Annette McGee Rasch
Living in southwest Oregon used to be both beautiful and peaceful. But a series of wildfires grown huge by forest mismanagement and climate change sweeping through these landscapes has dramatically changed the quality of life here.
While choking on purple smoke-filled air during the worst summers, I drag hoses and sprinklers around to keep my 5 acre property watered down and my truck stays parked nearby, filled with everything needed to evacuate on a moment’s notice. And I still have frightening flashbacks from 2020, when the Slater Fire crept terrifyingly close to my own doorstep; and the Almeda Fire destroyed 2500 homes just 30 miles away.
Now, with winter settling in, I reflect on how I’ve been lucky so far – my home still stands. Though this past year my troubles took a new turn when my home insurance policy was cancelled. After an exhaustive search, luckily, I found another company – but then they informed me of the huge amount of work I had to do to “fire proof” my home in order to keep my new policy.
I cried as I ripped down the plants, vines and shrubs I’d cultivated for decades; and it was like a physical pain to witness the songbirds I love perched along the fence, chirping in distress as their hidey holes and storm shelters disappeared. I was also forced to cut down several huge old trees the insurance company said stood too close to my home. I can still hear the crashing sound of those giants hitting the ground. And somehow I had to find the money to pay for all this carnage.
Yes, I understand the importance of having a defensible space around our homes – but my trees were already limbed 20 feet off the ground and the brush was cleared away. But that wasn’t enough to satisfy my insurer. I was left wondering if the company’s underwriting team were up to date on the latest research on wildfire science.
Defensible space and forest thinning are complex topics – and contradicting views abound.
Most important is ‘Home hardening’ – building homes with fire-resistant materials with no flammable vegetation around the home. Groups like Firewise USA help people figure out the best strategies for their locations. Colorado State Forest Service also shares useful educational materials reflecting currently accepted standards for home safety.
“Zone Zero” is the area within five feet of a house. The traditional view has been that all vegetation must removed within this zone; however newer research suggests that certain types of plants and shrubs, if watered well and properly maintained, may actually provide more ember protection than bare ground.
The same is true of trees. While some species are highly flammable, others may improve fire safety and help wildlife cope with the changing climate. Trees provide critical shade and food that nurtures ecosystems and retains water – the very water that helps prevent wildfires while fostering resiliency.
The most fire resistant tree species can vary depending on location, but in general, preference should be given for native species. Fire-resistant trees typically include hardwoods like oaks, maples, and fruit trees due to their dense wood or high moisture content as well as some conifers with thick bark. Some evergreens, like cedars, are more flammable due to natural oils and fibers.
Whether forest thinning is a good idea is a complex question, but there is ample evidence that, in most situations, logging only worsens the crisis.
Wildfire science has evolved considerably over the past few decades, and there’s no one-size-fits-all solution. Each forest and the wild creatures living there deserve thoughtful individual assessments conducted by trained ecologists. Regional weather conditions; drought status; forest health; tree species, sizes and densities; slope aspects; soil types; foliage types… all this and more should be factored into land management decisions.
This is absolutely not happening under the Trump administration, which is using the ongoing threat of wildfires as an excuse to hand over vast tracts of our public forest lands to logging companies. And this, while countless scientists and wildland-urban interface zone experts agree that we can’t mechanically suppress our way out the dangerous situation we’re in.
Indisputably, the climate in the western US is increasingly hotter and drier and when the winds blow across these parched landscapes, everyone shudders. Thinning these forests makes the soil more parched, not less, and opens it to invasive plants like cheat grass that easily ignite. It’s forest cover that keeps the soil moist and the lands lush!
What’s the Trump administration’s response? Defund the key agencies and programs that manage wildfires.
Insurance companies are on the run!
Industry analysts call this the toughest market cycle for property insurance companies in a generation, as they can’t keep up with the soaring scale of home insurance payouts. As a result, homeowners face very high rates if they can get insurance at all in high impact areas.
The retreat of home insurance companies has hit hardest in Nevada and California, where wildfire season is now year-round – another devastating part of the new normal.
In Oregon, Liberty Mutual, Allstate and State Farm are using region-wide wildfire risk maps to deny or cancel policies. Instead of performing on-the-ground individual assessments that property owners deserve, they use drones to create risk maps. These maps ignore the work done by many homeowners to create a defensible space around their properties – which dramatically increase their odds of surviving wildfires.
After a huge public outcry, Oregon’s legislators responded by demanding a halt to these grossly generalized risk maps. More states are following, also calling for restrictions on the use of drone footage to make policy decisions.
Since most mortgage lenders require homeowners to have insurance, people face losing their homes if insurance is out of reach. Many people must relocate … more climate refugees every year. Constant uncertainly has become the new normal.
After paying insurance premiums for decades without filing a single claim, it’s a real kick in the teeth to be tossed off your insurance when you need it most! Never has it been more clear that insurance is not about helping and protecting people, but about making money. The Insurance Information Institute offer tools to help homeowners advocate for fair coverage.
Coping with climate change trauma
Many of us who have lived through wildfires on our door steps for weeks at a time – or worse, suffered the loss of a home – have acquired a kind of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.
Now, climate disaster survivors are organizing and banding together to share resources and lessons learned. Facebook groups and community organizations cropping up to help people deal with insurance issues, mortgages, lost documents, temporary housing and more.
In my case, I lived through an enormous wildfire that parked itself just a few miles from my doorstep month after month. Being forced to breathe hazardous levels of smoke trashed my lungs and I ended up in the hospital. I never imagined that a few years later I’d have to fight so hard to keep an insurance policy!
For weeks, after I’d completed the required defensible space work on my property, as I awaited the underwriter’s verdict, I lay in bed at night with a sore back, wondering if was my life about to be utterly overturned. The anxiety was awful. Thankfully, I was able to retain the policy, for now… Many people have not been so lucky.
Though again, keeping my insurance meant utterly changing the whole vibe of my once lush and sheltered forested refuge to a far more open landscape that, ironically, will now be hotter and drier in the summertime – which certainly seems counter-productive.
Now, parts of our country face wildfire season year round, while others cope with weeks of hazardous smoke from Canada’s wildfires. Others must deal with ever-bigger floods, hurricanes and tornadoes. Climate change impacts are all around us … all the time.
Meanwhile Trump et.al. continue to deny what is right in front of everyone’s eyes. He’s getting a kick out of punishing ‘blue’ states for having the nerve to invest in renewable energy as he shrinks the agencies tasked with disaster management.
In my opinion, this is the moment to keep self determination – and activism – alive. So, when I’m done clearing brush from my land or writing letters to my local newspapers and legislators, I’m making fresh signs for the next anti-Trump protest. It’s going to take all hands on deck to overcome the madness of the current administration as we seek common sense strategies to adapt to what lies ahead.
Now, millions of homeowners across the western United States are heaving great sighs of relief for having survived yet another challenging wildfire season; while thousands more cope with the aftermath of losing their homes to this year’s blazes. Countless others are dealing with skyrocketing insurance premiums; while unprecedented numbers of homeowners are being forced to sell their homes because their polices have been cancelled.
As for me, I’m facing the awful decision to put my home that I’ve lived in for 28 years on the market. I must move to safer ground – I simply can’t live through more years of wildfires. Millions share my terrible dilemma, though considering climate change impacts now manifesting nationwide, many of us wonder if there really even is a safe place to be found.