Did Smokey the Bear retire? (Read Details.)

I don’t want to be glib, but I really think this is the result of climate change. The droughts are more pronounced.

I believe this is going to require a major educational campaign by the governments to instruct people on the dangers of simple fire hazards. I further believe that utility companies are going to have to teach each other about how to avoid fires from their things.

I agree but it seems we’re not catching up fast enough.

Several years ago, there was a lot of controversy about Smokey and whether the previous concept of putting out forest fires was, in fact, correct.

The argument was that nature (forests) needs some good all-encompassing fires every now and then to clean out old undergrowth and allow a new generation of trees (and wildlife) to grow and flourish. By extinguish all fires – even small one – that ‘cleansing’ wasn’t taking place. As a result, the forest was unhealthy and old, and when a big fire started it was much worse because the (normal) cycles of the forest had not been allowed to play out.

Bottom line: while it looks bad now, it is likely healthier for the forest ecosystem long run.

Forests are supposed to burn naturally. We put them out and in doing so make conditions more likely to produce larger and larger fires. It’s not global warming, but it is mostly our fault. Forest services know this, often they’ll perform contained burns. It’s a lot of area to cover though and unfortunately people build shit out of flammable materials right in the path of forest fires.

His name is “Smokey Bear” no “the” and he’s still working, but it’s a losing battle.
https://smokeybear.com/

I thought the term was “controlled burns” for those that were for the health of the forests and they were contained> I know that some fire damage is healthy for forests but not like this.

trump thinks everyone should go out and rake the forest.

This is geared toward the Canadians, but I bet the US is doing it as well. Stefan Hood of the BC Wildfire Service says they are trying to shift people’s focus away from how to suppress fire toward how to live with it. They are working on retiring Smokey since he’s pushing 80. They plan on replacing him with Ember the Fox.

Wild Fires have occurred for longer than we can imagine. Lightning, people who don’t put out campfires properly, people who don’t heed the elements and do stupid things are still the most common causes. Smokey tried to educate but some folks think they know more.

Chyna beat me to it. We need to be raking!

I’m actually more interested in the second part of my question which is about fighting fires. It would seem there should be some scientific/technological developments to facilitate better fire fighting.

I agree that there should be some scientific/technological developments to facilitate better fire fighting. Then again, we won’t learn to “just live with it” if they help us!!!

In my state they have had two “controlled burns” get out of control, in the last 18 months.

There is a sonic firefighting tool, that uses sound waves to put out fires. It works on small fires, and the inventors are trying to scale it up to larger fires.

Controlled burns seem to be the best way to get a handle. Property owners are responsible for mitigation, particularly undeveloped property. That doesn’t mean you have to burn every square foot. It means you have to burn a perimeter to keep a fire contained.

No. He was at some shin-dig here just recently.
(I have a picture of him that was taken by me some years ago.)

@LadyMarissa Ember the Fox is going to be in British Columbia, not the US.

I highly recommend watching the show United Shades of America season 7 episode 4 called California is Burning.

Fight fire with fire. It seems the US hasn’t been using this method as much as they probably should to create natural barriers where the fires would die out when they do get started. I remember Trump saying the forests aren’t being cleaned of the dry leaves etc, and the Democrats went crazy, but that part he wasn’t really wrong about, it’s the Republicans ignoring climate change and trying to wholly blame other things that is the problem, but Democrats on TV who are in our face need to look at the whole situation too. It all matters. Climate change, how we build communities, and that we aren’t proactive enough regarding fire disasters.

I can’t tell you how many idiots set off their own July 4th fireworks when their town is under a warning!

I think we need to build houses with materials that don’t burn easily and protect residential areas as best we can so fires move around housing, but leave the housing standing. It will never be perfect.

The latest on Maui I am sure there will be a review done by HI officials, and it is a wake up call for the entire country to think through fire prevention policy and emergency response. I heard maybe 1,000 people are missing? Many were children. Is that correct?

Smokey The Bear, Smokey The Bear. A howl’n and a growl’s and a sniff’n the air. He can smell a fire before it starts to flame.

“Only you can prevent forest fires”. -Smokey The Bear

@gondwanalon “Flame” not flare?? Just curious…