Fire and wildland interface

There have always been huge fires and large fire seasons in BC, the rest of Canada and the western US. But why are they so pronounced in recent times? In 2000, over 5 million acres burned — two million acres more than in 1919. Yet helicopters, water bombers, computers, infrared scanners, fire retardant, and a lot of today’s roads did not exist in 1919. There are new significances to be deciphered behind our more recent “catastrophic fires”.
First, the statistics: An upsurge in the area burned by wildfires annually began in the US in the mid-1980s. This increase has been mostly due to a few very large, high-intensity fires. In 1988, these fires gained international attention when a number of prescribed lightning fires in Yellowstone National Park escaped. Under drought conditions, managers found to their surprise that a massive fire-fighting effort could not bring them under control. The fires threatened first this community, then that one, ultimately burning 247,000 hectares before the rains came.
The next year, drought brought an unusual fire season to Manitoba and Quebec. Manitoba alone had 1,140 fires — over six times the number in the average fire season. The fires burned 2.7 million hectares — about 5% of that province’s land base.
Since then, every few years there seem to be more and larger fires in the western US.
The annual area burned has fluctuated more in Canada than in the US. Yet, over the last ten years the running average has almost tripled, increasing from 1 million to 2.8 million hectares — about half the size of Nova Scotia.
During the period when Canada and the western US were having a surge in the annual area burned, BC was experiencing a 17-year trough — by far the longest period since record-keeping began that BC had consistently low figures for...

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