Fire

WILDFIRESWildfires Are Still Catching Us Off-Guard. Congress’ Plan to Fix That Isn’t Going Anywhere.
By Chad Small
Last year, during a Congressional hearing on the state of wildfire research, researchers and fire managers said that coordination among federal agencies to improve wildfire research would be tremendously helpful to prepare for future fires. But the proposal to connect federal research agencies and improve wildfire research crashed and burned.
- Read more
WILDFIRESCalifornia's 2020 Wildfire Season
2020 was a record-breaking fire year for California. Nearly 9,900 wildfires burned 4.3 million acres in California 2020, twice the previous record. 2020 was the first year acres burned came close to burn rates before Euro-American settlement. A new study calls for management shift to reduce fire severity, not acres burned.
- Read more

WILDFIRESGuidance for Holistic Home and Community Wildfire Protection
Once they have a foothold, severe wildfires can quickly overwhelm a community, particularly one that is densely packed. To shield houses against such a fierce threat, a thorough defense is key.
- Read more
WILDFIRESHow Our Bushfire-Proof House Design Could Help People Flee Rather Than Risk Fighting the Flames
By Deborah Ascher Barnstone
Building houses better at withstanding the impacts of climate change is one way we can protect ourselves in the face of future catastrophic conditions. I’m part of a research team that developed a novel, bushfire-resistant house design, which won an international award last month.
- Read more

WILDFIRESPredictive Models of Wildfire Behavior
New partnership will work to Advance fire research capabilities to help support the work of fire-, land-, and emergency managers.
- Read more
WILDFIRESMany Factors Influenced the Severity of Burns from Oregon's 2020 Megafires
In early September 2020, severe winds, high heat, and prolonged drought conditions led to the explosive growth of wildfires along the western slopes of the Cascades Mountains in the Pacific Northwest. New research confirms that extreme winds over the Labor Day holiday were the primary driver of the destructive force of the fires yet demonstrates how forest vegetation structure (e.g., canopy height, the age of trees, etc.) and topography played a significant role in burn severity patterns.
- Read more

RAIN DAMAGEDrenching Rains Pose Greater Threat to Fire-Damaged Areas in West
Areas in the western U.S. scarred by wildfires now face even more dangers: drenching rains. These rains inundate the burnt areas, causing significant destruction, including debris flows, mudslides, and flash floods, because the denuded landscape cannot easily contain the drenching moisture.
- Read more
WILDFIRESNew Wildfire Detection System Receives Funding Boost
The high intensity of the recent fire seasons in Oregon, coupled with the increasing wildfire risk this year as approximately three-quarters of the state is now in severe drought conditions, has highlighted how critical a new project, aiming to help with the early detection and monitoring of wildfires, is — both for firefighters and the general public.
- Read more

WILDFIRESHow a Hurricane Fueled Wildfires in the Florida Panhandle
By David Godwin
The wildfires that broke out in the Florida Panhandle in early March 2022 were the nightmare fire managers had feared since the day Hurricane Michael flattened millions of trees there in 2018. It might sound odd – hurricanes helping to fuel wildfires. But Michael’s 160 mph winds left tangles of dead trees that were ready to burn.
- Read more
WILDEFIRESNumber of Wildfires to Rise by 50% by 2100 and Governments Are Not Prepared
Even the Arctic, previously all but immune, faces rising wildfire risk, experts say. Wildfires and climate change are “mutually exacerbating.” Governments are called to radically shift their investments in wildfires to focus on prevention and preparedness.
- Read more

WILDFIRESHotter, Drier Nights Mean More Runaway Fires
Thanks to the warming climate, the potential for more severe nighttime wildfires is increasing, and warmer nights mean firefighters will not be able to rely on cooler temperatures to help them get a handle on fires, a new study shows.
- Read more
WILDFIRESIdentifying “Double-Hazard” Zones for Wildfire in the West
Rapidly growing communities in the American West’s forests and shrublands are nestled in zones where local soil and plant traits amplify the effect of climate change on wildfire hazards and lead to bigger burns.
- Read more

WILDFIRESNew Federal Wildfire Plan Is Ambitious – but the Forest Service Needs More Money and People to Fight the Growing Risks
By Ryan E. Tompkins and Susan Kocher
As foresters who have been working on wildfire and forest restoration issues in the Sierra Nevada for over a quarter of a century, the main lesson we gather from how wildfires have burned is that fuels reduction and forest restoration projects are our best tools for mitigating wildfire impacts amid a changing climate, and not nearly enough of them are being done.
- Read more
CLIMATE CHALLENGESControlled Burning of Natural Environments Could Help Offset Carbon Emissions
Planting trees and suppressing wildfires do not necessarily maximize the carbon storage of natural ecosystems. A new study has found that prescribed burning can actually lock in or increase carbon in the soils of temperate forests, savannahs and grasslands.
- Read more
WILDFIRESIncreasingly Frequent Wildfires Linked to Human-Caused Climate Change: Study
New research strengthens the case that climate change has been the main cause of the growing amount of land in the western U.S. that has been destroyed by large wildfires over the past two decades.
- Read more

More headlines