The summer of 2020 was hot, even for Tucson. But even hotter were the flames hungrily advancing through the landscape of the Santa Catalina Mountains overlooking the city. The Bighorn Fire, named for the mountain on which it was ignited by a lightning strike, burned for several weeks. By the time it was fully contained, it had scorched no less than 119,978 acres.
It was not, however, this mountain range's first tango with wildfires—nor will it be the last.
"Just during this 20-year period, there's been a lot of fire activity in the Catalinas," says Professor Donald Falk, who serves as chair of Global Ecology & Management in the University of Arizona's School of Natural Resources and the Environment, with joint appointments in the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research and the Institute of the Environment.