Another Bit Of Interesting Fire Info

(Sorry that this is becoming the Fire Blog. But it's a handy way to keep a record of all the interesting bits that turn up so that I have them for future reference.)

How LA Built The Wildfire State In addition, over-building means more trees are competing for less moisture - also in limited supply over the past four years due to drought. Consequently the trees are unable to produce sufficient quantities of sap to repel the beetles that bore into their bark and eat the tree, leaving behind dead trunks that contribute to the ‘biomass’ - the accumulation of combustible vegetation. ... John Shelley, of the University of California’s Forest Products Laboratory in Virginia, California, says the thinning of biomass has been problematic. "We don’t have the industry in that part of the state that can harvest trees and get them to market for lumber, paper or any other kind of wood product," he said. "People move to these kinds of areas to live among the trees, not to see them harvested."