California+Fires+Enter+the+Heart+of+Los+Angeles

California Fires Enter the Heart of Los Angeles, a New York Times Article written by Jennifer Medina and Richard Perez-Pena. - [| __https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/06/us/california-fires.html__]



Summary: This article depicts the movement of a wildfire and its catastrophic damage in one of the most populated cities in the United States, Los Angeles. The city has faced major destruction of local landmarks, like the Getty Museum and U.C.L.A. campus, and forced nearly 200,000 people to evacuate in the Los Angeles and Ventura area, ultimately watching over 300 buildings and homes burned to the ground. Strong winds are a normal weather feature in Southern California during the fall and winter months; however, the large amount “bone-dry vegetation” has resulted in large, destructive fires (Medina and Perez-Pena.) The lack of “meaningful rainfall since March of 2017” in the state has also played a huge factor in the outbreak of these natural disasters (Medina and Perez-Pina.)

Relation to APES: This article relates to our class, particularly this unit, in response to learning about the different types of fires and how they impact forest ecosystems and adjacent ones. Surface fires, “fires that only burn the undergrowth and leaf litter of the forest floor,” are usually initiated to carry out the act of prescribed burning to reduce the build up of flammable material (Miller, 664.) The outbreak of large, destructive fires in California is response to the build up of fuel and dry weather over a period of months. Suppression, known as the fighting of fires once they have started, is being seen in California, rather than prescribed burning that could have prevented massive fires.

Opinion: I think it is a coincidence in the timing of raging forest fires in California, after our gained knowledge of forest fires in our APES class. Due to this, I really began to see the real life applications of the course’s content and realized the importance of protecting our environment.

Law: The Forest Reserves Management Act of 1974 would relate to the outbreak of fires in California. The law passed in 1974 is intended to carry out forestry practices to government-owned forests in the United States. The law would force governmental officials to manage and repair the forests that provides resources to many.