Why wildfires have gotten worse and what we can do about them

Question 1

What are mega fires?

Answer 1

Individual fires that burn more than 100,000, on the rise in the Western United States.

Question 2

What forces shaped this historical forest patchwork?

Answer 2

Topography
Whether a place faces north or south
Elevation
Weather

Question 3

It provided a natural mechanism for fire prevention in the future

Answer 3

The burned patches helped the rest of the forest to exist

Question 4

What were the cumulative effects of fire suppresion and selective harvesting?

Answer 4

Cutting down big surviving timber meant it left gaps between trees.
This allowed a dense growth of thin, flammable trees- almost too many!?
Fire can move easily and so can diseases and insects

Question 5

What can be done?

Answer 5

Managed wildfires

Question 6

How much fire area is attributed to human-caused climate change and why?

Answer 6

A 2016 study showed that the fire area attributed to human-caused climate change has doubled since 1984, largely because vegetation has dried out more