Smokey Bear visits the press briefing room of the White House. He is accompanied by Darci Drinkwater, of the U.S. Forest Service, on Tuesday in Washington, D.C. (Credit: Manuel Balce […]Read More
As the days get hotter and warmer, many Washingtonians are gearing up for the wildfires that will ignite across the region this year, causing smoky skies, evacuations and potentially devastating loss. Read More
A tanker airplane drops fire retardant on a wildfire burning near Twisp, Wash. Three firefighters were killed battling the blaze. (Credit: Ted S. Warren / Associated Press) Listen (Runtime 1:07) […]Read More
A firefighter uses a drip torch to burn the edges of an area up to a fire break in Chelan, Wash. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson) Listen (Runtime :50) Read The Biden […]Read More
With cooler temperatures and more moisture in the air, preparations for next year’s wildfires have begun, and this means planned fires.Read More
Residents in the Methow Valley are hoping to prevent future devastating fires by creating BioChar. Fire scorching the forests of the Methow Valley in North Central Washington has become a devastating yearly event.Read More
It’s been a little over a year since the Camp Fire destroyed the town of Paradise, which impacted thousands of lives in Northern California. The disaster also alarmed people across the West, who are now asking themselves: Could a fire like that happen here?Read More
Free-burning fire is the proximate provocation for the havoc, since its ember storms are engulfing landscapes. But in the hands of humans, combustion is also the deeper cause. Read More
Connecting different projects – like these large-scale fuels management ones – with efforts by homeowners down below helps make the landscape more resilient. It’s part of a larger effort to help central Washington avoid the fate of towns like Paradise, California, which was devastated by the Camp Fire in 2018. Read More
The longest-running public service campaign is tied to a reduction in wildfires, but in some ways Smokey's message may have worked too well. Here's how he's changed. Read More
Goats & Wildfire Prevention Clearing brush for fire prevention can be hard and dangerous work for firefighters so Wenatchee, Wash. is trying a different tactic…goats. Tri-Cities Correspondent Courtney Flatt found […]Read More
A fire district around Wenatchee has come up with a new way to make wildland fires less severe. Chelan County Fire District 1 is ditching the hand tools and machinery that firefighters traditionally use to thin overgrown brush. Instead, they’re turning to a more natural approach to thin out fuels around the Broadview neighborhood that burned in the 2015 Sleepy Hollow fire.Read More
Four years ago, the Sleepy Hollow Fire burned to the edge of Wenatchee. Flames rushed through, consuming brush and cheatgrass and quickly destroying 28 homes and three businesses. Now, with the help of a federal grant, firefighters are getting rid of some of those grasses to better protect homes.Read More
The 2018 Camp Fire destroyed 90% of the town of Paradise, Calif., and killed 85 people. Should the federal government jump in to rebuild communities at high risk of future disasters?Read More
State and federal officials signed an agreement Wednesday to protect Washington’s forests and wildlife. The plan would combine resources to fight destructive wildfires, threats to forest health and challenges faced by salmon and orcas.Read More
Land managers are using prescribed burns -- also called "good fire" -- and thinning to restore forests and reduce the extra wood, sticks and needles that fuel megafires. Different land managers look for certain things when they’re selecting where prescribed fires will work best.Read More
From aviation contracts to deals with vendors and even seasonal hiring, the partial federal government shutdown is cutting into planning and preparation for the 2019 wildfire season in the Northwest. Read More
Firefighters and forest managers are losing valuable time to prepare for the upcoming wildland fire season as the partial government shutdown continues.Read More
Congress passed a new Farm Bill on Wednesday that also contains several provisions aimed at reducing the severity of Western wildfires. And that left the Oregon delegation divided along familiar battle lines.Read More
A small number of Northwest communities have an outsized level of exposure to wildfire, according to data released by the Forest Service.Read More
When a wildfire starts, whether by lightning or human hand, it is almost always smothered.Read More
Wildfire activity in the American West is likely to get worse in coming years. A new study out in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences points to the lack of precipitation in the summer as the major driving factor when it comes to increasing fire severity.Read More
The U.S. has more than 46 million homes in this wildfire danger zone and more people moving in right when climate change is making for longer, hotter and drier wildfire seasons. Here are a few steps you can take to protect your home from wildfire.Read More
A variety of forest experts say that one of the best ways to reduce the threat of these mega-blazes is to use fire itself. They say we need to increase the pace of prescribed fire and let some wildfires continue to burn when it’s safe to do so. Of course, there’s not nearly as much political support for letting fires burn as there is for putting fires out.Read More
The West is way behind on reducing the buildup of hazardous fuels we created. And much of the work we do to reduce those fuels is missing the key ingredient: fire.Read More
As at least half a dozen fires in Colorado force hundreds to evacuate, and have closed a national forest, some residents say they're shocked at how quickly the fire has spread. The speed of wildfires is actually something Colorado ecologists have been studying, and they say history may provide clues on how to slow it down.Read More
We’ve seen more wildfires burning into urban communities lately. But there’s a lot homeowners can do to protect themselves, according to top scientists at the Missoula Fire Sciences Lab.Read More
Root materials that have been decaying in forest soils for some decades may combust during forest fires and either create what we call soil pipes–large open networks in the […]Read More
