Those seed balls making up the cotton are super flammable, but for a brief moment it isn't snowing or hailing or raining ash. It's just giving people allergic reactions (before the cotton snow when they release pollen first).
The bike trail is a great network between cities. I could ride it for several hours in either direction, mostly along protected waterways and through parks. Because of it, I can commute while watching blue herons and eagles nest above urban beaver wetlands that we use for flood control. The garden city is where 21st century urbanism begins.
Luckily I haven't seen a local fire from them yet. Most of them pile against the fences of ranches on degraded grasslands or get trapped in flammable shrubs like junipers that people love planting next to their houses. It's a million little Chekov's guns planted around for any bored teenager during a fire season so bad that we're already banning open flames and welding outdoors.