Region Archives: United States

CALIFORNIA — Not all forest fires have devastating effects. Low- and moderate-severity forest wildfires can reduce the intensity of future conflagrations for as long as 20 years in certain climates, according to new research by the University of California, Davis. The extent of reduced severity of these second fires, or reburns, and the duration of the moderating effect, varies by climate, forest type and other factors. But initial fires continue to mitigate future severity even during extreme weather, such as wind, high temperatures and drought, research published in the journal Ecological Applications finds. The researchers used satellite remote sensing to study more than 700 reburn fires over the past 50 years throughout the western United States. The findings shed light on the positive effect some of these blazes can have on forest resilience and could play a key role in helping land managers decide where to focus risk reduction efforts while adapting to a changing climate.

The second in an series Inside Climate News fellow Bing Lin is reporting from the Pacific Crest Trail in Northern California. The series is exploring the impacts of climate change on the trail and what outdoor recreation can teach society about sustainability, adaptation and coexistence in a warming world. …Hugh Safford was the U.S. Forest Service’s regional ecologist for California, Hawaii and the Pacific territories for 21 years, up until his retirement in 2021. At 61, he’s also still an adjunct professor at the University of California, Davis, running a lab researching vegetation and fire ecology and management. …“These forests here,” Safford said, pointing through the windshield to the left, “they’re adapted to very frequent wildfires but haven’t had them for 100 years. And that’s the single biggest management issue out here. They’re way too dense, there’s way too much competition, and as a result, there’s a crazy amount of mortality. 

The giant Sequoia tree is endangered as longer fire seasons and droughts continue to play a part in its decline. Now, the Wilbur D. May Arboretum acts as a place where a few of these trees can stay safe from wildfires. The trees arrived when the arboretum opened nearly 40 years ago. The plan is that if Sequoias in the Sierra Nevada are wiped out by fires, these ones will be used to bring them back. “It’s important that they are genetically pure. They’re specific to Kings Canyon in case there is a wildfire, so they have a place to come to gain seeds for the reseeding of that area if a forest fire were to hit that area,” says Frances Munoz, Executive Director for the May Arboretum Society. …They are kept here because it’s very unlikely that a wildfire could make its way to the arboretum.

A rare August thunderstorm brought upwards of an inch of rain and 3,379 lightning strikes to Oregon on Saturday, according to the National Weather Service. The storm, which brought moisture in from the Gulf of Alaska, doused the entire western half of the state with at least a quarter inch of rain. Some locations in the Cascade Foothills and High Cascades saw over an inch of rain, meteorologists said. …“It’s not the type of event that we typically see at this point in August,” NWS meteorologist Jon Liu said. The heavy and widespread rain will slow the wildfires burning in Oregon’s Cascade Range. …Oregon actually ended up with three times as many lightning strikes as the storm in July that ignited many of the fires currently burning in the Cascade Range. The difference this time was the amount of rain doused flames before they could get rolling.

LAKE TAHOE, Nevada — As the American West grapples with an unprecedented wildfire crisis, a sobering reality emerges: our approach to forest management is not just flawed, but potentially catastrophic. The concept of using fire to fight fire, once hailed as innovative, now stands as a testament to our hubris in the face of nature’s raw power. August 14, 2024, marked the third anniversary of the Caldor Fire, a devastating blaze that serves as a grim reminder of our misguided policies. This inferno, which destroyed over 1,000 homes in mere hours, is not an isolated incident but a symptom of a larger, systemic problem in forest management strategies. The Caldor Fire’s destructive path echoes a similar tragedy from a century earlier. In August 1923, another fire in the same area devastated the California Door Company’s lumber operation. This eerie repetition of history underscores a crucial point: our failure to learn from past mistakes has dire consequences.

Pacific County Superior Court Judge Donald J. Richter last week rejected a lawsuit by anti-forestry groups claiming the Washington Department of Natural Resources (DNR) violated state laws in approving a timber sale in mature forest stands, also politically labeled as “legacy forests,” on public working forests known as state trust lands. This case on the Freedom Timber Sale is the first to reach the merits stage in a long line of nearly identical legal challenges by anti-forestry groups to other sales developed through DNR’s timber program… The ruling affirms the agency’s forest practices in managing these lands. Under the state constitution and law, DNR state trust lands are required to be managed to provide revenues to defined beneficiaries, which include public schools, local public safety agencies, and various community services. These public working forests also provide clean water, wildlife habitat, climate change mitigation and recreational opportunities.

CALIFORNIA – 2024 is shaping up to be another bad year for wildfires. As we scan the headlines each morning for news of the latest blaze, it’s important to focus on what we can do to increase the resistance of our forests to catastrophic wildfires. Prior to the colonial era, Indigenous tribes used fire to promote healthy forests for thousands of years. For example, studies have shown that the amount of forest biomass in the Klamath region used to be half of what it is now due to regular burning practices by the Karuk and Yurok tribes. What we often think of as untouched wilderness was in fact actively managed by Indigenous tribes, and the suppression of those cultural burns is largely what has caused the unhealthy conditions in Western forests today. …We can restore our forests to health by using techniques like controlled burning and mechanical thinning to clear out fuels. 

IDAHO — Wildfires have been burning across Idaho this summer, and their list of harmful impacts is long. But a recent U.S. Geological Survey has added another bad side effect to the list: the rise of a toxic chemical. The study sampled 57 streams at the beginning of river systems in Idaho, Oregon and Washington for mercury, a chemical that can damage the human nervous system at high concentrations. In both water and sediment from the streams, one-year post-fire, mercury concentrations were higher. Concentrations of methylmercury, the most toxic form of mercury, were also 178% higher in water from burned streams. Insects that filtered stream water or ate debris also had higher levels. The compound becomes dangerous as it accumulates in animals over time, according to the WHO. “There hasn’t been a lot of work done on the effects of wildfire on mercury,” Austin Baldwin, a USGS research hydrologist who led the study.