Wildfire

Think of the phrase 'The Wildfire Crisis.' What comes to mind? Is it walls of flame marching through pine forests, laying siege to mountain towns? Recent research highlights a different and under-appreciated risk: fast fires racing through dry grass and brush – threatening neighborhoods.

The idea of a linear fuel break, or LFB, is pretty straightforward: by clearing grass or other fuel along fire-prone roads, or planting fire-resistant vegetation, you can slow the spread of wildfire. New research suggests they may save more money than they cost to install and maintain.

Wildfire has numerous consequences for the West and, with many statehouses now in session, lawmakers across the region are trying to respond. Now there's a new tool to track reform efforts.

When the conditions are right, land managers sometimes allow naturally ignited fires to burn. And new research shows that there can be significant ecological benefits when they do so.

The Department of the Interior (DOI) has formally announced the establishment of the U.S. Wildland Fire Service (USWFS), a development that came the same week that the U.S. Congress declined to fund it.

As wildfires get more intense, there are questions about how effective prescribed fire and other fuel treatments can be. New research suggests that they can still have real impacts.

The tragic Los Angeles fires were a historically destructive disaster, but they also presented a unique opportunity to study the toxic exposures faced by firefighters. New findings point to a heightened risk for serious diseases like lupus.

Wildfires have grown substantially in size in recent decades, but they’re also burning much more intensely, with high severity areas growing much faster than fires overall. New research projects additional significant jumps in the scale of wildfires that kill most trees unless major management measures - like prescribed fire - are carried out.

Over the summer, an executive order from President Trump called for the consolidation of federal wildfire programs "to the maximum degree practicable." The secretaries of Interior and Agriculture recently released their plans responding to that and other demands – and they've garnered praise and criticism.

The federal grants are focused on reducing risk in areas where people live near forests.