DRI Wildland Fire Research Center Targets New Era of Fire Science
Friday, March 25, 2016 - 06:30
in Earth & Climate
More than 10 million acres of land across the United States were scorched by wildland fires last year - more than any other year on record. Those fires destroyed more than 2,600 homes nationwide and burned nearly one million acres of land in California and Nevada alone. Fighting them, several of which were classified as "megafires" (fires over 100,000 acres), cost the U.S. Forest Service more than $1.7 billion, consuming more than 50-percent of the agency's total annual budget. A new research center at the Desert Research Institute (DRI) is aiming to help federal, state, and local agencies reduce those dramatic numbers and better prepare for, understand, and respond to wildland fire causes, processes, and effects.