VIDEO: The forest has many things

Posted on September 9, 2010

A classic Smokey Bear PSA:

Here’s a modern Smokey Bear PSA (note how Smokey has changed over the years):

Here’s a few more utilizing Bambi:

WILDFIRES: California wildfires exacerbate air quality and water supply woes

Posted on August 30, 2009

According to LAist, “four major fires [are] burning in the greater Los Angeles region“: the Station Fire, Morris Fire, Cottonwood Fire, Palos Verdes Fire. One of the fires, the Morris Fire, “could adversely impact the drinking water supply for more than one million people, [since] . . .increased erosion in burned watersheds that empty into the San Gabriel and Morris reservoirs could mean those dammed bodies of water will have to be drained and cleared of sediment.” In addition to potentially impacting water supplies, these fires are creating unhealthful air quality.

More information on wildfires burning throughout the United States can be found at the National Interagency Fire Center’s National Fire News.

Video: Wildfires Rip Through Southern California

Video: Time lapse videos illustrate the daytime smoke and nighttime light eminating from the Station Fire

The Google Map below illustrates the extent of the fire:

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WILDFIRES: Dried out brush, in addition to extreme drought, temperatures, and winds fuel Australian wildfires

Posted on February 7, 2009

The NASA image below shows plumes of smoke from wildfires (highlighted in red) burning in southeastern Australia, with witnesses describing a situation of “trees exploding and skies raining ash as some of the hottest temperatures on record combined with raging winds to create perfect conditions for uncontrollable blazes.” From NASA:

A crippling heat wave and strong winds in southeastern Australia contributed to an outbreak of forest and grassland fires in Victoria in late January 2009. By January 30, about 5,500 hectares had burned and at least 10 homes had been destroyed, reported the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). The homes were located in a small community near the town of Boolara. Nearly surrounded by wildfire, the town had also run out of water and lost power, said ABC News.

This image from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite was captured on January 30. A large plume of smoke spreads southward from a fire (outlined in red) that appears to be burning in a small area of forest west of Churchill (a larger town near Boolara) in Victoria’s Gippsland region. The forest is dark green in contrast to the surrounding grass or cropland. The fire, says ABC News, started as two blazes in plantation forests in the Strzelecki Ranges. The large version of the scene shows a wider area that includes several other fires.