The following is the opinion and analysis of the writer:
You could see the scars from it as you drove into town. Huge swaths of Mount Lemmon were coated in a thick red smear created by millions of gallons of fire retardant. At night, the fires continued unabated, and bright orange lines snaked up and down the mountain.
That was the Bighorn Fire. Days later came the Magnum and Bush fires, which in total burned for 53 days and ravaged nearly 390,000 acres.
In 2020 alone, 2,520 forest fires burned in almost every county in Arizona and destroyed nearly a million acres of tribal, private, state and federal land, according to the Arizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management. Mammoth fires in Mohave, Pima, Coconino, and Maricopa counties darkened the sky and made it hard to breathe.
Nationally, the 2020 fire season saw 10.27 million acres destroyed, dozens dead, and apocalyptic pictures out of California. While we may never know the true economic impact, it is likely in the hundreds of millions of dollars.
These fires were caused by a variety of factors including human action, climate change and bad forest management. In the wake of the fires, Gov. Ducey should be applauded for his focus on combating overgrowth and poor forest management. Through his proposed Healthy Forest Initiative, Arizona can combat these ferocious and out-of-control fires.
It deals with one of the biggest sources of blazes: overgrown forests. For a century, the main focus for both state and federal forest services has been on stopping forest fires full stop, even though forest fires are a healthy and natural part of a forest’s life cycle. By constantly stopping fires, we allowed forests to become overgrown, and full of tinder which combine with rising summer temperatures to lead to a deadly outcome. The initiative aims to increase preventative practices in areas most impacted by fires, saving lives, property and land in the process.
Moreover, the program provides hands-on job training to Arizona’s inmates through its plan to add new Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry crews to various locations around the state. The state utilizes these crews in the fight against forest fires. As we saw this past summer, the work they do can and has saved lives and protected property.
As well, we can continue the fight against climate change. Because of increasing droughts and summer temperatures — Death Valley reached 130 degrees this past summer, the highest ever — forest fires have become more common, and have destroyed many of the most vital weapons in the fight against climate change: plants, vegetation and trees. Trees capture CO2 from the atmosphere and turn it into oxygen, and are one of the best tools we have to lower greenhouse gases.
Finally the governor’s plan preserves the natural beauty of Arizona. As an avid hiker and national park enthusiast, it is all too easy to witness the destruction that these fires have wrought. On a recent hiking trip to Mount Lemmon, views of destruction from the Bighorn Fire were more the rule than the exception. By working to prevent forest fires and limiting their destructive potential, we can preserve more of Arizona’s beautiful vistas and landscapes.
While more can and should be done in the fight for the environment and against climate change, Ducey’s plan is a good one that all Arizonans should back, and I, along with countless environmental activists, applaud him for his continued leadership .
