Your plan of taking the money that a government agency would pay a logging outfit doesn't work, for reasons I already explained.

Furthermore, several of the big fires in So. Calif. got started during strong Santa Ana winds, winds that blow out of the desert and toward the coast. If a fire gets going in a Santa Ana, fire breaks don't do anything, and there's nothing fire fighters can do until the winds die down. The same would be true in other areas that don't get Santa Ana winds, but 30mph or higher winds are just as problematic.
 
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  • #33
Mark44 said:
That's not how things work, at least in the biggest forests that are managed by the US Forestry Service (under the Dept. of Agriculture). These agencies don't pay logging companies, so your claim of saving money isn't true.
Logging outfits don't usually pull stumps, as it takes more effort and requires specialized equipment. Leaving a stump in a fire break is not going to greatly increase the risk of fire jumping across the break.

Setting up lookouts along thousands of miles of fire breaks isn't financially feasible. How would you pay for it? Your plan of taking the money that a government agency would pay a logging outfit doesn't work, for reasons I already explained.

Furthermore, several of the big fires in So. Calif. got started during strong Santa Ana winds, winds that blow out of the desert and toward the coast. If a fire gets going in a Santa Ana, fire breaks don't do anything, and there's nothing fire fighters can do until the winds die down. The same would be true in other areas that don't get Santa Ana winds, but 30mph or higher winds are just as problematic.
I said you don't have to pay for the logging company if you let them log the fire break line.

How do you pay for the expense of putting out the fire right now, every season, every year. Also the cost of property loss, forest, wild lives and human lives. How much do you pay for putting out wild fire consistently every year, year after year? It is a full time job for fire fighters to do this all the time. this is not going to be the last fire of the year yet.

At least with fire break, you can get to the fire easily, be there on the fire break line to watch out for amber breaching the line. There is no 100% containment, but guess what is the % of containment now? 0%.

You keep saying it is not possible, so doing nothing year after year and let it burn?

Another way is let it burn, burn it all up and there won't be trees to burn next time. at least we don't have to pay for it. That's how nature works...before we are here...and long after we are gone.
 
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  • #34
yungman said:
I said you don't have to pay for the logging company if you let them log the fire break line.
The government agencies don't pay the logging companies.
yungman said:
How do you pay for the expense of putting out the fire right now, every season, every year.
With property taxes, (CA) income taxes, and probably some federal income taxes.
yungman said:
At least with fire break, you can get to the fire easily, be there on the fire break line to watch out for amber breaching the line. There is no 100% containment, but guess what is the % of containment now? 0%.
California has had forest fires forever, at least since the last ice age about 14,000 years ago. The early inhabitants of Los Angeles (in the 1700s) noted how smoky it would get due to forest fires.

In California, with its generally dry climate and pine forests at the higher elevations, forest fires are inevitable. The earlier Forest Service philosophy was to attempt to put out all fires in the forests as soon as they started. The Forest Service and National Park Service began to see the folly of that philosophy about the time of the big fires in Yellowstone Natl. Park back in 1987 (or '88?). Since then they have been letting relatively small tracts of timber burn in a controlled manner, to prevent large masses of deadfall limbs and such from building up. Keeping the forests pristine by putting out all fires makes the big fires that occur much more destructive.

I'm afraid your idea of putting fire breaks all over is just not practical, given the large area that the forests occupy.
 
  • #35
Mark44 said:
The government agencies don't pay the logging companies.
government restrict logging companies, but if you let them log to create fire break, they'll be more than happy to do it for free.
Mark44 said:
With property taxes, (CA) income taxes, and probably some federal income taxes.
Then use it to pay for maintenance after the fire break. It must be large amount of money paying over and over and over.
Mark44 said:
California has had forest fires forever, at least since the last ice age about 14,000 years ago. The early inhabitants of Los Angeles (in the 1700s) noted how smoky it would get due to forest fires.

In California, with its generally dry climate and pine forests at the higher elevations, forest fires are inevitable. The earlier Forest Service philosophy was to attempt to put out all fires in the forests as soon as they started. The Forest Service and National Park Service began to see the folly of that philosophy about the time of the big fires in Yellowstone Natl. Park back in 1987 (or '88?). Since then they have been letting relatively small tracts of timber burn in a controlled manner, to prevent large masses of deadfall limbs and such from building up. Keeping the forests pristine by putting out all fires makes the big fires that occur much more destructive.

I'm afraid your idea of putting fire breaks all over is just not practical, given the large area that the forests occupy.
Then why are they keep fighting the fire time after time, year after year. Why even spend money fighting it? Oh yeah, they want to preserve the forest! Then they keep fighting fire! Let it burn for months, burn it all up until it stop by itself. I can live with that! Don't worry, I am not thinking about people that choose to live in the forest. It's their choice.

Given that they want to preserve the forest, the green for the environment, then one has to rethink the fire break. That or don't fight it, let it burn. You want to bet, they are going to fight you to death to preserve the forest and the cycle repeat over and over.
 
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<h2>1. Does creating fire break lines actually work in controlling forest fires?</h2><p>Yes, creating fire break lines can be an effective strategy in controlling forest fires. Fire break lines are areas where vegetation is removed or reduced to create a gap in the fuel source, which can help stop or slow down the spread of fire.</p><h2>2. How are fire break lines created?</h2><p>Fire break lines are typically created by using heavy equipment, such as bulldozers, to clear away vegetation and create a gap in the fuel source. They can also be created by manually removing vegetation with tools like shovels or chainsaws.</p><h2>3. Are there different types of fire break lines?</h2><p>Yes, there are different types of fire break lines that can be used depending on the terrain and the type of fire. Some common types include wet fire breaks, mineral soil fire breaks, and green fire breaks.</p><h2>4. Can fire break lines fail to control a forest fire?</h2><p>While fire break lines can be an effective strategy, they are not always guaranteed to stop a fire. In extreme fire conditions, a fire break line may not be wide enough or strong enough to prevent the spread of fire. Additionally, strong winds or flying embers can cross over the fire break line and reignite the fire.</p><h2>5. What are some other methods used to control forest fires?</h2><p>In addition to fire break lines, other methods used to control forest fires include aerial water drops, back burning, and using fire retardant chemicals. Controlled burns, where small fires are intentionally set to reduce fuel sources, can also be used as a preventative measure against larger fires.</p>

1. Does creating fire break lines actually work in controlling forest fires?

Yes, creating fire break lines can be an effective strategy in controlling forest fires. Fire break lines are areas where vegetation is removed or reduced to create a gap in the fuel source, which can help stop or slow down the spread of fire.

2. How are fire break lines created?

Fire break lines are typically created by using heavy equipment, such as bulldozers, to clear away vegetation and create a gap in the fuel source. They can also be created by manually removing vegetation with tools like shovels or chainsaws.

3. Are there different types of fire break lines?

Yes, there are different types of fire break lines that can be used depending on the terrain and the type of fire. Some common types include wet fire breaks, mineral soil fire breaks, and green fire breaks.

4. Can fire break lines fail to control a forest fire?

While fire break lines can be an effective strategy, they are not always guaranteed to stop a fire. In extreme fire conditions, a fire break line may not be wide enough or strong enough to prevent the spread of fire. Additionally, strong winds or flying embers can cross over the fire break line and reignite the fire.

5. What are some other methods used to control forest fires?

In addition to fire break lines, other methods used to control forest fires include aerial water drops, back burning, and using fire retardant chemicals. Controlled burns, where small fires are intentionally set to reduce fuel sources, can also be used as a preventative measure against larger fires.

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