wildfires

Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue, Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke, and Forest Service Interim Chief Vicki Christiansen briefed members of Congress yesterday on what to expect in the coming fire season. (To view photos from yesterday’s briefing, please view the 2018 Fire Briefing and MOU...

In October 2017, 16 different wildfires throughout Northern California burned over 245,000 acres, destroyed an estimated 8,900 structures, forced 100,000 people to evacuate, and sadly, claimed 43 lives. The USDA Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) took a variety of actions as part of a concerted effort...

Dry conditions plagued Montana this summer, with multiple wildfires torching over 1 million acres throughout the state. The largest fire, the Lodgepole Complex fire, impacted over 270,000 acres. Recent rain and snow, and the forecast for continued precipitation, help to suppress the fires and...

Recreational drones or Unmanned Aircraft Systems sometimes called UAS have become increasingly popular in the past few years. While this is an interesting hobby and can allow you to get beautiful aerial photography, some activities pose a significant hazard. The use of these drones to capture video...

You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to know that wildfires are more common during hot, dry summers. The area burned in the United States in 2015, over 10 million acres, according to the National Interagency Fire Center, occurred during a record temperature year for the Earth, plus record low...

It was my first prescribed burn. After weeks of training and months of anticipation, I was finally on the ground – drip torch in hand – ready to apply fire to restore the mixed pine-hardwood forests at the edge of the Blue Ridge Mountains on the Pisgah National Forest. Joining the U.S Forest Service...

Drought, especially prolonged or severe drought, can be a major stress in forest ecosystems. Drought can kill trees directly or indirectly through insect attack or wildfire. Both of which are more likely to occur during drought. Tree mortality impacts most of the ecosystem services provided by...

Smoke from wildfires can have an enormous impact on the public and on fire personnel, affecting health, interfering with transportation safety and upsetting tourism and local economies. Trent Procter, like all U.S. Forest Service Air Resource Advisors, is a technical specialist with expertise in air...

We’ve all seen the heart-wrenching images on TV: lives and property destroyed by wildland fire. And, this fire season, with over eight million acres burned, we are seeing these images more frequently. Most of us think nothing can be done to protect a home from the onslaught of a raging wildland fire...

Cross-posted from the Seattle Times: Wildfires are now burning in Washington and across the West, in a year that may become the hottest on record. As our forests go up in flames, so too does the budget of the U.S. Forest Service, putting at risk lives, property, clean air and water, and jobs for...