{"id":22765,"date":"2020-11-12T07:51:03","date_gmt":"2020-11-12T07:51:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=22765"},"modified":"2020-11-14T15:19:38","modified_gmt":"2020-11-14T15:19:38","slug":"well-see-more-fire-seasons-like-2020-heres-a-strategy-for-managing-our-nations-flammable-landscapes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/well-see-more-fire-seasons-like-2020-heres-a-strategy-for-managing-our-nations-flammable-landscapes\/","title":{"rendered":"We\u2019ll see more fire seasons like 2020 – here\u2019s a strategy for managing our nation\u2019s flammable landscapes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jennifer Balch<\/a>, University of Colorado Boulder<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

As of late fall, wildfires are still smoldering under snowfall in Colorado. I am hoping that the cold and snowy weather over the last few days will finally put to bed the 2020 fire season in my state. Through much of October, great pillars of smoke rose in the sky and ash rained down from at least four major fall wildfires, affecting millions in the urban corridors east of the Rocky Mountains.<\/p>\n

October wildfires are rare in Colorado, especially large ones that burn more than 1,000 acres. Only about a dozen that size have burned since 1984, out of 335 in the state over that period.<\/p>\n

This fall\u2019s major blazes are a signal of climate change in the here and now. And they\u2019re not the only such evidence in a record hot and dry 2020 fire season<\/a>, where states across the West are still putting out hot spots and mopping up the blazes<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Wildfires have shaped the Earth for hundreds of millions of years and play key roles in many of its ecosystems. And humans have used fire for landscape management for millennia. But we are just starting to understand our modern relationship with fire<\/a>. As a fire scientist<\/a> based in the West, I see reason for hope. By making changes now, I believe that we can help shape the types of fire we live with in the future.<\/p>\n

\"Satellite<\/a>
Smoke (brownish plume) from western wildfires (red dots) blows across the continental U.S. on Sept. 14, 2020.<\/span>
\nNASA<\/a><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Pathways to living with more fire<\/h2>\n

More than 8.7 million acres \u2013 an area larger than the state of Maryland \u2013 have burned across the U.S. just in 2020. Tens of millions of people have suffered from the resulting toxic smoke<\/a>. Hundreds of thousands have been forced to evacuate<\/a> in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Thousands of homes<\/a> have burned to the ground, and dozens of people have lost their lives<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The science is clear: Earth\u2019s warming climate has doubled the area in western U.S. forests that has burned<\/a> since the 1980s. And this increase comes at a high price. The most devastating wildfires have caused US$76 billion in damage since 1980<\/a>, with most of those losses occurring in the past 20 years. And the 2020 fire season isn\u2019t over yet.<\/p>\n

Fire is responding quickly to climate change, so humans need to respond faster. Based on my own research and work by others, here are six pathways that I believe will help the U.S. get ahead of its wildfire crisis.<\/p>\n

    \n
  • Build better. Across the U.S., tens of millions of homes have been built in the wildland-urban interface<\/a>, where development runs up against forests, shrublands and grasslands. These communities need to retrofit flammable homes and build new ones that are fire-resistant<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    Mapping zones where fire is likely in a changing climate is critical. Just as the Federal Emergency Management Agency produces maps of flood-prone areas<\/a>, the U.S. needs national firescape maps<\/a>, coupled with national policies to guide development and insurance decisions.<\/p>\n