Climatic stress increases forest fire severity across the western United States

2013 ◽  
Vol 16 (9) ◽  
pp. 1151-1156 ◽  
Author(s):  
Phillip J. van Mantgem ◽  
Jonathan C. B. Nesmith ◽  
MaryBeth Keifer ◽  
Eric E. Knapp ◽  
Alan Flint ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Forest Fire ◽  
Fire Severity ◽  
Western United States ◽  
Climatic Stress

scholarly journals Effects of Climate Change on Natural-Caused Fire Activity in Western U.S. National Forests

Atmosphere ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (8) ◽  
pp. 981
Author(s):  
Hadi Heidari ◽  
Mazdak Arabi ◽  
Travis Warziniack
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
United States ◽  
Forest Fire ◽  
Forest Fires ◽  
Western United States ◽  
National Forests ◽  
Climate Change Scenarios ◽  
Negative Consequences ◽  
Fire Activity ◽  
The Future

Climate change, with warming temperatures and shifting precipitation patterns, may increase natural-caused forest fire activity. Increasing natural-caused fires throughout western United States national forests could place people, property, and infrastructure at risk in the future. We used the fine K nearest neighbor (KNN) method coupled with the downscaled Multivariate Adaptive Constructed Analogs (MACA) climate dataset to estimate changes in the rate of natural-caused fires in western United States national forests. We projected changes in the rate of minor and major forest fires from historical (1986–2015) to future (2070–2099) conditions to characterize fire-prone national forests under a range of climate change scenarios. The results indicate that climate change can add to the occurrence of forest fires in western United States national forests, particularly in Rocky Mountain, Pacific Southwest, and Southwestern United States Forest Service regions. Although summer months are projected to have the highest rate of natural-caused forest fire activity in the future, the rate of natural-caused forest fires is likely to increase from August to December in the future compared to the historical conditions. Improved understanding of altered forest fire regimes can help forest managers to better understand the potential effects of climate change on future fire activity and implement actions to attenuate possible negative consequences.

scholarly journals Spatiotemporal Trends in Wildfires across the Western United States (1950–2019)

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (18) ◽  
pp. 2959
Author(s):  
Keith T. Weber ◽  
Rituraj Yadav
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Fire Severity ◽  
Recent Decade ◽  
Fire Frequency ◽  
Western United States ◽  
Spatiotemporal Trends ◽  
Mean Size ◽  
Normalized Burn Ratio ◽  
In Fire ◽  
Gis Software

Wildfire regimes are changing across the globe with several ecosystems witnessing more frequent fires across longer fire seasons. The western United States is one such region. The NASA RECOVER Historic Fires Database (HFD) contains all documented wildfires across the western United States occurring between 1950 and 2019 (n = 55,566). This study analyzed the spatiotemporal patterns of these wildfires using ArcGIS Pro Geographic Information System (GIS) software to characterize changes in fire frequency, size, and severity over time. Analysis of annual fire frequency and acres burned reveals a near exponential growth in fire frequency (R2 = 0.71, P < 0.001) and size (R2 = 0.67, P < 0.001) since 1950. A comparison of mean and median acres burned annually suggests the occurrence of mega-fires (wildfires burning more than 100,000 acres) is also increasing. To illustrate this, this study found the mean size of fires occurring in the decade of the 1950s was 1204 acres while in the most recent decade (2010–2019) mean fire size has more than doubled, reaching an average of 3474 acres. The trend in fire severity between 2001 and 2017 used 365 Differenced Normalized Burn Ratio (dNBR) layers calculated using Landsat or Sentinel-2 satellite imagery. Results suggest fire severity has remained relatively stable in light of increasing fire frequency and size, however more research is required to more fully understand changes in fire severity. The results of this study and other related studies are important as they provide useful information to land managers and policy makers regarding the changing wildfire regime currently being witnessed across the western United States.

The dynamic path of recreational values following a forest fire: a comparative analysis of states in the Intermountain West

2001 ◽  
Vol 31 (10) ◽  
pp. 1837-1844 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey Englin ◽  
John Loomis ◽  
Armando González-Cabán
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Forest Fire ◽  
Travel Cost ◽  
Demand Analysis ◽  
Western United States ◽  
Public Land ◽  
Intermountain West ◽  
Highly Nonlinear ◽  
Dynamic Path

This analysis examines the dynamic path of recreational values following a forest fire in three different states in the intermountain western United States. The travel cost demand analysis found that annual recreation values after a fire follow a highly nonlinear intertemporal path. The path is S-shaped, providing a range of benefits and losses in the years following a fire. While the results discourage the use of a single value throughout the Intermountain West, they do provide a range of likely values that public land managers can apply to fire-affected areas in their jurisdictions.

Writing Time in Metaphors

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer J. Smith
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Western United States ◽  
Entire System ◽  
Language And Culture ◽  
Space Race ◽  
Do So

Coherence of place often exists alongside irregularities in time in cycles, and chapter three turns to cycles linked by temporal markers. Ray Bradbury’s The Martian Chronicles (1950) follows a linear chronology and describes the exploration, conquest, and repopulation of Mars by humans. Conversely, Louise Erdrich’s Love Medicine (1984) jumps back and forth across time to narrate the lives of interconnected families in the western United States. Bradbury’s cycle invokes a confluence of historical forces—time as value-laden, work as a calling, and travel as necessitating standardized time—and contextualizes them in relation to anxieties about the space race. Erdrich’s cycle invokes broader, oppositional conceptions of time—as recursive and arbitrary and as causal and meaningful—to depict time as implicated in an entire system of measurement that made possible the destruction and exploitation of the Chippewa people. Both volumes understand the United States to be preoccupied with imperialist impulses. Even as they critique such projects, they also point to the tenacity with which individuals encounter these systems, and they do so by creating “interstitial temporalities,” which allow them to navigate time at the crossroads of language and culture.

Women's Studies in the Western United States

NWSA Journal ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 180-189
Author(s):  
Karen L. Salley ◽  
Barbara Scott Winkler ◽  
Megan Celeen ◽  
Heidi Meck
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Women's Studies ◽  
Western United States ◽  
Women’S Studies
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