it's important that people understand the true cause of these unprecedented Oregon wildfires

big surprise it's white supremacy

Indigenous people understood that fire was a key aspect of a their environment and have practiced controlled burning for thousands of years

they did this because they saw how natural fires aided in the regenerative cycle of forests

indeed many flora of the PNW rely on fire to germinate their seeds and the raised canopy of the iconic douglas fir evolved to survive low-intensity wildfires

regular, low-intensity wildfires serves to clear out underbrush, make room for new growth and allow forests to advance to their next stage of growth

Indigenous people used controlled burns in their agricultural practices to lure in game and cultivate forage

this practice was so widespread that anthropologists theorize that the constant release of carbon had a measurable impact on the global climate

this relatively small greenhouse effect may have helped make an otherwise frigid central Europe more habitable

there is also speculation that the post-contact genocide of Indigenous people contributed to what is now known as the Little Ice Age in Europe

without as many Indigenous people to manage them the forests quickly regrew, sequestering carbon in their roots and cause a cold snap

it bears repeating that the forests were highly resilient to intermittent, low-intensity wildfires and relied on it to remain health ecosystems

without fire forests will inevitably become overgrown, tangled with undergrowth and eventually stagnant and unable to thrive

in addition, when a forest that has become overgrown due to a lack of intermittent fire it creates the conditions for the next fire to burn much hotter, faster and higher than usual which can be enough to overwhelm with otherwise fire-resistant flora, leading to a die-off

the pristine, green forests full of fresh healthy shrubs and paths "wide enough for a wagon" that the first Europeans on this continent encountered weren't the result of divine intervention creating a new Eden but rather the intentional agricultural practice of Indigenous people

of course the Europeans never acknowledged the humanity or ancestral wisdom of Indigenous people & over the next 500 years stole their land, murdered their people & banned their cultural practices, including controlled burning, as part of a genocide that continues to this day

now our forests are "responsibly" managed by the US Forest Service which you may be shocked to learn is part of the Department of Agriculture

the trees are considered a crop & the USFS is required by law to sell many millions of board feet of timber a year to private companies

controlled burns are extremely rare and highly regulated

fires might damage the product after all

so under the guise of conservation and responsible management and for the benefit of the timber industry our forests have become literal tinder boxes

white supremacy has actively suppressed ancestral knowledge of the land that allowed Indigenous people to thrive without destroying their environment

yet another reason why colonization is so harmful and why Indigenous sovereignty so critical

in fact, it may be our only hope

https://www.worldcat.org/title/1491-new-revelations-of-the-americas-before-columbus/oclc/56632601
here's a book to read if you want to know more about this