Fire suppression makes wildfires more severe and accentuates impacts of climate change and fuel accumulation

Fire suppression is the primary management response to wildfires in many areas globally. By removing less-extreme wildfires, this approach ensures that remaining wildfires burn under more extreme conditions. Here, we term this the "suppression bias" and use a simulation model to highlight how this bias fundamentally impacts wildfire activity, independent of fuel accumulation and climate change. We illustrate how attempting to suppress all wildfires necessarily means that fires will burn with more severe and less diverse ecological impacts, with burned area increasing at faster rates than expected from fuel accumulation or climate change. Over a human lifespan, the modeled impacts of the suppression bias exceed…

• NS
  National Science Foundation

  Award: 1745048
• UD
  U.S. Department of Agriculture
• UO
  University of Montana
• UG
  U.S. Geological Survey

  Award: G18AC00325
• UF
  U.S. Forest Service

  Award: 1745048
• RM
  Rocky Mountain Research Station