Since 1980, fires have gotten significantly larger and more severe across California and the western United States, vastly increasing the amount of destruction they cause. With lives, communities, natural resources, and billions of dollars worth of property hanging in the balance, why this is happening and the most important causes to address have become a hot-button issue for leaders in academia, government, and business. Many have focused on individual causes such as land management or climate change, but the answer is more complicated.
To better inform the debate, wildfire experts from 15 universities, research institutes and government agencies authored a paper — published in the International Journal of Wildland Fire — that synthesizes the latest research on wildfires and their causes. The paper’s authors examined climate data, land cover changes, historical land management, fire suppression, and changing environments and ecosystems. “We’re getting hotter, drier air that makes fires easier to start,” MacDonald said. “It makes the fuel much drier and the fires spread faster. They’re more intense, and they’re more difficult to fight.”
