[MCN] 3 recent takes on whether wildfire risk to forests is real

[Matthew Koehler]

Hello,

I'd just like to point out the fact that 2015 was NOT the "Biggest Year
Ever for US Wildfires." Not even close.

This claim has been widely reported by is entirely false. Under the Bush II
administration, the U.S. Forest Service and other federal government
agencies largely purged all records, info and stats about wildfire acres
burned in the U.S. from the period before 1960.

For example, see this chart from the U.S. Forest Service which we managed
to locate in an official USFS document that is still available on-line.

[image: Inline image 1]

In 1930 and 1931, over 50 million acres burned each year in the U.S. and
during the 10 year (hot and dry) period from the late 1920's to the late
1930's an average of 30 million acres burned every year in the U.S.
Additionally, according to the 2001 National Fire Plan an average of 145
million acres burned annually in the pre-industrial, conterminous U.S.

It's also worth pointing out that of the 10.1 million acres that burned in
the entire U.S. during 2015, a very large percentage of the wildfires
occurred in Alaska, much of it over tundra or in places where the federal
government doesn't engage in active or aggressive fire suppression.

I obviously agree that climate change is real and happening; however, I'd
caution people from 1) claiming that 10.1 million acres burned in the
entire U.S. is a 'record' and 2) using wildfires in general as 'proof' of
climate change. The fact is we have much less fire across the landscape in
the United States than we had during the pre-WW 2 era, and certainly
dramatically less than what burned historically during pre-industrial
times.

Thanks.

- Matthew Koehler
WildWest Institute.
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