Wilder than Wild movie and panel discussion at Taylor Creek Friday

Event Date: 
June 28, 2019 - 7:00pm

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - Wilder Than Wild: Fires, Forest and the Future will be shown at the Taylor Creek Visitor Center amphitheater on Friday, June 28 from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. Besides the free showing of the film there will be a panel discussion that includes forest management experts, public land management agencies, local fire districts, local law enforcement, Tahoe Network of Fire Adapted Communities, Liberty Utilities and more.

Four years in the making, this one-hour documentary reveals how fire suppression and climate change have exposed our forests and wildland-urban landscapes to large, high-intensity wildfires - and explores strategies to mitigate the impact of these fires.

There is much at stake. Landscapes that store water and carbon, produce oxygen, and feed and shelter a diversity of wildlife are at risk. "We are losing forests at a rate which is causing them to be a contributor to the problem of global warming,” says Mary Nichols, Chair of the California Air Resources Board. According to fire historian Stephen Pyne, “Forests should be renewable, but with climate change and all the other problems going with it, we could see a large-scale conversion of forest – the equivalent of clearing it.”

Highlighting these issues with personal experience, filmmaker Kevin White takes us on a journey from the Rim Fire of 2013, which burned 257,000 acres in the central Sierra, to the wine country wildfires of 2017, which destroyed 9,000 buildings and killed 44 people. Along the way, we learn how the proactive use of prescribed fire can reduce reliance on reactive fire suppression, we see a California tribe renew their tradition of cultural fire, and we meet stakeholder groups working with scientists and resource managers to build consensus on how to restore and manage the lands we love and depend on.

The Taylor Creek Visitor Center can be found three miles north of the Y in South Lake Tahoe. The entrance is north of Camp Richardson and is marked by a sign.

It gets chilly so bring a jacket and/or blanket.