Coming soon, the Apocalypse, maybe

Just about every video game, young adult novel and buzz-worthy streaming series agree that we need to prepare for a…
Photo by Intricate Explorer, Via Unsplash
MoreWe need every tool to fight today’s fires

We know now that the largest recorded fire in New Mexico history was started by an escaped “prescribed burn,” or…
MoreA new predator stalks the West

The grizzly bear. The wolf. The cougar. These magnificent creatures, apex predators, how can we not admire them? People cross…
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Welcome to Yosemite, the new Pyrocene Park

The Pleistocene epoch that began 2.6 million years ago sent ice in waves through Yosemite. Glaciers gouged out great valleys…
Photo by Laurel Balyeat, Yosemite Park
MoreOur new age of fire

Fire in the West is expected, and not so long ago, it seemed something the West experienced more than anywhere…
MoreWhen wildfire keeps coming back

Since January 2021, more than 6,272 fires have burned 917,000 acres in California
Smoke plume from wildfire in Boulder County, CO
MoreWhat do we owe wildland firefighters?

Vacancies, of course, limit how much federal firefighters can do. If Western communities want to be protected, they need to ensure that their firefighters receive better pay and benefits.
MoreWe blame the trees, but whose fault is it?

“But it’s questionable that any amount of “thinning” could protect Ashland from a wind-driven firestorm coming out of the watershed.”
Photograph by Romain Le Teuff, courtesy of Unsplash
MoreFanning the Flames of Hate in Oregon

“The present we are now enduring is the climate-change future that we have been warned about for decades.”
Photograph by Alex Radelich, Courtesy of Unsplash
MoreHouses Must be Built to Withstand Wildfire

That the scene has become familiar makes it no less wrenching: A distraught couple searches through the ash, char, and…
U.S. Forest Service Photo 2007. Grass Valley Fire in Southern California’s San Bernadino Mountains
MoreWILDFIRE IS MEANER THESE DAYS

As I look out my window, the smoke from the Bush fire is belching upward behind the fabled profile of…
Photograph by Marcus Kaufman, courtesy of Unsplash
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