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Contrary to what people might think, North American forests are burning less, not more, according to new data. A study published in Nature Communications reveals how this trend may be causing more aggressive fires.
"What we see in the record is that widespread wildfires were happening very frequently, about every 10 to 20 years in many areas," said University of Arizona fire ecologist and professor Donald Falk, who co-authored the study with U of A alumni and with researchers from the USDA Forest Service's Rocky Mountain Research Station. "We also know that, by and large, these fires were not the severe fires we're seeing on television today. They were often mixed-severity and surface fires occurring over very large areas."
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