Beyond 1984: Narrow focus on wildfire trends underestimates future risks to water security
Monday, October 29, 2018 - 16:30
in Earth & Climate
Dramatic increases in wildfire over the last few decades have garnered considerable media attention. Numerous headlines have claimed that the amount of wildfire in the western U.S. is unprecedented. However, in a recent issue of Earth's Future, published by the American Geophysical Union, Brendan Murphy, Larissa Yocom, and Patrick Belmont at the S.J. and Jessie E. Quinney College of Natural Resources at Utah State University compiled long-term fire datasets that demonstrate the amount of wildfire occurring in the western U.S. remains far below the acreage burning prior to pre-European settlement.