Wildfires have grown substantially in size in recent decades, but theyโre 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.
High severity wildfires present major threats to ecosystems, including the loss of forested lands, according to a recent study published in the journal Global Change Biology.
โWithout a substantial expansion of management activities that effectively reduce fire severity, wildfires will increasingly drive forest loss and degrade ecosystem services including carbon storage, biodiversity conservation, and water yield, with major impacts to human communities,โ the study reads.
Since the mid-1980s, the number of forested acres burned annually by wildfires has grown by roughly tenfold. But lead author Sean Parks says that the area burned by high-severity blazes โ those that kill all or most trees โ grew even faster: fifteen-fold.
