There is a new season in the west: fire season! We have always had wild fire in our landscapes but fires are now coming much earlier, burning hotter and often leaving catastrophic impacts. Like all living systems, it's not just one thing, but an interconnected and compounding set of environmental and social issues that are causing these fires to be so much worse than they were.
Fire season is now coming much earlier than it used to and fires are burning longer and hotter. These “catastrophic wildfires” are the result of an interconnected and compounding set of environmental and social issues: fire suppression in our parks; the extremes of clear-cutting to total “preservation” of forests without thinning; the dramatic change in climate caused by rising carbon dioxide in the atmosphere that has lead to warmer winters; dryer, hotter, longer summers; extended drought and the associated rise in pest-related infestations have left our forests diseased, dehydrated, overgrown and extremely fire-prone.
CITATIONS & STUDIES
Colorado Wildfire Map
A Drier Future Sets the Stage for More Wildfires NASA Global Climate Change
