9-20 NWR Terrorism and wildfires

This is your Northwest report for Tuesday, September 20 I'm David Sparks and it appears the US is being invaded once again. By now, we are all aware of the weekend bombings in New York and New Jersey and subsequent arrest of a naturalized US citizen who was born in Afghanistan. There was also an attack in the Crossroads Center mall in Minnesota by a 22-year-old man of Somali descent dressed as a security guard. He was stabbing people with a kitchen knife. He injured nine people before an off duty police officer shot and killed him.

St. Cloud, Minnesota police chief Blair Anderson does not believe that there is any relationship between the attacks in Minnesota and back east. "Right now, we have not uncovered anything that would suggest there is a nexus between those events."

What happens when you combine forest management practices and mounting climate change? Wildfires. But not just your average fires.

A group of scientists who held a conference last week came to the conclusion that climate change wildfires are expected to be much worse and much longer than in the past — especially in the Northwest.They are now urging lawmakers to alter policies and budgets to prepare for a dramatic increase in wildfires.

Current forest management policies have allowed fuel for wildfires — wood debris, mosses, etc. — to accumulate. That fuel is waiting for a spark. And there's a clock on that spark — called climate change. As the Earth warms, conditions for wildfires increase.