Severity patterns of the 2021 Dixie Fire exemplify the need to increase low-severity fire treatments in California’s forests (Taylor et al., 2022)

Full Citation: Taylor, Alan H., et al. "Severity patterns of the 2021 Dixie Fire exemplify the need to increase low-severity fire treatments in California’s forests." Environmental Research Letters, vol. 17, no. 7, 2022, p. 071002.

Abstract: The extent and severity of fires in the American West has been increasing since the mid-1980s increasing risks to lives, property, carbon sequestration, biodiversity, and other ecosystem services. The increase in wildfire extent has steepened over the last decade with an unprecedented fire season in 2020 that burned over 2.5 million in the western US with 38% of that burning in California [1]. California has experienced a string of record setting fire seasons since 2018, including the largest recorded wildfire to date, the 374 000 ha Dixie Fire that started 13 July 2021. The cost and socio-ecological impacts of these recent California wildfires is staggering. Since 2018 over 27 000 homes and commercial buildings have been destroyed and fire suppression costs have ballooned. Suppression costs for an individual wildfire exceeded the $500 million mark for the first time with the 2021 Dixie ($637 million), and Beckwourth Complex ($572 million) fires (www.nifc.gov/fire-information/statistics). Suppression costs of $100 million for fires were rare a decade ago. Socio-ecological impacts far exceed suppression costs. Estimated economic impacts from the 2018 California wildfires that include property values, health costs from air pollution, and indirect loss from broader economic disruption puts their cost at $148.5 billion [2].