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Frank on Fire

Writing from the fireline.

Frank Carroll on wildfire policy, suppression, and the people who fight fire. Read the teaser here, then follow the link for the full piece.

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Firefighters working a structure fire at night
Frank on Fire #1

The Wildfire Suppression Card

We grade wildfire suppression teams the way a teacher grades a class — on effectiveness and on transparency. Some of them are not going to like their marks. The Wildfire Suppression Card is a report card on how well the people responsible for putting fires out are actually doing it, and on how honestly they tell the public about it.

Franklin O. Carroll
Aerial view of a managed vegetation fire moving through timber
Frank on Fire #2

Return the Forests to Work

America's public forests were set aside to be cared for and used, in that order. Somewhere in the last fifty years we lost the second half of that sentence, and then we started losing the first half too. A forest that is not managed is not preserved — it is simply left to burn on a schedule nobody chose.

National Wildfire Alliance
Burned hillside in the aftermath of a wildfire
Frank on Fire #3

What the Fire Actually Cost

The number in the newspaper is the number of structures lost. It is the easiest number to count and very close to the least important one. The real bill includes fifty years of growth that will not happen, soil that will not hold water the way it did, and a watershed that will send silt downstream every spring for a decade.

Smacky Bear
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Frank Carroll, Chief Forester, Wildfire Pros

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