Commentary: There’s a way to reduce the wildfire toll. We won’t like it.

By Gregory Scruggs
Reuters
October 12, 2017
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

Deadly wildfires are raging in the wine country region of northern California – the third straight month of infernos across the western United States and Canada. …The toll of these fires is the product of bad land use, especially over-development at the perimeter of forests, and subsequent fire suppression efforts that protect those developments at the expense of a vital natural cycle. If U.S. and Canadian authorities don’t adopt the right policies, wildfires will only become more deadly. …Just like the need for stricter land-use regulations in the wake of coastal flooding… it’s time for state and local governments to stop allowing people to live cheek-by-jowl with wildfire-prone vegetation and hold accountable those who take the risk. 

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