The number of wildfires in the western United States—and the land they demolish—has drastically increased since the 1980s, according to the American Geophysical Union
New research from the group shows that not only are fires becoming more frequent in the U.S., but the area burned by high-severity fires, defined as those that kill more than 95% of trees, is also increasing.
According to the study, warmer temperatures and drier conditions account for the uptick in wildfires, which have increased 8-fold from 1985 to 2017. The area burned by high-severity wildfires increased by more than 450,000 acres during this 40-year window.
The severity of these wildfires is affecting the trees that evolved to cope with low-intensity fires, causing even the most well-adapted species of trees to die out.
Sean Parks, a research ecologist who led the study, said, ‘One take home message is that fire severity is elevated in warmer and drier years in the western U.S., and we expect that climate change will result in even warmer and drier years in the future.’
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