<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><h1 class="m_-3186887846589617352page-title" style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-family: 'Playfair Display', serif; line-height: 1.333;"><font size="4" class="">Longer, Fiercer Fire Seasons the New Normal with Climate Change</font></h1><div style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: 'Open Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><h2 class="m_-3186887846589617352page-subtitle" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.333; font-variant-ligatures: normal;"><span class="m_-3186887846589617352field-name-field-subtitle m_-3186887846589617352field-label-hidden m_-3186887846589617352field-type-text m_-3186887846589617352field" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 15px;">Dry spells are getting drier in the West as temperatures rise, creating a greater risk of wildfires.</span></h2><div class=""><span class="m_-3186887846589617352field-name-field-subtitle m_-3186887846589617352field-label-hidden m_-3186887846589617352field-type-text m_-3186887846589617352field" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 15px;"><a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/author/georgina-gustin" target="_blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=https://insideclimatenews.org/author/georgina-gustin&source=gmail&ust=1499895810898000&usg=AFQjCNEeMHJsNTq-W0iliOgyFe6GDu58dg" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-transform: uppercase; box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none;" class=""><span style="box-sizing: inherit;" class="">BY </span>GEORGINA GUSTIN</a></span></div><div class="m_-3186887846589617352entry-meta" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 15px; font-variant-ligatures: normal;"><div class="m_-3186887846589617352view m_-3186887846589617352view-article-authors m_-3186887846589617352view-display-id-article_authors_vert m_-3186887846589617352view-dom-id-4fa093d90d3102ec1dec67339a8a34c7 m_-3186887846589617352view-id-article_authors m_-3186887846589617352article-authors-vert" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><div class="m_-3186887846589617352view-content" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><div class="m_-3186887846589617352author-small" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><div class="m_-3186887846589617352author-pic" style="box-sizing: inherit; float: left; width: 50px; margin-right: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; border-radius: 50%;"><a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/author/georgina-gustin" class="m_-3186887846589617352author-bg" target="_blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=https://insideclimatenews.org/author/georgina-gustin&source=gmail&ust=1499895810898000&usg=AFQjCNEeMHJsNTq-W0iliOgyFe6GDu58dg" style="color: rgb(131, 190, 68); box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; border-radius: 50%; display: block; width: 50px; height: 50px; text-indent: 100%; white-space: nowrap; overflow: hidden; background-position: center center; background-repeat: no-repeat; background-size: cover; background-image: url("");">Georgina Gus</a></div></div></div></div></div></div><div style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: 'Open Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/11072017/wildfire-forest-fire-climate-change-california" target="_blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=https://insideclimatenews.org/news/11072017/wildfire-forest-fire-climate-change-california&source=gmail&ust=1499895810898000&usg=AFQjCNGMpSCmeeoc1p3rSefRtimUHJBSqg" style="color: rgb(17, 85, 204);" class="">https://insideclimatenews.org/<wbr class="">news/11072017/wildfire-forest-<wbr class="">fire-climate-change-california</a></div><div style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: 'Open Sans', sans-serif; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-size: 15px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="font-family: 'Open Sans', sans-serif; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-size: 15px;" class="">Firefighters in the West are starting to see it every year: an earlier start to the fire season and millions of acres of forest and range burned or ablaze as the summer just begins to heat up.</div><div style="font-family: 'Open Sans', sans-serif; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-size: 15px;" class=""><span style="box-sizing: inherit;" class=""><br class=""></span></div><div style="font-family: 'Open Sans', sans-serif; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-size: 15px;" class=""><span id="m_-3186887846589617352docs-internal-guid-65f48a11-2e9c-6f13-5557-816fb00f2cfb" style="box-sizing: inherit;" class="">At least </span><a href="https://fsapps.nwcg.gov/#" target="_blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=https://fsapps.nwcg.gov/%23&source=gmail&ust=1499895810898000&usg=AFQjCNGx1sVpv1hqMxA-p_04SlUGeRMayQ" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold;" class="">60 large blazes</a> are currently devouring parts of the West, threatening to make 2017 a record-breaking wildfire year and adding to the <a href="https://www.nifc.gov/nicc/sitreprt.pdf" target="_blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=https://www.nifc.gov/nicc/sitreprt.pdf&source=gmail&ust=1499895810898000&usg=AFQjCNF1Zgn1wLpFfkleEpCrrngJsCkvZg" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold;" class="">3.4 million acres</a> already burned this year. As early as April, wildfires had scorched more than 2 million acres in the United States—nearly the average consumed in <a href="https://www.nifc.gov/fireInfo/fireInfo_stats_totalFires.html" target="_blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=https://www.nifc.gov/fireInfo/fireInfo_stats_totalFires.html&source=gmail&ust=1499895810898000&usg=AFQjCNFYqOG8x2gozF-uLMOvY1THZ94i2A" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold;" class="">entire fire seasons</a> during the 1980s. At least 20 new, large fires have ignited in the West in the last few days, forcing thousands of people from their homes.</div><p style="font-family: 'Open Sans', sans-serif; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-size: 15px; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;" class="">"All the wildfires out West at the moment—it's exploding," said Kevin Trenberth, a climate scientist in the climate analysis section of the National Center for Atmospheric Research. "It was the same last July, with fires all the way up to Alaska."</p><p style="font-family: 'Open Sans', sans-serif; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-size: 15px; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;" class=""><span id="m_-3186887846589617352docs-internal-guid-65f48a11-2e9c-6f13-5557-816fb00f2cfb" style="box-sizing: inherit;" class="">Forest ecologists and climate scientists say this is the new normal—what the fire historian </span><a href="http://www.stephenpyne.com/bio.htm" target="_blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=http://www.stephenpyne.com/bio.htm&source=gmail&ust=1499895810898000&usg=AFQjCNGzqloBytdOMEvjvCr7V6n7h7N8dw" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold;" class="">Stephen Pyne</a> has called the "pyrocene"—and recent research has solidly linked it to human activity. A <a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/113/42/11770.abstract" target="_blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=http://www.pnas.org/content/113/42/11770.abstract&source=gmail&ust=1499895810898000&usg=AFQjCNGs2rMxLEAPtGRxkjt3OvRvdfoHgQ" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold;" class="">study last year</a> found that human-caused <a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/topic/climate-change" target="_blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=https://insideclimatenews.org/topic/climate-change&source=gmail&ust=1499895810898000&usg=AFQjCNF2iCUPF289W57mjpYnl6v88zJgpw" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold;" class="">climate change</a> had nearly doubled the amount of forest burned in the West since 1984.</p><p style="font-family: 'Open Sans', sans-serif; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-size: 15px; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;" class="">"Dry periods are getting drier, and the risk of wildfire is greater as a consequence of climate change," Trenberth said. "There's a tremendous amount of fuel out there waiting for the right conditions. Whatever conditions exists, they're always exacerbated by climate change. There's always that heat variable, the increased risk."</p><div class="m_-3186887846589617352media-image_right_medium m_-3186887846589617352media m_-3186887846589617352media-element-container" style="font-family: 'Open Sans', sans-serif; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-size: 15px; box-sizing: inherit; max-width: 100%; float: right; margin: 0.25em 0px 0.25em 1.5em; width: 266.375px;"><figure id="m_-3186887846589617352file-268821" class="m_-3186887846589617352file-image-png m_-3186887846589617352file m_-3186887846589617352file-image" style="box-sizing: inherit; max-width: 100%; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><div class="m_-3186887846589617352content" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/sites/default/files/styles/colorbox_full/public/MWildfiresUSWest20170711529px.png?itok=BKfA3MKj" class="m_-3186887846589617352init-colorbox-processed m_-3186887846589617352cboxElement m_-3186887846589617352colorbox" target="_blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=https://insideclimatenews.org/sites/default/files/styles/colorbox_full/public/MWildfiresUSWest20170711529px.png?itok%3DBKfA3MKj&source=gmail&ust=1499895810898000&usg=AFQjCNHkXKdDRZe5BRt0hD3PWZ_5HFzDsw" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold;"><font color="#000000" class=""><img alt="The largest Western wildfires on July 11, 2017" title="The largest Western wildfires on July 11, 2017" height="707" width="529" class="m_-3186887846589617352file-image-right-medium m_-3186887846589617352media-element" style="box-sizing: inherit; border: 0px; max-width: 100%; display: block; float: none; width: 266.375px; height: auto !important;"></font></a></div></figure></div><p style="font-family: 'Open Sans', sans-serif; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-size: 15px; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;" class=""><span id="m_-3186887846589617352docs-internal-guid-65f48a11-2e9c-6f13-5557-816fb00f2cfb" style="box-sizing: inherit;" class="">Dry conditions and drought have contributed to huge wildfire seasons over the past decade, including a record-breaking season in 2015 when over </span><a href="https://www.nifc.gov/fireInfo/fireInfo_stats_totalFires.html" target="_blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=https://www.nifc.gov/fireInfo/fireInfo_stats_totalFires.html&source=gmail&ust=1499895810898000&usg=AFQjCNFYqOG8x2gozF-uLMOvY1THZ94i2A" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold;" class="">10 million acres burned</a>.</p><p style="font-family: 'Open Sans', sans-serif; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-size: 15px; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;" class="">This year, relief appeared to come with heavy snows over the winter, which built up snowpack in the Rocky Mountains and Sierra Nevada, followed by rains this spring. But as temperatures heated up again this spring and summer, that relief may have actually made things worse.</p><p style="font-family: 'Open Sans', sans-serif; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-size: 15px; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;" class="">"There are wet times and dry times, but here's the thing: the wet times promote fuel growth, and the dry times increase your vulnerability to fire," said Tim Brown, director of the Western Regional Climate Center in Reno, Nevada. "This year is a great example of that. In the Great Basin [which covers much of the West], that very wet winter caused a tremendous amount of cheatgrass, sagebrush and rabbitbrush. That's all available to burn now."</p><h3 style="font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-size: 1.5rem; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; padding: 0px; font-family: 'Playfair Display', serif; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.333;" class="">Fire season gets costlier, not just in the West</h3><p dir="ltr" style="font-family: 'Open Sans', sans-serif; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-size: 15px; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;" class=""><span id="m_-3186887846589617352docs-internal-guid-65f48a11-2e9c-6f13-5557-816fb00f2cfb" style="box-sizing: inherit;" class="">The expanded fire season stretches from early spring to late fall, and in some areas, even longer. The length of the season, along with bigger, more intense fires, is taxing budgets.</span></p><p style="font-family: 'Open Sans', sans-serif; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-size: 15px; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;" class=""><span id="m_-3186887846589617352docs-internal-guid-65f48a11-2e9c-6f13-5557-816fb00f2cfb" style="box-sizing: inherit;" class="">The U.S. Forest Service, which is under the U.S. Department of Agriculture, dedicated half of its budget to fighting fires in 2015, exceeding 50 percent </span><a href="https://www.fs.fed.us/sites/default/files/2015-Fire-Budget-Report.pdf" target="_blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=https://www.fs.fed.us/sites/default/files/2015-Fire-Budget-Report.pdf&source=gmail&ust=1499895810898000&usg=AFQjCNEbYnB9ImQpQX5hFKeO93fIPCa4hw" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold;" class="">for the first time</a> in its 112-year history. Former Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack joked that it should be called the "Fire Service."</p><p style="font-family: 'Open Sans', sans-serif; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-size: 15px; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;" class="">In the West, they used to talk about a fire season," Trenberth said. "The fire season used to be 60 days, then 90 days, and now they think it's year-round. There's no pause."</p><p style="font-family: 'Open Sans', sans-serif; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-size: 15px; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;" class=""><span id="m_-3186887846589617352docs-internal-guid-65f48a11-2e9c-6f13-5557-816fb00f2cfb" style="box-sizing: inherit;" class="">The mountainous West isn't the only area that's becoming increasingly vulnerable. Earlier this year, nearly 1.6 million acres of forest and grassland burned in the </span><a href="https://gacc.nifc.gov/sacc/" target="_blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=https://gacc.nifc.gov/sacc/&source=gmail&ust=1499895810898000&usg=AFQjCNFrxJ_D-OvSEecyRfvv1MhaF9XYKQ" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold;" class="">Plains and the Southeast</a>, across Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Florida and the Carolinas.</p><p style="font-family: 'Open Sans', sans-serif; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-size: 15px; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;" class="">Those blazes came on the heels of an already bad 2016 in the Southeast, where hundreds of thousand of acres burned across Appalachia after an especially dry summer turned forests into kindling. Climate scientists say conditions in the Southeast will likely get worse, largely because forests in that region need more water than those in the West and they're not getting it. Making matters worse, communities in the Southeast usually aren't well equipped to battle blazes and are more densely populated.</p><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">
<div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 12px;" class="">*******************************************************************************************</span><br class=""><b class="">“ Ecosystem management must avoid two traps: falsely assuming a tame solution and inaction from overwhelming complexity. “</b><br class=""><br class=""><span style="font-size: 12px;" class="">Ruth DeFries, Harini Nagendra. Ecosystem management as a wicked problem. Science 21 Apr 2017 Special Issue: Ecosystem Earth</span></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"><br class=""></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">*********************************************************************************************</div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">Behind complexity, there is always simplicity to be revealed. Inside simplicity, there is always complexity to be discovered.”<br class=""><br class="">Gang Yu</div></div></div></div>
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