Wildfires

Longer wildfire seasons can blanket communities in smoke. Summer heat records continue to rise. Drought remains a persistent concern for water supplies, agriculture and ecosystems.

Researchers looked at more than 750,000 wildfires in the West between 1992 and 2020. In the second half of that period, the number of reported wildfires were down by 31%, but acreage burned was up 40%.

Wildfire risk is rising across the West after a dry winter and ongoing drought left vegetation more vulnerable to fire. Now, researchers at the University of Nevada, Reno are putting about $3.5 million in federal funding to work on a project aimed at reducing that risk in the eastern Sierra Nevada.

The Colorado River Wildfire Collaborative hired a program manager to raise funds for mitigation work between Glenwood Springs and De Beque. That region is one of the most fire-prone in the state, and has lacked the resources to address the risk.

The Mountain West News Bureau’s wildfire reporter Murphy Woodhouse recently spoke at length with Chief Brian Fennessy, the inaugural head of the Department of Interior’s U.S. Wildland Fire Service. A major theme of their conversation was firefighter health and well-being.

Arizona, New Mexico, Idaho and Wyoming have no statewide wildfire building codes. Colorado adopted a code last year, with enforcement expected to begin this year. Most other Western states are somewhere in between.

At night, temperatures are often cooler and the air is wetter, which gives wildland firefighters a long window to make up significant ground when trying to suppress blazes. But that pattern is breaking down, a trend driven by human-caused climate change, according to a new study.

One of the studies found that over seven recent years, U.S. Forest Service projects helped communities avoid $2.8 billion in fire-related harm.

The Dragon Bravo fire burned about 145,000 acres. Some businesses and trails are now back open.

Fire weather days are different than fire season. They are increasing due to climate change.