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Articles on Megafires

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In July 2022, passers-by watch the progress of a fire near Gignac (Hérault). Sylvain Thomas/AFP

Europe’s ‘pyroregions’: summer 2022 saw 20-year freak fires in regions that are historically immune, close to normal in fire prone areas

The forest fires that struck the Continent in the summer of 2022 were devastating, yet historical data shows that they were not ‘unprecedented’, contrary to media accounts.
Forest thinning and prescribed burns leave less fuel to burn. Escaflowne via Getty Images

New federal wildfire plan is ambitious – but the Forest Service needs more money and people to fight the growing risks

After another devastating wildfire year in the West, the Biden administration has a plan to ramp up forest thinning and prescribed burns. Two foresters explain why these projects are so important.
Tools for a prescribed burn conducted in the Sierra Nevada in November 2019. Susan Kocher

Moving beyond America’s war on wildfire: 4 ways to avoid future megafires

Two forest researchers whose own communities were threatened by fires in 2021 explain how historic policies left forests at high risk of megafires.
Colorado’s East Troublesome Fire jumped the Continental Divide on Oct. 22, 2020, and eventually became Colorado’s second-largest fire on record. Lauren Dauphin/NASA Earth Observatory

Rocky Mountain forests burning more now than any time in the past 2,000 years

Scientists studied charcoal layers in the sediment of lake beds across the Rockies to track fires over time. They found increasing fire activity as the climate warmed.

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