[jqm]

The prevention to this type of problem is probably the same measure needed to fix many forestry problems.

Regular fires.

But now we have homes right up to the forest and no one wants to look at charred land for two decades. So I suppose it's still a no go. The thing about fire though is eventually it probably happens anyway.

[blakes]

It's unfortunate that most the public isn't aware of how important forest fires are. Humans suppressing forest fires cause more damage in the long run.

As far as I understand, fires essentially burn up the dead bits on the ground. When it happens naturally, the fires don't hurt the trees. But humans stop areas from burning and the dead bits build up and burn hotter, setting the trees ablaze and then we get these crazy forest fires. We just need to let them burn on their own, it'll sort itself out.

I hear this all the time from people I work with, Forestry department at a University.

[bdamm]

Perhaps what we need is to better understand how to make effective fire breaks and better manage planned fires. The reason people fight forest fires is to stop them from burning down homes and businesses, not just out of an anti-fire aesthetic. Letting a fire rage and then saying, oh we'll just stop the fire from burning this gas station, hotel, and town that is here, is damned hard to do.

Sure, people built close to forests. People also built close to fault lines, flood plains, tsunami zones, unstable soil, on top of limestone, near industrial areas, in hurricane, tornado, ice storm, or "lake effect" zones, etc. There are precious few places that are devoid of some periodic natural ravaging. We can't just say, ah well, let it all happen and don't do anything about it.

[Amezarak]

Here in the South the government regularly does controlled burns and it doesn't seem to seriously bother people, even though there are plenty of people that live in (with some breaks) and around the burning areas.

My impression is that it's an American West political problem, not a fire management problem. Maybe I'm wrong. It is drier there.

[harlanlewis]

For SOD, there's actually a fairly simple preventative step everyone could take that is poorly publicized.

It wasn't until I happened to be out with someone who does environmental impact studies for the army corp of engineers that I learned how easily SOD can be transported from place to place through the soil that collects on clothing. Most of us wash after a trip outside, but we should be bleaching our shoes. The pathogen is quite hardy and can survive the seasons without a plant host. Without a thorough wash, the next trip we take is likely to drop off a few spores, risking its introduction to plants we touch and the watershed.

That said, this is just one of many preventative steps, and one that's unlikely to be broadly adopted. We're likely too far down the road already for a lot of impacted forests.

[jamestnz]

This sounds very familiar. In New Zealand we have a lot of trouble with "didymo"[1], an invasive algae which thrives in cold freshwater environments, clogging up rivers with lots of green slime. It is very easily spread by humans doing recreational activities such as fishing and boating, inadvertently carrying it from one place to the next.

As such we've had intensive public education campaigns here, instructing people to carefully clean down things like boots and boat hulls with either hot water or bleach solution[2]. Its spread continues, though perhaps less quickly than without such a campaign.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Didymosphenia_geminata [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Didymosphenia_geminata#/media/...

[hvidgaard]

While simple, it's a tall order to get every single outdoors person to use powerful disinfectant agents on their shoes every time they've been out.

[whyenot]

I don't think regular fire would solve this problem (it would solve other problems, though).

Fire might strip out some of the carriers of the disease (California Bay Laurel), but infected tress would still spread the infection and many of the affected oak species have very thick bark and are very well adapted to survive fires. I suppose regular fires would get rid of the dead trees, which might or might not be a good thing.

[jcoffland]

Yes, fires are really important to the health of forests. Suppression of fires is a major part of the problem.