LIVING WITH FIRE
Written Saturday July 25

As I sit down to write this, two wildfires are racing across Malheur NWR. Each is being actively fought, but how far they will ultimately go is far from clear. By the time you read this in early August, we’ll know more.

We humans live in a perceived world where natural things are not supposed to change, but that is not the way our planet works. Instead, most of the natural systems that constitute life on this planet accumulate and store carbon, and under the right conditions that stored carbon can be released suddenly through a process we call combustion, which is nothing more than the oxidation of carbon to form the gas carbon dioxide. Another name for all this is fire.

This can happen under many circumstances, but it works best when the stored carbon is dry and copious oxygen is supplied. If you’re still with me, you’ll recognize that I’m describing current conditions the Harney Basin in the aftermath of an extremely dry winter and during periods of strong winds. Under such conditions, fires once started are difficult to almost impossible to stop.

What role do we humans play in all this? First, we can provide an ignition. Nature does this also through lightning, but a majority of wildfires are caused by humans, most often accidentally. Though, to be clear, both the Stubble and Jackass Butte Fires were ignited by lightening. 

We also have a strong desire to allow potential fuels to accumulate. By this I mean, we often slow or even completely squash natural fires cycles because we don’t like the smoke or the anxiety fires produce. When we do this, fuels accumulate, and sooner or later, they inevitably combust.

My point here is that whether we like it or not, places like Malheur Refuge are designed by nature to burn and that we humans often do things that intensify that propensity.

All that is not to say that fire is not entirely or exclusively destructive. For nesting birds and small mammals and reptiles, the effects can be locally devastating. Human facilities can also be damaged or destroyed. It appears, in fact, that early this morning at least one of the refuge’s ninety-year-old buildings at the Buena Vista station burned to the ground as a wildfire swept through the area. 

During my career work years ago, I was trained, among other things, to serve as a federal Fire Information Officer. My job was to try to explain ongoing fire events to the public, never an easy task, but one worth doing. I learned many things in that work, but the most powerful lesson was quite simple: When you’re dealing with wildland fire, the question is never if you are going to have an event, but only when?

When fires burn in places we love, we can be sad, but we should never be surprised.

– W. Tweed, Board President