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Where there’s fire, there’s smoke and it travels significant distances

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Satellite photo of smoke from wildfires in the U.S. Northwest and Southern British Columbia, August 5, 2017. The red dots represent heat detected by the satellite.

Large wildfires can be a major contributor to degraded air quality, said Shawn Urbanski, a research physical scientist at the U.S. Forest Service’s Rocky Mountain Research Station who is working to improve a national wildfire pollution emissions inventory.

Much of the degradation comes from microscopic particulate matter known as PM2.5, which is particulate matter less than 2.5 micrometers, which can cause health problems. Smoke also produces ozone, another pollutant.

In 2011, wildfires were responsible for 35 percent of fine particulate matter pollution, the No. 1 source in the country, Urbanski said. [Read more…]

Deadly Gatlinburg fire fueled by ‘exceptional’ drought in southeastern U.S.

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The Drought Monitor issued Nov. 29 showed “exceptional drought”, the highest category, for the Gatlinburg area and large sections of Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, North Carolina, and South Carolina. Map: NOAA

Of the dozens of wildfires that burned across the southeastern United States last November and December, none was more devastating than the Chimney Tops 2 Fire in Tennessee.

Fanned by strong winds on the afternoon of Nov. 28, the fire grew to more than 17,000 acres, leaving Great Smoky Mountains National Park and raging through the city of Gatlinburg.

Fourteen people were killed, 145 were injured; 1,711 residences and 42 commercial properties were destroyed in Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge and the surrounding area. [Read more…]

Here’s how wildfires could radically change northern forests, and your life

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The 2016 Fort McMurray megafire burned 1.5 million acres and forced the evacuation of 88,000 Canadians when it moved directly into the northern community. Photo: Wikipedia

A lonely bird call breaks my concentration and I glance upward. Where glacier-topped mountains should be filling the horizon, instead my view is obscured by a strange orange haze. Even the bright sun has given up. It seems to float in the sky as a faint pink ball.

I am a field ecologist working east of the Denali mountain range in Alaska, but the postcard-worthy view of my sites today is obscured by smoke drifting across the border from wildfires burning throughout British Columbia. I have been studying boreal wildfires for years and have a strong understanding of the importance of fire to the boreal forest of Canada.

Boreal wildfires in Canada are spectacular displays of nature’s force — they burn across hundreds of thousands of kilometers and can last for months, sometimes smoldering right through the winter. These fires tend to occur in remote regions that simply cannot be managed. And their zone of impact is much wider than most people ever imagine as soot, ash and smoke drift in long-range atmospheric circulation patterns across geopolitical borders, affecting air quality around the world. [Read more…]

Book Review: “Land on Fire: The New Reality of Wildfire in the West” by Gary Ferguson

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Land on Fire, Book Cover“Land on Fire: The New Reality of Wildfire in the West” is a new book by writer Gary Ferguson in which the subject of wildfire and Western land is discussed in great detail. This book is something of a departure for Ferguson, who has previously written several wonderful, personal books about his experiences and observations in the American West.

This book trades his usual poetic treatment for a more informational, educational approach and sheds light on questions now being asked about our ability to better manage lands with a greater appreciation for and acceptance of wildfire. [Read more…]

An interview with author Gary Ferguson on his book “Land on Fire”

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Author Gary Ferguson
Courtesy photo

Leland Buck

[Introduction]

I spoke with author Gary Ferguson about his newest book, “Land On Fire.” Ferguson is a prolific non-fiction writer with over 20 published books about nature and the American West, including “Hawks Rest: A Season in the Remote Heart of Yellowstone,” the first nonfiction title to win both the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Award and the Mountains and Plains Booksellers Award for Nonfiction. Other works include “Decade of the Wolf: Returning The Wild To Yellowstone,” written with Douglas Smith, which won the 2005 Montana Book Award; “The Great Divide: The Rocky Mountains in the American Mind,” and “The Carry Home,” a very personal memoir which deals with his grief following the death of his wife Jane in a 2005 canoeing accident in Canada. [Read more…]