[openknot]

>"they were probably understating the problem"

The authors' claim wasn't to give a comprehensive figure of the number of electrocuted birds that caused wildfires, in a specific region over a specific time. Instead, their goal was to establish that electrocuted birds is a significant reason for wildfires, rather than very rare events.

This is useful because, even without a comprehensive figure, the article still provides convincing evidence for companies that may consider upgrading systems to prevent bird electrocution. For example, from the article: "Electric utility companies can insulate wires and install spikes to discourage perching; they could also build structures that allow for safer perching on transformers."

[pvaldes]

To a bird being able to start a fire, there must be a minimum of flammable material under the lines (typically placed in a firebreak or a road).

Firebreaks are maintained and often de-soiled until bare rock or mineral soil, and asphalt is not flammable by default. Thus, even if eagles can be a problem, there must be more factors involved here. Are we neglecting the firebreaks?

It feels (again) like hunting for excuses to blame nature. Local politicians said just today, to the furious people complaining for the low number of firefighters movilised in Zamora, that "nature is the problem".

This is not an acceptable answer anymore, specially not by the same people saying publicly a few days ago that "environmental laws are unfair and we refuse to obey them". And a few days later a wildfire eats a beautiful area with a large reservoir of water in the middle, a fair amount of wild herbivores eating flammable material, oak forests, and that has not burned in decades. Now the problem of culling wolves to appease greedy tools is solved. By fire. God answered our prayers. How lucky we are.

Politicians wave the racing flag of "environmental laws are a joke and now all is allowed" and wildfires answer the call. Every-single-time. Burning millions of euro. Curious. Really curious.

[dredmorbius]

"Blaming nature" isn't my read of this. It's simply tracing a source of ignition events.

We already know that much of the Western US is an absolute tinder-box. Absolutely massive historic blazes have been initiated by mowing grass, by catalytic converters on automobiles, by vehicles suffering blowouts and sparks thrown off by the rim, by broken glass. And by many, many lightning strikes.

We're also aware that other power-line related issues have sparked massive wildfires.

That birds are also a concern gives clarity on the problem. This may mean that further monitoring (detecting surge transients and launching rapid fire response or powerline management), or redesigning or retrofiting transmission equipment to reduce risks, is to be considered.

Science moves in very small increments. This increments is "yes, birds do spark some fires".

NB: brush clearing at the scale of remote powerline equipment is all but certainly not viable. Utilities are barely able to keep up with lesser operations such as tree-trimming near lines, and even that with equipment that looks like it came from Dr. Evil's laboratory:

https://yewtu.be/watch?v=Pla06PO6Odk

[dredmorbius]

Exactly.