Good Fire, Bad Fire: Inside the race to restore's America's forests

PERC's newest short film, "Good Fire, Bad Fire," captures the breathtaking beauty of our nation's forests and delves into the urgent crisis threatening their existence. The film explores healthy forest ecology and the history of forest management, from Native Americans to Smokey Bear and beyond.
Through expert insights and stories from the front lines, it illustrates how the size and intensity of today's wildfires are directly tied to the health of our forests-and how we manage them. With 80 million acres of forest and countless communities at risk, "Good Fire, Bad Fire" is a rallying cry to rapidly accelerate restoration efforts before it's too late.
Learn more by visiting www.perc.org/goodfire.
A film by Eric Ian | www.erician.com/

[@eh3477]

There's a bit of amnesia when we talk about public lands management and fire suppression. Yes, the Smoky Bear message is outdated, but know that land managers in multiple federal agencies have been asking for fuels management and prescribed burning funds since AT LEAST the 1990s. These budgets are poorly funded, and are mostly heading downward, even now while visitation has absolutely exploded since the pandemic. I'm familiar with the USFS and NPS. Congress sets them up to fail, and they're often doing amazing stuff with pennies. These agency budgets represent a miniscule portion of the federal budget; they're not being starved because they're too expensive.

[@13ark0de]

Great video! Thank yall 🎄

[@user-yn8pb4cq1m]

Excellent video. I have one comment that may be worth exploring regarding the Bozeman watershed treatment. Is it worth mentioning that overstocked forest inventories have a negative effect on water resources due to daily water uptake by the trees themselves? Water quality can be improved by management of the forest through fire. I've heard that some trees have a daily water uptake of up to 80 gallons/day. If that value is false, I'm sure there is some quantity of water, maybe not 80 gallons/tree/day, is water that could help sustain the watershed. Any thoughts on this?

[@TheWINDIGO]

For anyone watching this video who cares about public lands and natural resources in the United States - the organization who put out this documentary holds some questionable positions on privatization of land and letting the “market” work out all of our environmental problems. I encourage you to read a little bit about their positions (including those on the endangered species act and other conservation legislation/regulations), as well as who funds them. Stay informed, folks 👍

[@eh3477]

Agreed, always check the website, policy positions, and bios of an organization you're unfamiliar with. [Looks like cattle ranchers and investors here]. In addition to your points, they're advocating for "free market" solutions to wildlife and land conservation. "Free-marketing" is how we got here in the first place; we need a better approach. Having said that, not a bad video for a very general overview.

[@ethanbaldino2617]

Great point. The latter third of Christopher Ketcham's wonderful book 'This Land' expounds on this topic quite well. Worth a read to follow up on this trend in many popular environmental organizations.

[@Breakable_Pencil]

Thank you for saying this

[@bpdp379]

I have no clue who the messenger is in this video, but I have no issues with the “message.”

[@nancyinoregon809]

Excellent documentary! I'm not a stakeholder except in that our forest health affects my health. I believe that here in Oregon, woodland management techniques are well implemented on private lands, which account for 34% of total forest land in the state. Now we desperately need to help the US Forest Service execute on their plan for restoring forest health. What can I do as an average citizen to encourage this effort?

[@eh3477]

This was a surprisingly balanced piece, a good overview. But it neglected a couple of important topics: not all wildfires are good candidates for a prescribed burn. With today's large wind-driven fires, heavy fuel loads, and small cities/towns scattered among the forests, that's a recipe for disaster. Controlled prescribed burns are definitely beneficial to the environment, but as we know it would take too long to burn all the backlog of fuel buildup.

[@sunmountainoutfitters]

What an excellent clear picture of what we need to do to bring balance back to our forests! If you spend anytime at all up in our PNW mountains it’s very clear we let this get way out of hand. Thanks to all the hard working folks out there keeping our forests beautiful and in balance!

[@thuptendlama6091]

If you want water to any country build a forest first😂😂😂😂😂