Meeting: Up – Scaling Community Resilience Through Ecosystem-Based Disaster Risk Reduction (ECO-DRR) Jakarta, 20-21 June 2019

Eco-DRR workshop program that is carried out by Yayasan Lahan Basah (Wetlands International Iindonesia ) and UN Environment invited a couple of government institutions, publicly-listed plantation company association, and association of companies forestry, NGO, education authorities, (more…)

Wildfire forecaster sees late start for Idaho forest fires

By Keith Ridler Associated Press | 18

BOISE, Idaho (AP) – A federal wildfire forecaster says Idaho’s wet spring and below-average temperatures the last three months will likely mean a later start to forest fires, but rangeland fires could be a problem as grasses dry out.

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Drones for early detection of forest fires

by Carlos III University of Madrid | 17 June 2019

The UC3M’s researchers coordinating the scientific part of the project, Fernando García y Abdulla al-Kaff, from the Department of Systems Engineering and Automation, have developed the complete automatic flight system, as well as the interface with which the emergency service can access information about what is occurring in real time. (more…)

‘Can’t be any more clear’: Scientist says fires in Alberta linked to climate change

By: Colette Derworiz, The Canadian Press
Published Sunday, June 9, 2019

 

EDMONTON — In May 2016, a wildfire near Fort McMurray forced more than 80,000 people to flee the northern Alberta city, destroyed 2,400 buildings and burned nearly 6,000 square kilometres of forest.

A year later, the fire season in British Columbia broke records as 2,117 blazes consumed more than 12,000 square kilometres of bush.

Both have been connected to climate change in two separate research papers published earlier this year by scientists with Environment and Climate Change Canada. (more…)

Study: US West forest fires release less carbon than thought

 

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — The amount of carbon dioxide being released into the atmosphere from forest fires in the U.S. West is being greatly overestimated, possibly leading to poor land management decisions, researchers at the University of Idaho said.

Researchers in the study published last week in the journal Global Change Biology say many estimates are 59% to 83% higher than what is found based on field observations.

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Worst Forest Fires in Decades Continue to Gut Green Wealth, But Govt Has No Plan of Action

Hridayesh Joshi | 3 June 2019

 

While the government seems to have no effective disaster management plan in place to control such forest fires in the Himalayas (or elsewhere in the country) occurring every year, the total loss of forest wealth has gone beyond 2,000 hectares.

Ranikhet, Almora: As a raging fire continued to destroy precious wealth in the forests of Uttarakhand, scientists have warned that this may be among the worst infernos we have seen in nearly two decades.

While replying to a comment on the blaze, Mark Parrington, senior scientist working with the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), wrote on Twitter, “Looking at the May monthly total fire radiative power, 2019 is second worst in 16 years after 2012.”

Parrington explained that radiative power is the quantity related to the intensity of the active fire which scientists use to estimate emissions of pollutants.

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These scientists are setting a forest on fire — and studying it with drones

By: Alexandra Witze | 28 May 2019

 

Data from the blaze in Utah could improve models of how wildfire smoke spreads.

Sometime in late June, if all goes to plan, a helicopter will hover above a thickly forested slope in Utah and set it ablaze. The goal is to clear out dead conifer trees to allow quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides) to regain a foothold in this high-altitude national forest. But the blaze could also help scientists better understand wildfires.

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Clearing dead timber could prevent forest fires, experts say

by | 28 May 2019

 

A new restoration project proposed by Manti-La Sal National Forest will strip dead and diseased trees from a swath of Utah about the size of Bryce Canyon National Park.

The idea is to take out the most volatile fuel for potential wildfires which have grown in size, frequency and cost to fight.

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Warmer summer expected in the West spells bad news for forest fires

 

With the wildfire season already under way in British Columbia and Alberta, Environment Canada is predicting a long, hot summer to come.

The wildfire threat has already forced evacuations in northwestern Alberta and central British Columbia, and the preliminary outlook for this summer points to worsening conditions, said David Phillips, Environment and Climate Change Canada’s senior climatologist.

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Weather conditions remain a concern for northern Alberta firefighters but crews keeping flames at bay

By: The Canadian Press |
Chris Schwarz/The Canadian Press

 

Warmer temperatures, gusty winds and no rain continued to cause unpredictable conditions for firefighters in northern Alberta on Monday, but officials said measures to keep flames away from threatened communities were working.

The largest blaze in northern Alberta remained about three kilometres southwest of High Level, where crews have been bulldozing, back-burning and water bombing to ensure flames don’t creep closer to the town.

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