So the scientific community is searching for the "why" behind the doubling of large fires since the 70s.
Issues of concern to people who live in the west: property rights, water rights, endangered species, livestock grazing, energy production, wilderness and western agriculture. Plus a few items on western history, western literature and the sport of rodeo... Frank DuBois served as the NM Secretary of Agriculture from 1988 to 2003. DuBois is a former legislative assistant to a U.S. Senator, a Deputy Assistant Secretary of Interior, and is the founder of the DuBois Rodeo Scholarship.
Tuesday, September 18, 2012
Study: Western wildfires burning bigger, season lasting longer
The number of wildfires larger than a thousand acres has doubled
across much of the West since the 1970s and the trend doesn’t show any
signs of slowing, according to a new climate study. Over the past
decade, the average annual burn has been at least 2 million acres on
U.S. Forest Service land, according to records studied by the research
group Climate Central. That’s a scar the size of Yellowstone National
Park. In addition, the West’s forest fire season has extended by 75 days
compared to 40 years ago. “We’re seeing a clear change, with
bigger fires starting earlier, showing longer fire durations,” Jennifer
Marlon of the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies said in a
conference call arranged by Climate Central. “The scientific community
is actively searching the ‘why.’ But the mechanics connecting climates
and fire are quite clear. Warmer temperatures, especially in the spring,
lead to early snow melt, a wider window for fuels to dry out and a
longer window for ignitions to start.” “The Age of Western
Wildfires” study published Tuesday reviews forest fire records of the
past 42 years in 11 Western states, including Montana. It found that
compared to the 1970s, there were seven times as many fires that burned
at least 10,000 acres annually and five times as many that grew beyond
25,000 acres. Where the ’70s averaged fewer than 50 fires larger than
1,000 acres a year, those Western states had more than 100 on average
between 2002 and 2011...more
So the scientific community is searching for the "why" behind the doubling of large fires since the 70s.
Here are two of the major reasons: NEPA - 1969, ESA - 1972.
So the scientific community is searching for the "why" behind the doubling of large fires since the 70s.
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