Wildfire Flares in Southern California

Summary:


On Sunday September 12, a giant wildfire sprung up west of Bodfish, in Southern California's Kern County. The fire spread to about 3000 acres, and the fire department said that they were only able to contain about 10 percent of the flames. It still burns, but there are about 500 people fighting it, plus eight tankers and multiple fire trucks. There have been no injuries reported and no structures damaged, which is good. Evacuations have also been ordered in the area. The authorities are still investigating the cause, so we'll know for sure soon.





Opinion:


This could turn out to be a big problem for California if they don't douse those flames. According to the authorities, they still have a long way to go. As for how did it come up, I'd say that it was probably climate; it's close to the equator, so the temperature is higher down there than it is up here, at least, and there might not have been much rain in that region for a while- if there was, then the fire wouldn't be so much of a problem. Perhaps one method of stopping the fire is cutting down the trees around the area and digging a trench around it; without anywhere to go, the fire would be much easier to extinguish.



Citing:

http://rss.cnn.com/~r/rss/cnn_topstories/~3/kflWE9vbgtg/index.html
http://www.sunvalleyfiredepartment.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/wildfire-boise-ga.jpg



Questions;


1) How could this fire have been avoided?


2) Do you think that this fire will have a negative effect on the atmosphere/climate in the area?


3) How would you try to prevent the fire from spreading, and douse it?


4) Do you think that more wildfires will occur in that area before this year is over?

Answers to questions- Curtis Sumner

1. The strategy that the farmers thought of might work, but it could also backfire. If they annoy the boars too much, then they might just turn around and attack.

2. They probably won't stop hunting, because with the big increase in wild boar population, that means that many more opportunities for food and hide.

3. The more space a species has, the more it reproduces. The boars may have lived in a large prairie for a while and the population grew. Like the article said, the regrowth of the forest probably doesn't help the matter. As for how they came around so fast, the only thing I can say is that some animals breed faster than others. Plus, with the reforestation, they have had a lot more to eat lately.

4. Boars should have many natural predators in the wild, mainly big cats (i.e. lions, cougars, leopards, etc.) and mankind. But, obviously, they haven't helped.

Chinese Villagers Try to Annoy Away Invasive Boars

Summary

Farmers in china’s eastern province of Zhejiang have been facing a big problem with wild boars. The wilds boars have been cause many problems that involve crop damage, tourist industry, and a danger to all. After fail attempts to kill and scare off the baor the locals have come up with an idea to use vuvuzelas and karaoke (sound makers) to “annoy the wild boar away. In the last ten years the wild boar population has gone up an estimated five times from 30,000 to 150,000, this is most likely a result of the increase in reforestation over the last two decades. With more boar human and boar interaction has heightened the boar have been eaten crop and in the last decade have killed 22 people an injured another 188 others. The first attempt to control this problem was to hunt 10,000 boars but that was able to do much. So then they tried to scare them away with fireworks, booby-trap, and even bombs. Now a small group of 23 farmers have came together to protect their farmers and keep the boar away with vuvuzelas and karaoke for a “humane” way of keeping them away.

Opinion

I think that the province of Zhejiang is in trouble. I think more hunting should be used to take care of the problem. This way there is less boars, more meat, and boar skin to make things with everyone wins. I have herd about wild boar in America doing the same thing that theses boar near and around Zhejiang. I have seen how bad it is here so I can’t image how bad it is in china.

Question

I wonder how this strategy is going to work out for the farmers?

Have they stopped trying to hunt the boar?

How it is even possible for an animal to breed like that, how did they so many come around so fast?

Doesn’t the boar have any predators that will keep this problem under control?

This article was found on the tree hugger blog and here is a link to the exact article.