Wildfire: A War on the Homefront
How Wildland Fires are an Increasing Threat to National Security
As skies were blanketed in smoke in New York City from wildfires burning in Canada, and as the press had a field day reporting on it, newfound attention was focused on the impacts of devastating wildfires and the exponential increase in the threat that these wildfires pose to us all.
The northeastern United States is not usually a hotbed of wildfire activity or often impacted by these natural disasters. As such, it has often been an out-of-sight, out-of-mind issue to residents, legislators, and scientists alike in this geographical region. However, with smoke blocking out the sun on the New York City skyline, hazardous air quality, and public health orders to remain indoors and suspend outdoor activities, the Northeast found itself thrust into the uncertainty that has become common to so many other areas of the country and its inhabitants.
This harsh reality is that wildfire damages have increased tenfold in the past five years, to $81.6 billion (2017-2021) from $8.6 billion in just the five-year period previous (2012-2016). And predictions are harrowing that this will continue to grow exponentially in the years to come. The United States is at a crucial tipping point in a war on our Homefront – a war shrouded in denial for most Americans – a war waged unto us by ourselves in the form of extreme wildfires.
Wildfires are an increasing threat in the United States in a myriad of ways. So much so that it would also shock the average American to learn that the Department of Defense (DOD), as of last December, is now a primary member of the National Wildfire Coordination Group (NWCG), the group that provides national leadership and standards for federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial partners. This group is now set to also include the approximately one million acres that are responded to and managed by the DOD across its nearly 27 million acres of training and testing lands over which it holds jurisdiction.
The DOD and the Pentagon have both recognized that wildfires pose a significant threat to military readiness and national security that demands prioritization in both a recent Defense Climate Adaptation Plan published in 2021 and an Investigative Report on Effects of a Changing Climate to the Department of Defense in 2019.
These reports summarize that approximately half of all military installations are vulnerable to wildfire with an expected seven additional military bases to be threatened within the next 20 years: a risk analysis trend that will continue to rise in perpetuity. Directly, these bases and installations are vulnerable to wildfires in that they pose extreme risk when fire interfaces dangerously close to military ordinance storage, chemical storage, and equipment and buildings critical to our national defense. As an example, in 2016, a wildfire started on Vandenberg Air Force Base in California less than a mile away from a Delta II rocket that was actively on a launch pad ready to launch. This fire burned over 10,000 acres and caused a large part of the base to lose electrical power and require generator backup. Obviously, if wildfires cannot be contained in these areas and these situations, the damages and impacts are nearly unfathomable.
Our military readiness is also further impacted when resources needed for national defense are diverted to responding to wildfire incidents rather than the preparation and response activities that are a priority for our national defense. All of this has contributed to the DOD establishing an internal Wildland Fire working group with representatives from all branches of the military. They are funding the DOD Wildland Fire Science initiative which has been instrumental in research focused on next-generation fire behavior prediction and smoke dispersion models.
The U.S. Northern Command (USNORTHCOM) also has an entire response arm for defense support of civil agencies to respond directly to wildfires. USNORTHCOM estimates that over the past 14 years their C-130s have delivered more than 10 million gallons of fire retardant on wildland fires and average approximately 757,000 gallons per year. They also staff 14 complete Wildland Support Modules comprised of personnel qualified in prescribed burning, fuel reduction, and wildland fire suppression. Their investment in these areas is directly proportional to the risk that wildfires are beginning to have on our national security on a grander scale, and increasingly, through more areas of the country and impacting more citizens at large.
These are just a few examples of the direct impact of wildfires on our military readiness, our military assets, personnel, and national security at large. This does not even begin to account for the more nuanced and more common indirect impacts on our national security, health related impacts, and economic fallout that wildfires pose. The DOD also identifies issues such as air quality, health impacts, critical infrastructure impacts to electricity and water grids, erosion and soil nutrient degradation impacting agricultural yields and increasing flood related disasters. This list could go on and on.
There is a consensus amongst experts that wildfires, as an exponentially increasing natural disaster, are poised to threaten our existence as a human race in unprecedented ways in the years to come. Warnings from scientists and authorities throughout the world have reached a fever pitch in intensity trying to highlight the growing need for mitigating these risks, developing new technologies to suppress, prevent, and predict these extreme wildland fires, and supporting the personnel and agencies that respond to these disasters. Yet, alarmingly, citizens, legislators, policy makers continue to approach wildland fire with denial, apathy, and in some cases, a refusal to accept that we are a populus at war with an environment in crisis. That is, until it seems to be burning in their own backyard, which is far too late.
The counter offensive must be against this status quo. With the situation so dire, and alarming, it is in fact a blaring warning, and hopefully, a call to action – a call demanding citizens, communities, and leaders that the time for action is far before the flames are churning towards our homes and communities, and far before the smoke is filling our skies. The time for action is now.
We must dedicate ourselves to becoming an informed populous. We must support the dedicated efforts and organizations desperately trying to intervene in this crisis. We must invest in new technology and research related to wildland fire and implement findings in real time. We must support legislation that adequately compensates and protects the wildland firefighters answering the call in this war year after year without benefits or pay parity. We must stay vigilant with our local, state, and national representatives that this, is undeniably, worth their time and attention for the benefit of us all.
