Coming to Grips With the Future of Wildfires

Bob Berwyn shares news of a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that suggests new methods for fighting and preventing wildfires will be necessary in a future defined by climate change.

Based on research in Colorado and California, "the Forest Service and other agencies simply won’t be able to keep up with bigger and longer-lasting fires unless they adopt a new, forward-looking attitude and different strategies to prepare for wildfires in the era of global warming," explains Berwyn.

Specifically, "instead of trying to fight every fire or thin vast areas in futile prevention efforts, the Forest Service should focus on protecting communities and limiting new development in fire-prone areas, while letting some fires — even large — burn, which will help Western landscapes adapt to climate change in the decades ahead."

Berwyn provides more detail on the study, by researchers at the Institute for Alpine and Arctic Research at the University of Colorado-Boulder, while referencing examples of unsustainable practices currently used to battle and prevent wildfires.

The findings connecting land use regulations to wildfire prevention, by restricting development and sprawl, echo a 2016 report from the Open Spaces Initiative at the University of Wyoming.