Environmental CommissionSept. 14, 2026

20260914-002, Wildfire Symposium Summary Part 1 — original pdf

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March 2023 Aerial Photo Barton Creek Greenbelt west of Mopac Wildfire remains October 2025 by Nico Hauwert Justice Jones Austin Fire Dept 2024 talk (https://youtu.be/aRCwN_fdFWM?list=PLLf4G2eXDF-5Rke2Ixjdo3DC7tcxdaIKo) Sept 15, 2023 Message from Nico Hauwert to Mayor Kirk Watson regarding City plan to expand tree clearing, prescribed burning and pesticides on parkland, including unacknowledged Balcones Canyonlands Conservation Plan endangered species permit. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1DADSz42NhCD3Eoe0AGlpJKEITivvFm99/view?usp=sharing Jan. 26, 2025 Nico Hauwert Wildfire Comments to Mayor and City Council https://drive.google.com/file/d/1vPBQ9ROr0Pd-jb6Dq6UWxkvk6jZ72MAR/view?usp=sharing 2023 Wildfire Assessment report on Bright Leaf Preserve with Austin Fire Dept. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-TgjTQFdllJSqXUoEvngbvpc9Mwi9PIV/view?usp=sharing Redman, C.1999. Human Impact on Ancient Environments. University of Arizona Press.240 p. Aronson, James L. Hailemichael, Million, Savin, Samuel M.. 2008. Hominid environments at Hadar from paleosol studies in a framework of Ethiopian climate change: Journal of Human Evolution V 55 p 532–550. Levin, N. E., Brown, F. H., Behrensmeyer, A. K., Bobe, R. & Cerling, T. E. 2011. Paleosol carbonates from the Omo Group: Isotopic records of local and regional environmental change in East Africa. Palaeogeogr. Palaeoclimatol. Palaeoecol. doi:10.1016/j.palaeo.2011.04.026. Wright DK (2017) Humans as Agents in the Termination of the African Humid Period. Front. Earth Sci. 5:4. doi: 10.3389/feart.2017.00004 Hughes, Donald J. 1975. Ecology in Ancient Civilizations. The University of New Mexico Press. 181 p. Ehrlich, Ann and Erhich Paul. 1980. Ecoscience: The Greeks and Romans did it too! Mother Earth News. https://www.motherearthnews.com/nature-and-environment/greeks-and-romans-zmaz80mjzraw The land was the best in the world…Many great deluges have taken place during the nine thousand years, .. there has never been any considerable accumulation of the soil coming down from the mountains, as in other places, but the earth has fallen away all round and sunk out of sight. The consequence is, that in comparison of what then was, there are remaining only the bones of the wasted body..all the richer and softer parts of the soil having fallen away, and the mere skeleton of the land being left. But in the primitive state of the country, its mountains were high hills covered with soil, and the plains, as they are termed by us, of Phelleus were full of rich earth, and there was abundance of wood in the mountains. Of this last the traces still remain, for although some of the mountains now only afford sustenance to bees, not so very long ago there were still to be seen roofs of timber cut from trees growing there, which were of a size sufficient to cover the largest houses; and there were many other high trees, cultivated by man and bearing abundance of food for cattle. Moreover, the land reaped the benefit of the annual rainfall, not as now losing the water which flows off the bare earth into the sea, but, having an abundant supply in all places, and receiving it into herself and treasuring it up in the close clay soil, it let off into the hollows the streams which it absorbed from the heights, providing everywhere abundant fountains and rivers, of which there may still be observed sacred memorials in places where fountains once existed. Plato, 360 B.C.E, Critias. Translated by Benjamin Jowett http://classics.mit.edu//Plato/critias.html Smith, Helena; Jones, Sam; Farrer, Martin, 2018. Greece wildfires:scores dead as holiday resort devastated: The Guardian July 24, 2018, available from: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jul/23/greeks-urged-to-leave-homes-as-wildfires-spread-near-athens Smith, Helen. 2007. Fires sweep Greece turning villages to ash and killing 46: The Guardian. Available from: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/aug/26/greece o Angkor Civilization of modern Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam experienced large urban population associated with massive deforestation and soil loss, followed by prolonged drought and civilization collapsed between 1300-1500 CE Penny, Dan and Beach Tim. 2021. Historical socioecological transformations in the global tropics as an Anthropocene analogue: PNAS 2021 Vol. 118 No. 40 e2022211118. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2022211118 US Virgin Forests (green) Greely W.B.1925. The relation of geography to timber supply. Economic Geography v 1 p 1-14. https://journalcopernicus.eco/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/TheRelationOfGeographyToTimberSupply_1925.pdf