Yes, there will be millions of collective sighs as the deadliest pandemic in a century begins to abate and a more open summer kicks off. But summer also means the beginning of the wildfire season in the American West – a slew of deadly disasters lying in wait. Last year was the worst fire season in California’s recorded history and drought-like conditions portend another challenging summer. This week on Sea Change Radio, we speak to Professor Crystal Kolden of the University of California Merced, a wildfire expert and former firefighter. We talk about current preparations for impending fires, where she believes resources should be directed, and the ethical dilemma presented by California’s reliance on inmate firefighters.

Narrator  0:02  This is Sea Change Radio covering the shift to sustainability. I’m Alex Wise.

Crystal Kolden (CK) 0:25  The reality is that aircraft are one of the least cost effective ways to mitigate wildfire disasters. But the public loves to see you know, 740 sevens in dc 10s dropping lots and lots of pink retardant.

Narrator  0:42  Yes, there will be millions of collective size as the deadliest pandemic in a century begins to abate, and a more open summer kicks off. But some are also means the beginning of the wildfire season in the American West. a slew of deadly disasters lying in wait. Last year was the worst fire season in California is recorded history and drought like conditions portend another challenging summer. This week on Sea Change Radio we speak to Professor Crystal Kolden of the University of California Merced, a wildfire expert and former firefighter. We talk about the current preparations for impending fires, where she believes resources should be directed. And the ethical dilemma presented by California’s reliance on inmate firefighters.

Alex Wise (AW)  1:52  I’m joined now on Sea Change Radio by Crystal Kolden. Crystal is an assistant professor at the management of complex systems department at the University of California at Merced. Crystal, welcome to Sea Change Radio.

Crystal Kolden (CK) – Thanks so much for having me.

AW – So California and the rest of the West is about to embark on a very scary time, again, maybe worse than what we had last year around this time of year in terms of dryness, if you can summarize what this last winter meant for the potential fuels that we could see for wildfires this season.

CK  2:31 Yeah, so 2021 is shaping up to be very conducive to wildfire growth and rapid wildfire growth. And the reason for that stems from both the winter conditions that we experienced in California and also from how warm and dry the spring has been leading into early summer. Because California, of course, was in a drought and 2020 that was part of what helped fuel the the large 2020 fire season. And really, across the entire Southwestern us. The last winter was very dry. In some places, it was record dry. Most of the snowpack that the southwestern states rely on for water and particularly for the runoff filling our reservoirs in the spring. That snowpack was at near all time record lows in April 1, which is when they generally measure it for the year. So it really contributed to not just the you know, the trees and shrubs and a lot of the large plants sort of already being really dry. And even in a lot of cases, you know, kind of in that wilty state relatively early in the season. But it also makes the soil very, very dry. And that soil and the surface litter the sticks and the leaves and all those sorts of things. You know, it’s those small fuels and how quickly they dry out in the spring that really fuel that rapid fire growth once we get into summer.