Recent Outbreak of Wildfires Ignites Study Linking Human Influence on Recent Trends

Recent outbreaks of massive wildfires across drought stricken areas of the United States have led to many questions about the causes and the future potential for this trend. New research, published in Journal of Biogeography has shed some light on the situation.

While wildfires on the Earth are a common occurrence, according to the National Science Foundation, the frequency of wildfires in the U.S. has more than quadrupled since the 1970s. Additionally the size of the affected area has increased by about 6 times.

This increase has resulted in an estimated annual cost of about $1.5 billion to combat the wildfires in this country. With the U.S. economy struggling, along with that of many other countries around the globe, the question becomes just how much of this is due to human activities, and could be prevented.

An international team of researchers is trying to answer that question. Their paper presents a new framework for considering wildfires based on the Earth’s pre-human fire history, ways that humans have historically used and managed fire and ways that they currently do so. “We need to look into the past to understand our current and future relationship with fire activity,” says Jennifer Balch of the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis.

This research emphasizes the importance of understanding the relative influences of climate, human ignition sources and cultural practices in particular environments in order to design sustainable fire management practices that protect human health, property and ecosystems.
More information available from University of California, Santa Barbara: http://www.ia.ucsb.edu/pa/display.aspx?pkey=2559