Alex Dye

Hotter and more intense fires are likely coming to the Pacific Northwest’s cooler and wetter forests. That’s from new research led by an Oregon State University scientist. Comprehensive wildfire simulations for over a 23-million acre stretch of forest show that for a 30-year period beginning in 2035, Oregon’s western Cascades and Washington’s north Cascades – as well as the Puget Lowlands and Olympic Mountains – could see at least twice as much fire activity as seen in the last 30 years. “It’s time to start thinking about things that could counteract those climate effects,” said Alex Dye. He’s a research associate with OSU’s College of Forestry, and the lead author on the study published in the latest edition of JGR Biogeosciences. …Dye said that it can be challenging to assess fire probability in an environment where there isn’t much empirical information about the fire history to build models.