Life Sciences Commons^™

Insights From Wildfire Science: A Resource For Fire Policy Discussions, Tania Schoennagel, Penny Morgan, Jennifer Balch, Philip Dennison, Brian Harvey, Richard L. Hutto, Meg Krawchuk, Max A. Moritz, Ray Rasker, Cathy Whitlock

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Record blazes swept across parts of the US in 2015, burning more than 10 million acres. The four biggest fire seasons since 1960 have all occurred in the last 10 years, leading to fears of a ‘new normal’ for wildfire. Fire fighters and forest managers are overwhelmed, and it is clear that the policy and management approaches of the past will not suffice under this new era of western wildfires. In recent decades, state and federal policymakers, tribes, and others are confronting longer fire seasons (Jolly et al. 2015), more large fires (Dennison et al. 2014), a tripling of homes …