So, I testified in front of a U.S. Congressional Committee…
On 29 June 2021, I testified to the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Science, Space, & Technology of the 116th Congress. This hearing, “The state of federal wildland fire science: Examining opportunities for further research and coordination”, can be seen in its entirety on YouTube here.
My testimony focused on:
Climate change is driving wildfires across the U.S., including the western states, but also in the Appalachian Mountains and in the boreal and Arctic.
Increased prescribed burning and Indigenous cultural burning will reduce wildfire risk now.
Climate action and reduction of future emissions and warming is needed now.
Humans cause the majority of fires in the U.S., so reducing and eliminating arson, accidental fires, and the spread of open burning from croplands to wildlands must be done now.
Improved geostationary satellites (like our current weather satellites) can give us specific knowledge on fires every 15 minutes. NOAA and NASA (as well as partners in USGS, USFS, and DOI) are capable of this and are working on it now. They need priority funding.
Fully fund the Joint Fire Science Program and its 15 regional fire science exchanges to educate and work with state, local, Tribal, and private stakeholders.
An example of an understory fire in the Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge, a part of the United States National Wildlife Refuge System. Image from: https://forest-atlas.fs.fed.us/shapes-fires.html.
Creator: Josh O'Connor - USFWS, Copyright: Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0)
You’ll note that there are some errors still in my written testimony. I wish I had caught them, but the week I was asked to prepare for the session - my first Congressional testimony - aligned with the time I was solo parenting and visiting my parents on the family farm in the Appalachian Mountains of Kentucky. So, mom brain and caretaking - and let’s be honest, too hot Kentucky summer nights - were not the conditions I would want to compose a testimony. But they were the conditions I had. I wrote late into the hot and humid nights on a wooden desk made from rough timber that my dad cut, graded, and built himself as I made sure my 4-year-old went to sleep (and stayed asleep) to the sounds of crickets, bullfrogs, and whippoorwills. My mind kept returning to the fact that by the time my child is my age, those mountaintop summer nights will be even hotter - and in drought years more likely to burn. Hopefully mine - and our global efforts - are not all for naught.
Disclaimer: Thumbnail images provided via Malachi Brooks on Unsplash.