Many Factors Play A Role In 2020 Wildfire Season

The 2020 wildfire season has been an incredibly busy up and down the west coast. So, why did we see so many large fires this year? A recent House Agriculture Subcommittee on Conservation and Forestry looked to address that issue.

"The wild land fire problem is complex," Forest Service Deputy Chief, John Phipps, told lawmakers. "You've mentioned several of the factors; its development in wild areas, it's climate factors, forest management factors for sure."

"We used to call them mega fires but they're even larger than that," Phipps continued. "They're landscape scale fires that can do 250,000 plus. We have one in California that's 800,000 acres."

Phipps used California as an example and pointed out that one of their chief problems is the amount of fire fuels.

"Pre-settlement, the average forest had 64 trees per acre. Currently the average forest in California has 320. That's 80% more density."

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