Rob Scheller
Appearances
Consider This from NPR
The Southeastern U.S. faces a future with more wildfires
The fire risk is... elevated and it is severe. We do need to be taking precautions. This is a combination, of course, of dry spring, which is not unusual for the area. But it is a dry spring in combination with elevated fuel loads over a wide area due to Hurricane Helene. Hurricane Helene damaged over 800,000 acres of forest.
Consider This from NPR
The Southeastern U.S. faces a future with more wildfires
And so just think about a lot of tree mortality, limbs falling and so on. And so that all lands on a forest floor. And once it gets dried out, this is fantastic fuel for fire.
Consider This from NPR
The Southeastern U.S. faces a future with more wildfires
Yeah, the expansion of the wildland urban interface is a huge factor when we think about fire risk. And it is expanding rapidly across the southeast. And so more people, there's more opportunities for fires to negatively impact, of course, homes and lives. It's also more opportunities for people to accidentally start fires. And so that's more people living near natural vegetation,
Consider This from NPR
The Southeastern U.S. faces a future with more wildfires
having barbecues, maybe doing some burning of yard waste and so on. So it's a two way risk of two people and people starting fires as well.
Consider This from NPR
The Southeastern U.S. faces a future with more wildfires
Climate change has made the risk worse. And part of that is just rising temperatures by themselves will allow fuels to dry out faster. The other factor is what we're seeing in the southeast is precipitation has become much more variable over time.
Consider This from NPR
The Southeastern U.S. faces a future with more wildfires
And so last year is a great example where we had a really wet spring followed by a dry summer and then a wet early fall and then a really dry later fall. And so that means that you have these flash droughts sprinkled throughout the season, which, again, allow fuels to dry out and increases fire risk.
Consider This from NPR
The Southeastern U.S. faces a future with more wildfires
Again, there's many sides to the risk story. So one thing you want to do is just Reduce the risk of fire spreading. And that requires reducing the amount of fuels on the ground. That means getting out there and doing some salvage logging, maybe doing some prescribed burning. However, that's going to be difficult to cross over 800,000 acres of rough terrain.
Consider This from NPR
The Southeastern U.S. faces a future with more wildfires
And so people also need to be reducing their own risk. And in that case, there's things you can do around vegetation management immediately around your house. making sure the vegetation is away from the house, making sure you don't have a wood pile near to or up against the house, trying to eliminate any wooden fences. People could also change the way they build new houses.
Consider This from NPR
The Southeastern U.S. faces a future with more wildfires
So there's many more fireproof methods of building houses today. And lastly, people just need to be aware of the potential for fire and think about evacuation routes, what they need to grab right away. You don't want to be waiting until the last minute to figure out where the prize family photo album is or the deed to the house, et cetera.
Consider This from NPR
The Southeastern U.S. faces a future with more wildfires
You should have all those things ready to go in the case of a fire because those delays cause mortality.
Consider This from NPR
The Southeastern U.S. faces a future with more wildfires
You're welcome. Thank you.