Furnell, 1

Erica Furnell
Professor Derek Mallia
Severe and Hazardous Weather
28 November 2016
Class Project

The Impacts of Wildfires across the Western U.S.

Fire influences global ecosystem patterns and processes, including vegetation

distribution and structure, the carbon cycle, and climate. (Bowman, 481)
When a wildfire is seen it is our responsibility to call 9-1-1. If you are ordered to
evacuate your home, or where you are staying you will need to do so immediately, along with
that tell someone where you are going, as well as when you arrive at your destination. A wildfire
is a serious deal, and when it happens it can do lots of damage to anything around it. There are
typically 100,000 wildfires in the United States every year.
Wildfires do not just affect us as humans, it can affect animals, as well as nature itself.
The technical definition of a Wildfire is: a large, destructive fire that spreads quickly over
woodland or brush. Wildfires can get started many different ways. Those ways are: lightning
striking a tree, or even brush, fires that are not properly put out from campers around the area,
burning debris, and also in some cases negligently discarded cigarettes. Most of those ways are
human made. Us as humans are causing a tragedy that is dangerous for us in ways that are
unimaginable. Earth is an intrinsically flammable planet owing to its cover of carbon-rich
Furnell, 2

vegetation, seasonally dry climates, atmospheric oxygen, and widespread lightning and volcano
ignitions. (Bowman, 482)
In the 1920s wildfires burned lots of area, back then we didnt have significant ways to
put out a wildfire. The wildfire trends start to show as we go along in time, and as we reach the
1950s the amount of area burned seems to lower from the amount that was burned in 1920.
Significant wildfire suppression starts to show near the 1960s, which shows when we found a
way to start fighting the wildfires. That trend started because of our efforts to find a way to put
out wildfires. Along with us as humans trying our hardest to keep wildfires stopped, and put out
before lots of damage is done, when you start to hit the 1980s wildfire damage starts to increase
again, and only grows as time goes on.
Land-use explanations for increased western wildfire note that extensive livestock
grazing and increasingly effective fire suppression began in the late 19th and early 20th centuries
reducing the frequency of large surface fires. (Westerling, 940) This would explain why
wildfires suddenly stopped burning so much are, but now they are beginning to burn more as
time goes on. Seasonal temperature and precipitation did not have significant trends, with the
exception of significant increasing summer temperature in the Warm Deserts ecoregion.
(Dennison, 2932) They both have a different view on why these wildfire trends are like this.
These fire trends are seen to be growing and becoming longer, and bigger fires because of the
longer wildfire seasons. Even with land management as humans we can not completely stop how
the earth is changing, as well as how much we are advancing on fire retardant, we are not able to
completely catch up to the changing earth. Although it is are to know the trends for sure.
Furnell, 3

Dennison said, Quantification of recent historical trends in fire activity is challenging, due to a
lack of spatially complete and consistently derived data sets, regional variation in fire regimes
and their controls, and statistical limitations associated with the temporal extent of instrumental
records. (Dennison, 2928)
The wildfire trends are expected to increase over the next 80 years due to climate change.
.. we show that large wildfire activity increased suddenly and markedly in the mid-1980s, with
higher large-wildfire frequency, longer wildfire durations, and longer wildfire seasons.
(Westerling, 940) The climate change has caused warmer springtime temperatures, resulting in
snow melt earlier on which causes an earlier as well as an extended dry season. Drought is a
reason we are seeing more wildfires. With hardly any moisture the land is dry which only makes
the plants a fire starter, and easier and faster to burn. If our forests are completely dry, the fires
will be able to spread faster than we can get the fire controlled. Although the climate is changing,
our tactics of fighting wildfires are changing as well, and with the technology we have these
days, we will be able to find a way to fight the wildfires faster. We will be able to change our
tactics to fit the way we need to, to protect citizens, as well as nature, and wildlife. If the
average length and intensity of summer drought increases in the Northern Rockies and
mountains elsewhere in the western United States, an increased frequency of large wildfires will
lead to changes in forest composition and reduced tree densities (Westerling, 943)
Studying wildfires can be difficult because there are so many things that are in play to
create a fire, and how the fire responds to different scenarios. At the landscape scale, fire
responds predictably to variation in fuel types, vegetation structure, topographic features, and
Furnell, 4

weather conditions. At regional and global scales, the interaction of fire with vegetation types
and human land use results in characteristic fire regimes. Climate conditions are a fundamental
driver of fire spread, and fire-induced emissions influence future climate scenarios and fire
weather. (Bowman, 484) Wildfires are unpredictable and no one ever knows when a fire will
break out, or how fast the fire will spread.
... in the developed world, suburban sprawl into rural and natural landscapes, where
people and their dwellings are juxtaposed with flammable vegetation types, is accompanied by
substantial fire-suppression efforts. (Bowman, 481) Us as humans also make it harder for the
fires to spread within our areas.

Air quality is affected hugely by wildfires. Currently, all sources of fire (landscape and
biomass) cause CO2 emissions equal to 50% of those stemming from fossil-fuel combustion.
(Bowman,483) Wildfires emit Carbon Dioxide, and Methane. Both of these could ultimately
(along with other greenhouse gases) lead to global warming that is bad. Chemically reactive
species such as Co and PM2.5 undergo transformations as they are transported through the
atmosphere. (Mallia, 154) Fires also emit gases like: Carbon monoxide, nitric oxide,
atmospheric particulate matter, etc. Some of those are considered criteria pollutants, which can
be dangerous for people if they are in high concentrations. The routine domestic use of fire
began around 50,000 to 100,000 years ago, which may have influenced the evolution of human
tolerance to air pollution. (Bowman, 481) Us as humans have come accustomed to air pollution,
because it seems so natural to have dirty air after our whole lives have been spent in a world
Furnell, 5

where pollution is just a part of the air, it hardly seems like pollution in our eyes. At the flame
front, fire instantaneously links the atmosphere, biosphere, and hydrosphere via the release of
heat, gases (notably water vapor), and matter. (Bowman, 484)
If wildfire trends continue, at least initially, this biomass burning will result in carbon
release, suggesting that the forests of the western United States may become a source of
increased atmospheric carbon dioxide rather than a sink, even under a relatively modest
temperature-increase scenario. (Westerling, 943) Wildfire trends seem to be growing, which
means that as humans we will have to try to use technology, and science to try and figure out a
way that we will be able to be safe breathing.
The smoke that comes from a wildfire can spread over many cities, even states. In August
of 2012 there was a gray haze over Salt Lake City, which was smoke from a wildfire that
happened in Idaho. Most of our fire pollution comes from Idaho, and here in Utah. Idaho is dry,
and has lots of farm area where fires will move quickly through. As well as Utah and Idaho,
California-Nevada, Pacific Northwest, Eastern Rockies, and the southwest have a little part in the
air pollution. ... of which a conservative estimate of $U.S. 1 billion was from adverse health
effects of smoke haze. (Bowman, 481) Our lungs do not react to smoke in a good way. When
we inhale smoke our lungs may get irritated, swollen, or blocked. The damaged airway and lungs
prevent oxygen from getting into your blood, and respiratory failure may develop.

WORKS CITED:
https://slcc.instructure.com/files/58654997/download?download_frd=1

https://slcc.instructure.com/files/58655001/download?download_frd=1
https://slcc.instructure.com/files/58655002/download?download_frd=1
https://slcc.instructure.com/files/58655003/download?download_frd=1
https://slcc.instructure.com/files/58655004/download?download_frd=1

E-PORTFOLIO:
http://ericafurnell.weebly.com/