amarcozzi

Good question and unfortunately I don't know the answer to that. I haven't heard of it being an issue, but it doesn't mean that it's not a problem by us. I tend to see more concerns raised with the impact of retardent drops on watersheds.

Former wildland firefighter (used to work on a hotshot crew) turned wildfire researcher here. Feel free to reach out with questions.

When I worked for the U.S. Forest Service I strongly believed in expanding wilderness designations in the United States. There's something so compelling about the idea of supporting and conserving wild and untrammeled landscapes. I'd hazard that most Americans have never heard of the Wilderness Act of 1964 and think of the term "wilderness" as a vague description of a landscape characteristic rather than a rigid set of legal protections, and I bet that even fewer understand the scope of how many acres of land fall under these protections. It can be intoxicating to be in the know, and there are few things as satisfying as disappearing into the backcountry for a week or two and truly finding refuge from modern life.

But, the author is fundamentally correct about the relationship between humans and natural areas. The untrammeled nature of officially designated wilderness areas is a myth. The degree of trammeling of course varies by area and over time, but it's there no matter where you look. To the extent that we continue to put stock in this concept of "untrammeled by man", we do a disservice to the history and continued existence of indigenous Americans. Also, we needlessly hamstring our own management actions which compound into real threats on the very thing the act set out to protect. Increasingly I think to myself "no more wilderness" and advocate for proposed wilderness study areas to have a management designation more closely aligned with their intended use: National Recreation Areas.

I paused at the name because there was a great scientist and engineer named Frank Albini in the field of wildfire science. Lo and behold Steve Albini was the son of said Frank Albini. I haven't heard of Steve Albini before, and I'm not familiar with his music, but he clearly had an enormous impact. I just thought that it was interesting that both father and son could leave behind such a large legacy in their respective endeavors.

Thank you!

What resources did you use to learn modern Fortran? I'd like to some something similar in order to better understand the code base for a popular fire model, and would appreciate any advice.