By Courtney Lowery, 8-29-06
Global warming will cause
wildfires to burn bigger, faster and hotter in the future, making fire
management more costly and more difficult, say fire ecologists.
In a
five-page declaration released today, the Association for Fire Ecology warns
that humans' ability to manage fire and use prescribed fire may soon be limited
by climate change conditions. The declaration, called the "San Diego
Declaration on Climate Change and Fire Ecology" will be submitted at the
Third International
Fire Ecology and Management Congress scheduled for November in San
Diego.
"Currently, we are observing wildland fire conditions previously
considered rare, such as extreme wildfire events (e.g. high heat release and
severe impact to ecosystems), lengthened wildfire seasons, and large-scale
wildfires in fire-sensitive ecosystems (e.g. tropical rain forests and arid
deserts)," the declaration reads. "Research indicates that climate change has,
in part, caused these trends. Therefore, we are deeply concerned that wildfire
conditions will only become exacerbated by further climate change."
The
declaration (
read
here as a PDF) says climate change may lead to more extreme fires, which
can disrupt the natural processes of fire within ecosystems and as these events
become more frequent, habitats will be converted or all together eliminated,
plant and animals will be at greater risk of extinction and finally, "extreme
wildfire events and a lengthened fire season would greatly increase the risk to
human lives and infrastructures, particularly within the wildland urban
interface."
"We're going to see more fire, not less," the association's
president Robin Wills said in a release, "and these increases in wildfire
occurrence and severity are going to be part of our new reality. We, as a
society, must be prepared to cope with these changes."
The declaration
sets out a list of actions to help mitigate the situation, including increased
allocation for fire management resources, more monitoring in fire-influenced
landscapes and better fuel management (i.e. use of fire in fire-dependent
ecosystems to restore historic fire regimes and reduce fuel loads.) {else:if}
Global warming will cause wildfires to burn bigger, faster and hotter in the
future, making fire management more costly and more difficult, say fire
ecologists.
In a five-page declaration released today, the Association
for Fire Ecology warns that humans' ability to manage fire and use prescribed
fire may soon be limited by climate change conditions. The declaration, called
the "San Diego Declaration on Climate Change and Fire Ecology" will be
submitted at the Third International Fire Ecology and Management Congress
scheduled for November in San Diego.
"Currently, we are observing
wildland fire conditions previously considered rare, such as extreme wildfire
events (e.g. high heat release and severe impact to ecosystems), lengthened
wildfire seasons, and large-scale wildfires in fire-sensitive ecosystems (e.g.
tropical rain forests and arid deserts)," the declaration reads. "Research
indicates that climate change has, in part, caused these trends. Therefore, we
are deeply concerned that wildfire conditions will only become exacerbated by
further climate change."