September 23, 2020 Smoke hung in the air at Smith Rock State Park in Terrebonne, Ore., last weekRachel La Corte/Associated Press Smoke is back in the West By Julia Rosen Over the last month, huge wildfires have laid siege to the West Coast. The shroud of smoke that came with them offers both a glimpse of the future and a reminder of the past. Once upon a time, smoke was simply part of life in the American West. Many ecosystems evolved to tolerate and even depend on fire, which occurred regularly because of lightning, Native American burning practices, and later, settlers. In the early 20th century, though, the U.S. government resolved to stamp out wildfires. And for a while, it succeeded, ushering the country through decades of anomalously fire-free, smoke-free summers. Now, that legacy of suppression has created a fire debt that must be paid back — with interest, because of climate change — either through controlled burns or out-of-control blazes. And that means learning to live with smoke again. “We’re going to have to accept that you are going to have seasonal smoke in the same way that you may have seasonal allergies,” said Stephen Pyne, an environmental historian and emeritus professor at Arizona State University. To learn what that might look like, check out our report from Portland, Ore., where my family’s been hunkered down inside for a good part of the past month. New York Times Climate News
