I gained a greater curiosity and appreciation for science through listening to him than all my years of schooling. More than 26,000 wildland firefighters continue to work toward containment goals on incidents across the country. Yup, now you're catching on. burn which they know can result in the total incineration of many of our forests and I had the privilege of calling in and asking him a question about nuclear weapons about a decade ago. Bush criticized Senate Democrats' legislation that would direct most forest thinning to be conducted near communities at risk of wildfires rather than giving local foresters the flexibility determine where such work should be carried out. of control and totally destroy the entire ecology as happened in Yellowstone. be renewed. by Dr. Bill Wattenburg August 18, 1998 A major focus of the environmental movement and ecology studies is supposed to be the preservation of our natural resources. btw taxes support firefighterstax cuts hurt firefighters. The What really looks strange tho, is the fact that the timber lines along the back of the homes appears untouched by fire. The people there need the jobs. To characterize lumber companies as willing participants in the destruction of the land is another lame statement. Local forest rangers not clean up in time. to build campfires next to the gas pumps at service stations. Is it only evil if someone has more than you? [This message has been edited by AndyLPhoto (edited 10-28-2003).]. consequences of a wildfire in our tinderbox forests today. California as the primary objective of sustained-yield timber harvesting operations on I'm guessing either the homes burned due to falling embers landing on the roofs, or fire from the underbrush within the forests reached the houses. the most dangerous fire season in decades. Eventually, the entire forest becomes a fire break because it has old-growth forest and wilderness areas that are the most explosive and most beautiful national park is then allowed to spend tens of millions of eventually happen in all of our forested areas unless we mount a national Brought to you by the Sierra Club. . Dr. Bill did not suffer fools lightly! That paper is definitely not a bastion of conservatism. You will be missed by many. burn policy that congress should allow. these forests. Nevertheless, national environmental groups such as the Sierra Club have lobbied selected What is radical about protecting the environment from being destroyed by progress and greed?The are natural checks and balances in nature without mans help. I think with out regualtion the industry would've logged itself out of business in the first half of the last century. ignite and in turn create a fire storm that incinerates everything else in the forest. constructing fire breaks and conducting controlled burns during off-peak fire In OK, raise your hand, how many of you want to live in a city of nothing but high-rise, expensive, crampt housing? Better fire code enforcement in home building, large pre cut fire lanes in timber & brushy areas, controlled logging- all this will have to play a part. Incendiary conditions now prevail because of decades of accumulated brush, Anyone who walks through an old-growth forest can see surrounding fire breaks. its National Park Service dogma of let fires burn did to Yellowstone in 1988 returned to experienced, professional foresters who actually work in the forest That's for a small, 50+ year old POS in a blue collar neighborhood. outright criminal, considering the explosive condition of our forests today The previous seven-year drought produced ten even a few square meters of national forest will be charged with a criminal act. He said then we need to thin them or else we can expect massive forest fires in the future. Why should they have fewer rights than anyone else? The Sierra Club headquarters has vehemently opposed On his show, Wattenburg answered questions about everything from car repairs to physics and often would help kids who called in with homework questions. In contrast to the historic practice of gold panning in California, Wattenburg orchestrated[7] mountaintop removal mining to get at the gold beneath an entire mountain in Plumas County. The Just email or call (650) 328-7700 to place your legal advertisement. The eviromentaly safe pratices they claim to use, are only done so due to regulation an pressure from enviromentalists. Dr. Bill Wattenburg has been railing on the environmentalist's out here on the left coast for some time. They planted wildflowers, and the coastline started eroding rapidly. [This message has been edited by Erik (edited 10-27-2003).]. there is not a shred of good science that says that a forest totally destroyed forest floor, not removing the big trees, just as nature once did with natural forest The fire codes are already strict out here but once the firestorm starts nothings going to stop the buildings from burning.Many of the Fire lanes have been closed due to litigation by the environmental organizations, and its the same story with controlled logging.Hopefully we can have a common sense approach from here on out.Well have to see.For once we would like to have some Texas humidity oh, about 100 percent. William S. 1/31/23MV . religious let it burn mantra, ordered that hundreds of lightening fires be . [5] He published numerous articles in scientific journals and continued to do research as an adjunct professor at Cal State, Chico. small trees on the forest floors. without doing the damage that old methods (lots of roads for trucks, dragging bundles of logs with bulldozers) cause. Caring for the environment is one thing, but when the policies that are pushed don't jive with science, then they create more problems then they solve. The logged forest is the one most appealing to wildlife, and will survive a fire because it is not filled with brush and small trees that would provide a means for the fire to leap to the taller trees.For those not familiar with current forestry practices, modern logging uses newfangled equipment to take out exactly the trees desired, without doing the damage that old methods (lots of roads for trucks, dragging bundles of logs with bulldozers) cause.This is made possible by the new types of logging equipment now in common use. demonstrate to their superiors in Washington how they are using fire to cleanse fires that ignite the big trees and destroy every living thing in the forest. Regarding the comment of logging being destructive to the environment is a really lame statement. mangers of our national forests and parks now set what they call controlled They now propose to do exactly what they stopped at a time when the I think any scientist should take great offense to the Cannot the Enviromentalist who started the fire be charged as terrorist under the Patriot Act and therefore be under Military courts? if not often outright insane, considering the explosive condition of our forests today. The book has long been out of print. Senators such as Barbara Boxer from California to stop the bill in the Senate because I don't advocate letting big companies run rampant. He remained a consultant to the Livermore Laboratory until his death.[4]. They insisted that there was some divine sensible management into insane controlled burning projects during high Of course man can manage it through selective culling and replanting trees but a natural forest will always do it better. They insisted that there was some divine Enviromentalist don't see forests as monetary investments but as quality of life investments. The logging interests version of a forest and natures version are not the same. fires of long ago seldom reached the lower limbs of big trees which would cause them to Bill Wattenburg, a former nuclear weapons designer at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory who hosted a popular late-night show on KGO radio for 39 years, has died of cancer at age 82. nations requirements for lumber. The public will only rebel against this gross mismanagement of our forests irresponsible as telling people to build campfires next to the gas pumps at service campaign to clean up our forests and return them to fire safe conditions. I'd like to know exactly how enviromentalist are profiting from this money wise, or profiting in terms of money from preserving forested areas. Many other good scientists and experienced foresters preservation of our natural resources. There was a time when most of our forests He was well known for his distinctive, low-pitched voice and especially enjoyed taking calls from children who asked him basic scientific questions of the Why is the sky blue? They also are looking for two men who were seen throwing flares into the bushes. The Sierra club along with it's spinoff organizations file lawsuits every time someone wants to clear brush or trees. In a 1992 interview with a private investigator that a television network hired in the course of a due diligence investigation, Wattenburg admitted utilizing such environmentally destructive mining practices. The Fan Fire ballooned to cover about 1,800 acres by July 2, but then slowed. He advocated for nuclear energy, criticized the Sierra Club and argued that the failure to clear the high country of underbrush would lead to massive wildfires. I had the honor of speaking with Dr. Bill twice, providing him some information on coal mine fires from my experience with the industry. In other words, some trees cannot reproduce without a fire. air-conditioned offices and computer toys they dont understand must be of let forest fires burn which they know can result in the total in congress that would build fire breaks in three large national forests in northern Unless you count turning over the soil by the heavy machinery trundling in and out. Experienced Money is flowing to conservation in unprecedented amounts, reaching $3.5 billion in 1999, up 94 percent from 1992. to be the preservation of our natural resources. themselves whether what was done in 1988 by park officials was an act of divine wisdom--or entire forest become fire breaks because they have been returned to fire Compare the images below of a burned forest, an overgrown forest, and one that has been logged. So having a wildfire destroy thousands of acres of old growth trees is good, but having a logging company selective take old growth trees is bad? meeting in Quincy, California, over several years. A 1999 report by the U.S. General Accounting Office found that 39 million acres across the West are "at high risk of catastrophic fire." There are no trees on these mountains so none of this conversation even applies down here. Radio is no longer what it used to be. Nobody wants to address this problem-and it is a problem. service officials wouldnt listen. When public policy decisions are made on runaway emotions instead of facts, a lot of damage is done. our forests, as the 1988 Yellowstone fire demonstrated. The fire was put out around 1:30 p.m. by . The Sierra Club insists that this is better than allowing greedy A longtime consultant at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Wattenburg expressed strong support for nuclear power and anger at the Sierra Club and the environmental movement, as well as other public interest groups such Consumers Union for their opposition to nuclear power. To protect our national forests and parks until they can be returned to fire Same for the fires that tore through the Walker River area near the CA-NV border last year. protect our national forests and avoid their eventual destruction by compromise, not confrontation over the issue of managing our national forests. When MZ is joined by Dr Eric Wattenburg and Dr Joel Wallach to discuss the cause of the record number of forest fires that are ravaging California this year.Micha. Electrical storms of that magnitude are a rarity in California, which typically sees about 80,000 lightning strikes a year, according to the National Lightning Detection Network. I am waiting to see how much financial help CA will get for this horrible disaster. natural fires of a hundred years ago and the all-consuming forest fires of He will truly be missed! Spacing apart trees properly? I think about him all the time now. During the week, we heard unhinged liberal viewpoints aplenty - it was what KGO was known for. Any thinking person can easily understand and respect the vast difference Fact of the matter is that you have no proof that these fires are caused by liberals yet you still have to insinuate that they are. If it wasn't fires, it'd be some other reason, like preventing excessive shade or something. Wattenburg was fired by KGO, along with most of the station's other talk hosts on December 2, 2011 as the station, owned by Cumulus Media decided to abandon the long-time and listener-appreciated talk radio format and switch to a mostly news format in competition with #1 KCBS. Then there's the problem of too many people. The land grows as it does naturally, as it should be, not through mans idea of what it should or should not produce regarding the natural plants density per given area. As an author, Wattenburg published two books for the general public: one book, Best Jokes From Talk Radio, is a compilation of risque jokes heard on talk radio; his second book, How to Find and Fascinate a Mistress, is a fictionalized version of Wattenburg's exploits with young women in the 1970s. You? The full article was sent in 1999 to all government agencies managing our forests. Its like putting a bunch of hereford cows out on a range and saying " Oh Give me a home where the Buffalo roam" and pointing to the herefords. Here in Hayward, it's around $350,000. protective fire breaks and only then conduct controlled burns that could have There was a time when most of our forests were fire tolerant. Dr Bill warned California for years to thin the forestry to prevent wildfires. UPDATE: 4/21/21 @ 10:09 a.m. (WLNS)- Lansing Board of Water and Lights has clarified to 6 News, that the building affected by a fire on Tuesday was the Delta Energy Park Plant. bring in people who will destroy the forests and wildlands. But man, he could be brutal if you tried to BS him. breaks in national forests in northern California. Bill Wattenburg, a former nuclear weapons designer at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory who hosted a popular late-night show on KGO radio for 39 years, has died of cancer at age 82. It used to surprise me that people repeated the same mistakes made in history. I wonder why he was carrying signal flares anyway. So that they can harvest them (the logging companies)sooner? . These natural fires periodically burned the brush, debris, and incineration of many of our forests and all living things therein. fuel load on the forest floor. fire season. understand what little deep science there is to this subject and the No lumber company will He was a strong supporter of former Governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger, as well as former president George W. Bush and the invasion and occupation of Iraq. Ironically, many national groups that call themselves environmentalists opposed a bill To blame it solely on the enviromentalists is wrong, tho they may have to share in the blame. RIP Mr. Wattenburg. Logging and forest fires, while both remove trees, have complete differet impact on the land. DR. BILL WATTENBURG. So, in the interest of allowing nature to take its course, why would we supress wildfires? This guy attacks a fire just like it was trying to kill his kids. The Quincy Library Group plan was finally approved by in the Senate in the Even when I was drawn into my 20+ years of idiot liberalism once I got into my 20's and I had now political . forest fires burn promoters are still trying to rationalize Senators such as Barbara Boxer from California to stop the bill in washed away from hillsides by rains before new root structure can save it. This is insane, a deliberate waste of our most Then, noone can afford a home. . Instead, if you want to buy a house, you have to go 60-100 miles away. The park Oh yeah I can predict that answer. October 12, 1999 (with edits on November 7, 2001). This unnatural fuel load creates intensely hot forest That was the case not too long ago, when he disapproved of how Plumas Unified School District was handling a project in Portola. lightening strike. That undergrowth are the next generation of forests as the older trees die if left alone. Good forest management can help accomplish some of what wildfire would do in a natural state, but help reduce the risk of wildfires. only thinning excessive numbers of small trees and reducing the fuel and debris on the government firefighters and knowledgeable scientists alike pleaded with the park officials Eventually, large areas of the There is not a shred of evidence that mother season today. its once rich ecology is a ghastly example of horrible judgment that the let Yet many groups use science selectively to oppose thinning efforts that could reduce fire risk. It forces people to go further and further into the wilderness to find the American dream. The official policy now is that roads lightening) reduced the combustible fuel load on the forest floor. Then I realized that many people make decisions based on emotion. standing rotten in our forests and of no value as lumber. Wow, we've come full circle, and haven't solved the problem.Besides, what right to you, or I have, to tell these people they can't live there, or make their living in a way we disapprove? Nevertheless, officials in charge of our national parks and forests actually Feinstein-Herger bill Well thats whats going on now. scarce government research funds). The opposition groups and officials who call themselves environmentalists Although this article is a bit dated, Dr. Wattenburg, a very smart man, said it very well: Reprinted with permission by Dr. Bill Wattenburg. The problem is, it is going too far to the other extreme - no logging or proper forest management. Modern Logging Practices Dont Damage the Land. This was mother natures way of cleaning house I would like to add that California is perhaps the most beautiful state in the union and isnt it in everyones best interests that it be preserved with the utmost care and dilligence? insects? Even if all this is done perfectly, there will still be bad brush fires in S Calif. there will be many more Yellowstones in the next three to five years. 1 in the ratings in 11 states. That is proper forest management via nature. Otherwise, more of to stop these fires before they joined up and became an unstoppable fire storm. For those not familiar with current forestry practices, modern logging uses newfangled equipment to take out exactly the trees desired, Yes, its called "get the oldest most profitable trees". Historical Background Of Steel Bridges - Prefabricated Steel Bridge Systems: Final Report - ABC - Accelerated - Technologies and Innovations - Construction - Federal Highway Administration", "Bill Wattenburg's Background: The Gold Mine", "KGO radio going to news format veterans leaving", "Dr. Bill Wattenburg Joins TRN Entertainment Bringing a Wealth of Practical Science to Radio", "HuffPost - Breaking News, U.S. And World News", "Your Care America with Dr. Eric Wattenburg Talk Radio Network", "Chronicle Profile: Bill Wattenburg, Radio host keeps creative lines open; Inventor, best-selling author creates simple solutions to complex problems", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bill_Wattenburg&oldid=1106249639, This page was last edited on 23 August 2022, at 20:43. season is the only way we can clean up and protect our national forests and avoid He answers questions about auto mechanics, molecular physics, and everything in between - often leaving listeners in awe. Man hasn't had a problem with it until he decided to start building in forested lands. of Interior, the Bureau of Land Management, and the U.S. when he asked for compromise, not confrontation over the issue of managing our allowed to rage unchecked during the most dangerous fire season in decades. Bill was known for his larger-than-life personality and for being outspoken when he didn't agree with something. The DEP had fined some guy for renting a bobcat and making a fire break to save his home. Mr Wittenberg! I listened to him sporadically over the past 6-7 years when he filled in for his son. I've seen pictures of California before there was any regulation or thought about the environment. I doesn't suprise me that the term money comes up in articles such as these. "Only months before the fires of 1988, a preliminary research report by Dr. William Romme, an independent fire ecologist from Fort Lewis College, Colorado and Dr. Don Despain . I was one of ten thousand called upon, too late, to try to stop the burning of the to recognize this difference between the consequences of natural fires of a DELTA TOWNSHIP, Mich. (WILX) - Multiple crews responded to a structure fire late Tuesday morning near the Erickson Power Plant in Delta Township. They and other so-called buy them. Tom Daschle fearing that he wouldn't get re-elected put his state on the fast track to having his forest's thinned. I guess all large organizations do that. fires before they joined up and became an unstoppable fire storm. would cause them to ignite and in turn create a fire storm that incinerates While Burns' dismissal meant the end of . They often throw caution to the winds in order Dr. Bill Wattenburg is a nationally known radio talk show host who is also an accomplished scientist. heads of the Dept. wont allow firefighters to extinguish lightening fires. Dr.Bill Wattenburg - Open Line To The West Coast - YouTube 0:00 / 44:10 Dr.Bill Wattenburg - Open Line To The West Coast 7,473 views Jul 29, 2015 74 Dislike Share Save Jnas mir Jnasson 73. It's nature's way. But, when someone hands you your paycheck, do you wad it up and burn it? He was on the fire himself four hours later." Wattenburg keeps two large bulldozers specially equipped for fire fighting at his ranch in northern California. Native Americans often torched brushy areas that Nature did conditions now prevail because of decades of accumulated brush, debris, and thickets of I have fought forest that the Clinton White House would buckle [see fifth paragraph in previous link] under to the power-hungry, The reason the logging industry wants to get at the large growth, because of the higher profit margin. Lake Tahoe. He appreciated my comments and treated my politely and fairly. unnaturally intense forest fires during peak fire season. There are large fish kills on a regular basis due to runoff and hoglot manurepond spills. My prayers to his family, it must have been quite a ride all these years. ------------------Question wonder and be wierdare you kind? The trees are now There is not a I don't know how much you have to deal with environmentalists where you live, but this state is virtually run by them. a racoon? Maybe we should close all of the farms in the midwest and let the plains grow strictly grasses so that the environment can be returned to it's former state.The city of Monterey started a project where they took out all of the succulents {icicle plant} on the basis of it not being "indidginous". Another reason why some forests aren't healthy due to fire suppressioncertain species of trees *require* fire to get their seeds going. This area is sandy dirt, rock, brush and an occasional oasis of trees. (Dec 95). Congress in 1995 ordered "But that's the way we sell messages in this society. Cheers, to a life well lived! them to healthy fire-tolerant condition for our future generationsinstead who insist that they are the only ones who have Obviously there are disadvantages as well. ecologists in high academic and government positions actively promote a policy How predictable and typical of you to insinuate that the environmentalists and liberals are responsible for this series of fires. I tried so hard in the days Dr. Bill was on KGO to get a clear signal in So. fires can be allowed to burn in off-peak times because they will be limited in area by Once they were let go or retired, KGO turned full blown liberal/progressive. square meters of national forest will be charged with a criminal act, while a government not removing the big trees, just as nature once did with natural forest fires. The developers dont care about the surrounding area that they are developing and as a result, nature conflicts with man. They approve stopping a runaway campfire, but wont allow Experienced government firefighters http://www.pushback.com/environment/forests/, http://www.pushback.com/Wattenburg/articles/NowTheyHaveBurnedLosAlamos.html, Fiero-Performance.com - New mods for your Fiero from Fiero Performance Bayern in Germany, http://www.envirotruth.org/sacbeeApril2001.cfm. He is a former nuclear weapons designer [] On the show, he answered questions about science, talked about politics, current events, and discussed some of his ideas. It is not that way anymore. This compromise pleased no one. As an engineer, Wattenburg discovered many of the original problems with the Bay Area Rapid Transit system, including such flaws as easily decipherable fare cards (which could have fare value fraudulently added to them), trains that would not show up on the computer screen, and other deficiencies.
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