Paul Hessburg: Why wildfires have gotten worse -- and what we can do about it
保罗·赫斯伯格: 为什么森林火灾越来越严重——我们应该如何阻止
Paul Hessburg studies very large forest landscapes and what makes them tick. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
of western forests have burned
is actually why my family and I live here.
生活在那里的原因。
about what we're leaving behind
感到深深的担忧,
than the state of Oregon has burned
就有相当于俄勒冈州这么大的面积
have been destroyed.
have steadily increased
在过去30年间
than 100,000 acres --
单场火灾数量
we've managed this western landscape
我们在持续变暖的气候下
that we are currently seeing
studying these western landscapes,
都在研究西部的森林,
of our fire-management habits,
of our beloved forests.
some tough truths about wildfires,
几个残酷事实,
to learn to better live with them
无论是对森林,
to talk to you about today.
of 100 or 150 years ago.
森林完全不同。
were taken in the 1930s
数以千计的西部山区防火员
mountaintop lookouts,
these forests of old is "patchy."
就是“参差不齐”。
was this constantly evolving patchwork
就是这种不断发展的块状区域,
canopy forests of all ages,
by today's standards.
大部分火灾都很小。
that this landscape was open,
这些森林间是有空隙的,
of the open forest
shaping this historical patchwork:
也对造成这种块状区域起了作用:
whether a place faces north or south
or in a valley bottom;
gets a lot of snow and rain,
shaped the way fire behaved
又决定了火灾
between the patterns and the processes.
树之间的空隙比较大。
and fairly far apart.
and when they occurred,
and fires were less frequent,
they were quite a bit more severe.
the environments that they grew in
they all worked together
这些因素交织在一起,
across the landscape.
of fire across the landscape.
helped the rest of the forest
lived on this landscape,
and to thin certain forests
and the bison that they hunted.
fires of summer.
出现无法控制的大火。
much later, in the mid-1800s,
很久以后的事儿了,在19世纪中叶,
grazing was in high gear.
畜牧业发展很快,
the cattle and the sheep ate the grasses
for the historical fires,
from thinning out trees
曾经频发的火灾,
and they acted as potent firebreaks,
它们是有效的防火道,
across this landscape.
which caused a sudden pivot
of the state of Connecticut.
to western Montana,
蒙大拿州西部,
three million acres,
它烧毁了约12000平方公里的土地,
and it killed 87 people.
became public enemy number one,
公众的头号敌人,
that we would think about wildfire
just five years young at the time,
国家森林局,
of putting out all wildfires
平方公里的公共土地上
ability to put fires out,
it was now fire suppression
shaper of our forests.
got going in the west,
the large and the old trees.
of centuries of wildfires.
森林大火的幸存者。
small trees filled in the gaps,
with trees so layered and close together
层层叠叠,距离很近,
by roads and railroads,
被公路和铁路阻断,
and logging, removing the big trees,
以及被伐木业移除的大树,
the current epidemic of trees.
森林的承受范围。
looked like 100 years ago and today,
和现在的森林,
sculptured by mostly small
so close together,
tree sizes and ages
from acre to acre,
and insect outbreaks,
on the forest floor,
are getting hotter
如今的夏天是越来越热了,
40 to 80 days longer each year.
climatologists are predicting
in the middle of this.
of all new housing starts are being built
the power of the patchwork.
the severity of many of our future fires.
未来火灾的剧烈程度。
that we have tools
to intentionally thin out trees
来有意地减少树木
reduce them and keep them reduced.
并持续地减少枯枝。
patches on the landscape
已经燃烧过的区块,
with some of these treatments
跟上述方式相结合,
some of these treatments,
is that prescribed burning produces
regulated under air quality rules
受空气质量法规管制,
(笑声)
in the summers
to get this changed.
of the patchwork.
and climate explanations,
and it will take us humans to solve it.
需要我们人类来解决它。
公共支持还不够。
受控制的森林大火支持还不够。
are not well-supported.
to magically go away
火灾和它讨厌的浓烟一起
with them, don't we?
without lots of fire and lots of smoke.
make it our high priority
the current situation,
continued losses to megafires.
带来巨大损失的火灾。
to our lawmakers,
are burned black?
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Paul Hessburg - Research ecologistPaul Hessburg studies very large forest landscapes and what makes them tick.
Why you should listen
Paul Hessburg is a research ecologist who builds models of historical and modern era conditions in large forests and studies what factors make them behave as they do. In fact, much of his research is trying to decipher what is normal. In his research, Hessburg wants to know how the forests we inherited worked before we changed them. What did "natural" look like, and what specifically did we change about naturalness? What's still working well, and what could use a hand down?
Hessburg has spent most of his adult life (35 years) in his dream job. He works for the USDA, Forest Service, at the Pacific Northwest Research Station, where he is stationed at a field laboratory in Wenatchee, WA, US. That's located about five blocks just east of heaven, he says. He has a doctorate in Forest Pathology from Oregon State University, and he has been working in forestry for 40 years. He's also an Affiliate Professor at the University of Washington, Seattle, USA.
In 2017, Hessburg was awarded his Research Station's Distinguished Scientist Award, and he will be awarded his Agencies' Distinguished Scientist Award for 2017, in February of 2018.
Over the last two years, Paul has traveled and spoken to over 100 western US communities about the new era of megafires and what we can do about it. As he says, "Unless we change a few of our forest and fire management habits in the US, we will lose many more beloved forests; some won’t recover in our lifetime."
Paul Hessburg | Speaker | TED.com