The escalation of extreme wildfires globally has prompted a critical examination of wildfire management strategies. A new study from the University of Montana reveals how fire suppression ensures that wildfires will burn under extreme conditions at high severity, exacerbating the impacts of climate change and fuel accumulation.
Though fire suppression reduces the overall area burned, it mainly eliminates low- and moderate-intensity fires. As a result, the remaining fires are biased to be more extreme, Kreider said. The new study published March 25 in, shows how this"suppression bias" causes average fire severity to increase substantially.
Fire suppression exacerbated the trends already caused by climate change and fuel accumulation, the study found, causing areas burned to increase three to five times faster over time relative to a world with no suppression. Andrew Larson, Kreider's Ph.D. adviser and a professor of forest ecology at UM, said this has significant impacts on ecosystems.
"It may seem counterintuitive, but our work clearly highlights that part of addressing our nation's fire crisis is learning how to accept more fires burning when safely possible," said Philip Higuera, a co-author and UM professor of fire ecology."That's as important as fuels reduction and addressing global warming."
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