Grand Canyon blaze shows how managing a fire can go suddenly sideways
Despite this setback, experts argue that fire remains a crucial land management tool. Scott Stephens, a fire science professor at the University of California Berkeley, noted that most fires do great work. He emphasized that unless forests are made more resilient and fire hazards are lowered, the cycle of chasing fires will continue.
Following the Dragon Bravo Fire on the North Rim, managers reported that crews had established containment lines, but unexpectedly strong winds pushed flames past these lines, leading to evacuations. Similarly, in New Mexico, crews battling a blaze in the Santa Fe National Forest had to change their strategy after a spot fire crossed containment lines. Ranchers criticized officials for not extinguishing the flames sooner, sharing images of dead cattle.
Experts agree that there's room for improvement in wildfire management and controlled burn planning, especially with advancing technology. Derek Mallia, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Utah, is developing new forecasting tools and tracking fires in Utah and Arizona for a project focusing on pyrocumulonimbus clouds. He noted that fire forecasting hasn't progressed as much as tools for events like tornados and hurricanes, partly because fires occur on a smaller scale. Managers also need to consider built-up fuels and climate change, which is causing fires to burn hotter at night.
Researchers are also working to understand how fires affect weather patterns. Mallia explained that fires are part of a complex feedback loop that complicates forecasting. However, Stephens and Andi Thode, a fire ecology professor at Northern Arizona University, emphasized that the biggest problem is the condition of the forests. Thode described the decision to use lightning-sparked fires or planned burns as a matter of deferred risk, asking whether managers want to take the risk now or later.
For Native Americans, fire has long been essential for forest health. This perspective shifted policymaker attitudes, leading to the establishment of the first wilderness fire management program in Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks over a half-century ago. Other parks followed suit, allowing thousands of lightning-sparked fires to burn under monitored conditions across the US. However, there have been costly lessons, such as the Cerro Grande Fire at Bandelier National Monument in New Mexico in 2000, which destroyed homes and forced the closure of Los Alamos National Laboratory due to strong winds and insufficient resources.
The circumstances are now more dire due to a drier landscape across much of the US West. In 2022, the US Forest Service proceeded with prescribed burns in New Mexico's Sangre de Cristo Mountains, which resulted in the largest blaze in New Mexico's recorded history. The Hermits Peak/Calf Canyon Fire wasn't contained for four months, leading to evacuations and billions in recovery dollars. A 2024 report by the US Government Accountability Office noted that out of 50,000 prescribed fire projects between 2012 and 2021, 43 had escaped. The Forest Service ignites about 4,500 prescribed fires annually, with most being successful, but support decreases when fires escape.
Thode stated that fire managers consider many variables when making decisions, emphasizing the extensive science behind managing these ecosystems.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Al Arabiya
8 hours ago
- Al Arabiya
Bid to relocate iconic US Space Shuttle Discovery faces museum pushback
Tucked inside President Donald Trump's flagship tax and spending bill last month was a little-noticed provision to relocate the iconic Space Shuttle Discovery from a museum outside Washington to Houston. The plan now faces legal uncertainty, with the Smithsonian Institution arguing Congress had no authority to give away what it considers private property -- even before accounting for the steep logistical and financial challenges. 'The Smithsonian Institution owns the Discovery and holds it in trust for the American public,' the museum network, which receives substantial federal funding yet remains an independent entity, said in a statement to AFP on Friday. 'In 2012, NASA transferred 'all rights, title, interest and ownership' of the shuttle to the Smithsonian,' the statement continued, calling Discovery one of the museum's 'centerpieces' that welcomes millions of visitors a year. The push to move Discovery from the Air and Space Museum's site in northern Virginia began in April, when Texas Senator John Cornyn, a Republican who faces a tough primary challenge next year by state attorney general Ken Paxton, introduced the 'Bring the Space Shuttle Home Act,' naming Discovery. The legislation stalled until it was folded into the mammoth 'Big Beautiful Bill,' signed into law on July 4. Its passage allocated $85 million for the move, though the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service has projected a far higher cost of $325 million, adding that the NASA administrator's power over non-NASA entities is 'unclear.' To comply with Senate rules, the bill's language was modified such that Discovery is no longer named directly. Instead, the bill refers to a 'space vehicle,' though there is little doubt as to the target. NASA's administrator -- currently Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, serving in an acting capacity -- was given 30 days to identify which spacecraft is to be relocated, a deadline coming up on Sunday. End of an era NASA's Space Shuttle program ended in 2011, after a 30-year run that carried America's post-Apollo space ambitions. The four surviving orbiters -- Atlantis, Endeavour, prototype Enterprise, and Discovery -- were awarded to Florida, California, New York, and Virginia through a ranked selection process. Discovery, the most flown, was chosen as a vehicle-of-record in a near-complete state, intended for study by future generations. 'There was not a lot of support within Houston to want a shuttle,' space historian Robert Pearlman told AFP, adding that a proposal to house it at Space Center Houston was relatively weak. But after the announcement, Texas -- home to the Johnson Space Center, which oversees NASA's human spaceflight -- felt snubbed, and allegations of political interference by then-president Barack Obama swirled. A NASA inspector general probe found no evidence of foul play. Enormous challenges Relocating Discovery now would pose major technical hurdles. NASA had modified two Boeing 747s to ferry retired shuttles -- one is now a museum piece, and the other is out of service. That leaves land and water transport. 'The nearest water entrance to the Potomac River is about 30 miles away,' Pearlman said -- but it may be too shallow for the orbiter and required barge, requiring a 100-mile journey instead. A water transport would require a massive enclosed barge, he added. The US government owns only one such vessel, controlled by the military. Loaning it to a civilian agency would require another act of Congress, and the alternative would involve building one from scratch. Dennis Jenkins, a former shuttle engineer who oversaw the delivery of retired orbiters to their new homes, told the Collect Space outlet he could see costs reach a billion dollars. Nicholas O'Donnell, an attorney at Sullivan & Worcester with expertise in art and museum law, told AFP that assuming Smithsonian has valid paperwork, 'I don't think Secretary Duffy or anyone in the federal government has any more authority to order the move of Discovery than you or I do.' The government could invoke eminent domain -- seizing private property for public use -- but it would have to pay fair market value or try to sue. The Smithsonian is unlikely to want a court battle, and while it's legally independent, its financial reliance on federal funds leaves it politically vulnerable, said O'Donnell.
Al Arabiya
2 days ago
- Al Arabiya
What are all these microplastics doing to our brains?
Tiny shards of plastic called microplastics have been detected accumulating in human brains, but there is not yet enough evidence to say whether this is doing us harm, experts have said. These mostly invisible pieces of plastic have been found everywhere from the top of mountains to the bottom of oceans, in the air we breathe and the food we eat. They have also been discovered riddled throughout human bodies, inside lungs, hearts, placentas and even crossing the blood–brain barrier. The increasing ubiquity of microplastics has become a key issue in efforts to hammer out the world's first plastic pollution treaty, with the latest round of UN talks being held in Geneva next week. The effects that microplastics and even smaller nanoplastics have on human health is not yet fully understood, but researchers have been working to find out more in this relatively new field. The most prominent study looking at microplastics in brains was published in the journal Nature Medicine in February. The scientists tested brain tissue from 28 people who died in 2016 and 24 who died last year in the US state of New Mexico, finding that the amount of microplastics in the samples increased over time. The study made headlines around the world when the lead researcher, US toxicologist Matthew Campen, told the media that they detected the equivalent of a plastic spoon's worth of microplastics in the brains. Campen also told Nature that he estimated the researchers could isolate around 10 grams of plastic from a donated human brain — comparing that amount to an unused crayon. But other researchers have since urged caution about the small study. 'While this is an interesting finding, it should be interpreted cautiously pending independent verification,' toxicologist Theodore Henry of Scotland's Heriot–Watt University told AFP. 'Currently, the speculation about the potential effects of plastic particles on health go far beyond the evidence,' he added. Oliver Jones, a chemistry professor at Australia's RMIT University, told AFP there was 'not enough data to make firm conclusions on the occurrence of microplastics in New Mexico, let alone globally.' He also found it 'rather unlikely' that brains could contain more microplastics than has been found in raw sewage — as the researchers had estimated. Jones pointed out the people in the study were perfectly healthy before they died, and that the researchers acknowledged there was not enough data to show that the microplastics caused harm. 'If (and it is a big if in my view) there are microplastics in our brains, there is as yet no evidence of harm,' Jones added. The study also contained duplicated images, the neuroscience news website The Transmitter has reported, though experts said this did not affect its main findings. Most of the research into the effects microplastics have on health has been observational, which means it cannot establish cause and effect. One such study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine last year, found that microplastics building up in blood vessels was linked to an increased risk of heart attack, stroke and death in patients with a disease that clogs arteries. There have also been experiments carried out on mice, including a study in Science Advances in January which detected microplastics in their brains. The Chinese researchers said that microplastics can cause rare blood clots in the brains of mice by obstructing cells — while emphasizing that the small mammals are very different from humans. A review by the World Health Organization in 2022 found that the 'evidence is insufficient to determine risks to human health' from microplastics. However, many health experts have cited the precautionary principle, saying the potential threat microplastics could pose requires action. A report on the health risks of microplastics by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health published this week ahead of the treaty talks said that 'policy decisions cannot wait for complete data.' 'By acting now to limit exposure, improve risk assessment methodologies, and prioritize vulnerable populations, we can address this pressing issue before it escalates into a broader public health crisis,' it added. The amount of plastic the world produces has doubled since 2000 — and is expected to triple from current rates by 2060.
Al Arabiya
2 days ago
- Al Arabiya
US, Russian space chiefs talk moon, ISS cooperation in rare Florida meeting
NASA's new temporary administrator on Thursday held a rare face-to-face meeting in Florida with Russia's space agency chief, where they discussed cooperation on the moon and maintaining the space powers' longstanding relationship on the International Space Station, Roscosmos said. The talks between Sean Duffy and Dmitry Bakanov at the US space agency's Kennedy Space Center represented the first in-person meeting between the heads of NASA and Russia's space agency, Roscosmos, since 2018. NASA said late on Thursday the two chiefs 'discussed continued cooperation and collaboration in space,' without providing further details. The meeting coincided with an attempt to launch a joint astronaut crew from Florida to the ISS that was postponed due to weather. It was a significant moment for Washington's bifurcated space relations with Russia — especially for Duffy, an acting NASA administrator who was assigned to the role just this month while also overseeing the Transportation Department. Roscosmos showed on Telegram a video of the meeting between Duffy and Bakanov, each flanked by staff, and other events where Bakanov and his delegation can be seen mingling with US officials. The Russian space agency said 'the parties discussed further work on the ISS, cooperation on lunar programs, joint exploration of deep space, continued interaction on other space projects.' Roscosmos and NASA did not respond to questions about the nature of the lunar program or deep space discussions. Such talks could signal thawing relations between the two countries' civil space programs and represent a shift in global space relations. Russia had plans to participate in NASA's flagship Artemis moon program until it invaded Ukraine in February 2022. It became a partner on China's moon program, the International Lunar Research Station, a direct rival to the US Artemis program. The war in Ukraine has led to a vastly isolated Russian space program, which has since boosted investments in military space efforts while nearly all of its joint space exploration projects with the West collapsed. The Russian delegation visited NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston on Wednesday and on Thursday was poised to watch the launch of Crew-11, a routine mission to the ISS featuring two US astronauts, a Russian cosmonaut and a Japanese astronaut. But bad weather pushed the launch to Friday morning, SpaceX said. While US–Russian tensions over the war in Ukraine have limited contact between NASA and Roscosmos, they have continued to share astronaut flights and cooperate on the ISS, a 25-year-old totem of scientific diplomacy crucial to maintaining the two space powers' storied human spaceflight capabilities. Amity on the $100 billion ISS is buoyed primarily by a technical interdependency: the Russian segment relies on power generated by American solar panels, while the task of maintaining the station's altitude is assigned to Russia's thrusters. Multiple other countries depend on the ISS for microgravity research, prominently the European Space Agency, Canada and Japan. The military space programs of the US and Russia meanwhile have an adversarial relationship. The US has accused Russia of developing a nuclear space weapon and deploying counterspace weapons and spy satellites near American spy satellites. Russia has denied many of Washington's space allegations. Bakanov and Duffy were expected to discuss extending the two countries' astronaut seat exchange agreement — in which US astronauts fly on Russian Soyuz capsules in exchange for Russian astronauts flying on US capsules — and the planned disposal of the ISS in 2030, according to Russian news agency TASS.
