[ExI] why worse necessarily?

[Keith Henson]

That's really interesting, Spike.

Ponderosa pines are fire-resistant, with thick bark, to low-level fires
that burn out the needles and undergrowth. The ones in Arizona forests
often have burn scars every ten years or so. My parents' place in Prescott
had several. Two were at least 30 years old in 1960. The pine beetles
finally killed them. My brother, who still lives there, was looking at
perhaps $2000 to take them down when the power company came by last year
and took them out. Cut them up to fireplace size, and someone he knew took
them away.

Ponderosas are lovely trees; it is not hard to see why people want to live
among them. But they are definitely a fire hazard, though maybe not as bad
as the eucalyptus that burned in the big Oakland fire. My brother lives
downwind from a ponderosa forest in mostly juniper and oak. He knows the
house is not likely to survive a forest fire, but he won't clear out the
trees. It would ruin the view.

Keith


On Wed, Aug 5, 2026 at 5:49 PM spike jones via extropy-chat <
extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:

>
>
>
>
> *From:* John Clark <johnkclark at gmail.com>
> *.*
>
>
>
> *>…Spike**,** I'm very glad that neither you nor any member of your
> family were hurt by the wildfire…*
>
>
>
> * Thx John. *
>
>
>
> *> **Our recent fire catastrophe in Spokane was human caused, but nature
> also played a big role: the wind enabled a lone arsonist to destroy
> hundreds of homes…*
>
> *…*
>
>
>
> *>…But** there is an INVERSE relationship between the strength of the
> Pacific El Niño and Atlantic hurricanes; the stronger the El Niño is the
> dryer and more fire prone Spokane becomes however thanks to El Niño…John K
> Clark*
>
>
>
>
>
> *Ja, they had a dry spring this year, but there was another important
> factor.*
>
>
>
> *I agree there will always be an ignition source.  Out west of town there
> are trails out thru the woods, where a prole can backpack and camp anywhere
> he wants.  Campfires can get away from them.  Of course there are firebugs,
> as was the case this time.  There are occasional big winds, as was the case
> this time.*
>
>
>
> *But the biggest factor this time was the fire getting in these trees
> shown in the photo below, ponderosa pines.  These are controversial, since
> they are known fire hazards.  They are native to this area: it was a
> ponderosa pine forest before developers built the neighborhood in the late
> 1980s.  They thinned the forest, took out the biggest (most dangerous) of
> the trees, but that species grows a foot to a 1.5 ft per year.  It has been
> 37 years since the area was built up.  The trees had nearly ideal growing
> conditions, since they had been thinned (fewer competing trees) and had
> plenty of water from being in irrigated lawns.  *
>
>
>
> *I mentioned the trees were controversial.  The environmentalists argued
> that the trees were far less susceptible to structural failure and fire
> because homeowners took out any which were infested by pine beetles and the
> lawn trees had plenty of water.  However… even with those advantages… those
> trees were prone to breaking off without warning.*
>
>
>
> *I took the photo below about one minute after we began evacuation.  Note
> the right side of the photo, there are four trees and one stump about the
> height a tall man can reach.  That tree broke off without warning about two
> months ago.  The tree fell across the road.  It was not infested with pine
> beetles.  It just broke off, as these trees do.*
>
>
>
> *My FIL originally had four ponderosas in his yard.  He removed two of
> them about 20 yrs ago after it became clear they were a hazard to the
> neighbors.  About 4 yrs ago, I convinced him to remove the remaining two
> because of the fire hazard, however there were still pleeeenty of those
> trees in the neighborhood, which had grown very tall.  Compare the height
> of the trees with that two story home on the left of the photo below:   *
>
>
>
>
>
> *As we evacuated downwind, I could see there was a great risk of a crown
> fire in those trees.  If the foliage catches fire, it burns quickly, then
> rains down hot embers on the homes below for hours.  Less than one minute
> after I took this photo, an ash glob about the size of a ping pong ball
> fell on my windshield.  It burned a notch in my wiper.  When I saw that, I
> knew what was coming, but didn’t know how quickly it would happen.  *
>
>
>
> *The neighborhood burned because homeowners refused to get rid of those
> accursed ponderosa pines.  Those pine tree keepers are as much to blame as
> the arsonist.  If you have one in your yard, I do sincerely encourage you
> to get the hell rid of it.*
>
>
>
> *spike*
>
>
>
>
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