![]() The nonprofit operates its own fire engines and maintains federal firefighting certification. The 47-square-mile habitat attracts migrating and nesting birds and offers a unique location to research forest and fire ecology. Meteorologist Julia Ruthford told a briefing that a surge of monsoonal moisture from the Southwest increased atmospheric instability Sunday and Monday, creating plumes topping 6 miles - so big that the fire generated a thunderstorm over itself, hurling lightning bolts and whipping up gusty winds.įor the past two days in Oregon, the fire has danced around Sycan Marsh, where researchers raced to protect buildings with sprinklers and fire lines. ![]() On the western side of the Sierra, the Dixie Fire has scorched 63 square miles (163 square kilometers), threatening tiny communities in the Feather River Valley region. That fire, which exploded over the weekend was 61 square miles (158 square kilometers) with no containment. In Northern California, authorities expanded evacuations for the Tamarack Fire in Alpine County in the Sierra Nevada to include the mountain town of Mesa Vista late Monday. Scientists at the Sycan Marsh research station now work with the tribe and draw on that knowledge.Ĭlimate change is the catalyst for the worsening wildfire seasons in the West, Johnston said, but poor forest management and a policy of decades of fire suppression have made a bad situation even worse.Įlsewhere, fire crews were engaged in other daunting battles. The area on the northeastern flank of the Bootleg Fire is in the ancestral homeland of the Klamath Tribes, which have used intentional, managed fire to keep the fuel load low and prevent such explosive blazes. Those fires have not been allowed to burn for the past 120 years, said James Johnston, a researcher with Oregon State University's College of Forestry who studies historical wildfires. Periodic, naturally occurring fire cleared out the undergrowth and smaller trees that cause today's fires to burn so dangerously. West burned an area as big or bigger than the current blaze more frequently but much less explosively. ![]() Historically, wildfires in Oregon and elsewhere in the U.S.
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