https://www.forestfoundation.

org/wildfires-and-climate-change
American Forest Foundation

Wildfires and Climate Change

Wildfires can be part of a natural and healthy forest disturbance process, but in recent years they have
become increasingly frequent and severe.1 After generations of fire suppression, today’s wildfires are very
different from the fire patterns that have historically shaped our landscape.

In 2007, a particularly extreme fire year, an area the size of New Jersey was burned.2

Wildfires impact climate change

In addition to threatening lives, destroying homes, damaging forests and wildlife habitat, wildfires emit large
quantities of carbon dioxide (CO2), as well as other
greenhouse gases and air pollutants such as methane
(CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O). Up to 3% of annual
U.S. greenhouse gas emissions come from wildfires.

Wildfires not only emit greenhouse gases while they’re

burning, but they also release carbon that has been
sequestered by the trees that are burned. Dead trees
continue to release carbon stores as they decompose
after a fire, and carbon uptake is slowed or halted in
burned areas because the vegetation is gone and
photosynthesis cannot take place.3 It can take decades
for a forest to reach pre-fire levels of carbon uptake and
storage.

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure

Managing wildfire risk and intensity through fuel removal offers the possibility of retaining more of our
forest carbon stocks in existing forests. Using the removed materials to manufacture wood products, such as
lumber used for construction, is a way to store carbon outside of the forest.

Using woody biomass from wildfire fuel treatments to generate renewable energy can also provide climate
change benefits. Woody biomass waste is generated from forest management activities, hazardous fuel
reduction, and agricultural operations.4

Recent research has reaffirmed that “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” when it comes to
managing wildfire risks. The Sierra Nevada Conservancy, The Nature Conservancy, and the U.S. Forest
Service studied the economic benefit in taking proactive forest management activities, using the Mokelumne
River watershed in the Sierra Nevada as a representative case. They found that fuel treatments such as
forest thinning and controlled burning can save up to three times the cost of future fires, reduce high-severity
fire by up to 75%, and bring added benefits for people, water, and wildlife. They also found that by reducing
the size and severity of fires, the carbon emissions from the fires were decreased by 38-77%, suggesting that
these activities could protect the carbon stocks sequestered in our forests.
A Changing Climate Can make matters worse
Climate change worsens fires by altering precipitation and decreasing forest health, making forests more
susceptible to severe fires, and fires releasing more carbon into the atmosphere and destroying areas of forest
that may be unable to regenerate under changing climate conditions. Forest management activities that
support forest health and limit the size and severity of wildfires should play an important role in climate
change discussions in the future.5

Resources:

1. Westerling, A. L., H. G. Hidalgo, D. R. Cayan, and T. W. Swetnam. 2006. Warming and earlier
spring increase western U.S. forest wildfire activity. Science 313:940–3.
2. Urbanski, S. P., W. M. Hao, and B. Nordgren. 2011. The wildland fire emission inventory: western
United States emission estimates and an evaluation of uncertainty. Atmospheric Chemistry and
Physics 11:12973–13000.
3. Hicke, J. a, A. J. H. Meddens, C. D. Allen, and C. a Kolden. 2013. Carbon stocks of trees killed by
bark beetles and wildfire in the western United States. Environmental Research Letters 8:035032.
4. Springsteen, B., T. Christofk, S. Eubanks, T. Mason, C. Clavin, and B. Storey. (2011). Emission
reductions from woody biomass waste for energy as an alternative to open burning. Journal of the
Air & Waste Management Association, 61:1, 63-68.
5. Sommers, W.T., R.A. Loehman, C.C. Hardy. (2014). Wildland fire emissions, carbon, and climate:
Science overview and knowledge needs. Forest Ecology and Management, 317, 1-8.

Some 'live' wild fire mapping links:

https://fires.globalforestwatch.org/

https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/global-maps/MOD14A1_M_FIRE

https://firms.modaps.eosdis.nasa.gov/map/#z:3;c:-37.2,-3.3;l:24hrs