Wildfires - Inside Climate News

California Ballot Asks Voters to Invest in Climate Solutions

By Liza Gross — Fri, 20 Sep 2024 08:55:00 +0000

California officials cut billions from ambitious climate programs to offset an unexpected budget deficit. Now they hope voters approve a multibillion-dollar bond to fill the gap.

By Liza Gross

Following yet another year of brutal heatwaves and devastating wildfires, Californians have the chance to tell elected officials they support urgent climate action by voting for a $10 billion climate resilience bond on the November ballot.

With Wyoming’s Regional Haze Plan ‘Partially Rejected,’ Conservationists Await Agency’s Final Proposal

By Jake Bolster — Tue, 17 Sep 2024 09:00:00 +0000

After Wyoming failed to suggest new ways to reduce haze-causing pollution from fossil fuel power plants near national parks, advocacy groups want the federal government to implement stricter emissions controls.

By Jake Bolster

Every year, the 3.8 million people who visit Grand Teton National Park cross their fingers for clear skies. In perfect conditions, visitors can see the Tetons thrusting upward over serene mountain lakes, one of the most iconic views in the American West. But on hazy days, the mountains become grainy, their beauty dimmed by airborne fine particulate matter.

Aquatic Ecosystems Aren’t Immune to Wildfire Impacts, Research Shows

By Kiley Price — Fri, 13 Sep 2024 19:43:17 +0000

Emerging research is unraveling the complex ways wildfires affect lakes, streams and the ocean.

By Kiley Price

Amid an unusual September heat wave, several major wildfires are raging simultaneously out West.

‘Weather Whiplash’ Helped Drive This Year’s California Wildfires

By Caroline Marshall Reinhart — Thu, 12 Sep 2024 09:05:00 +0000

Exceptionally wet winters drove a boom of grasses and shrubs that a record hot summer dried into the fuel powering the Park Fire in Northern California, the Line Fire outside Los Angeles and other conflagrations.

By Caroline Marshall Reinhart

While many Californians are praying for rain heavy enough to slow the spread of the 6,078 fires that have burned 977,932 acres in the state this summer, firefighters and climatologists recognize that the heavy winter rains are a big part of what have led this fire season to scorch around three times as much total acreage as in 2023.

In the Park Fire, an Indigenous Cultural Fire Practitioner Sees Beyond Destruction

By Sarah Hopkins — Sun, 01 Sep 2024 09:05:00 +0000

California’s latest historic wildfire serves as a stark reminder of the regenerative promise of Indigenous cultural burning, practitioners say.

By Sarah Hopkins

Where others might see only catastrophe, Don Hankins scans fire-singed landscapes for signs of renewal.

A Path Through Scorched Earth Teaches How a Fire Deficit Helped Fuel California’s Conflagrations

By Bing Lin — Mon, 19 Aug 2024 09:00:00 +0000

Fifty miles on the Pacific Crest Trail with a wildfire expert proved useful and prescient—as I discovered when I caught sight of the smoke.

By Bing Lin

Miles to Go: The second in an ongoing series Inside Climate News fellow Bing Lin is reporting from the Pacific Crest Trail in Northern California. Over the course of a 500-mile hike, the series is exploring the impacts of climate change on the trail and what outdoor recreation can teach society about sustainability, adaptation and coexistence in a warming world.

Disaster Recovery Is a Delicate Act of Balancing Priorities

By Mathilde Augustin — Tue, 13 Aug 2024 21:43:57 +0000

A year after wildfires, Maui is grappling with the challenge many communities face post-disaster: how to recover without worsening inequalities.

By Mathilde Augustin

Last Thursday marked the first anniversary of the catastrophic wildfires that ravaged Lahaina on Hawaii’s island of Maui. The blaze claimed more than 100 lives and left more than 12,000 people without housing.

First Snow, then Heat Interrupt a Hike From Mexico to Canada, as Climate Complicates an Iconic Adventure

By Bing Lin — Mon, 12 Aug 2024 09:00:00 +0000

Impassible snow foiled my 2019 hike of the Pacific Crest Trail, and my return to that section this summer was “flip-flopped” by record heat. In the weeks ahead, I’m backpacking to see how climate is changing wildfires, water and wildlife on the famed wild path.

By Bing Lin

Miles to Go: The first in an ongoing series Inside Climate News fellow Bing Lin is reporting from the Pacific Crest Trail in Northern California. Over the course of a 500-mile hike, the series is exploring the impacts of climate change on the trail and what outdoor recreation can teach society about sustainability, adaptation and coexistence in a warming world.

Supercharged by Climate Change, Western Megafires Explode Simultaneously

By Kiley Price — Tue, 30 Jul 2024 20:02:02 +0000

Heat waves and “flash droughts” fuel intense fires in California, Oregon and Canada.

By Kiley Price

In western North America, wildfire season is in full swing—and well on its way toward setting records. Over the past two weeks, infernos have been tearing through parts of California, Oregon and Canada, leaving scorched trails in their wake.

Fire Once Helped Sequoias Reproduce. Now, it’s Killing the Groves

By Caroline Marshall Reinhart — Tue, 23 Jul 2024 21:33:28 +0000

Two recent studies find that sequoia groves burned in megafires of 2020 and 2021 were so severely damaged that the world’s tallest trees may not be able to naturally regenerate.

By Caroline Marshall Reinhart

Giant sequoia groves in California’s Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks that were extensively burned in the megafires of 2020 and 2021 produced numbers of seedlings that were so “drastically low” in some areas that they may not naturally regenerate, according to two new studies by government scientists.