Wildfires Increase in Eastern United States for 36 Years Overlooked Amid 'Wildfire Research Focus in the West' [Study]

Wildfires are some of the most common yet deadly and disruptive environmental catastrophes on Earth. They can impact not only vegetation and animals, including terrestrial natural habitats but also local human populations.

Wildland fires can be triggered by either natural or anthropogenic factors, as observed in previous incidents. Regardless, these fast-spreading blazes are a force to be reckoned with.

Although wildfires, which include forest fires and bushfires, can occur in different parts of the world, these disasters are relatively common in the tropic and subtropic regions. In the United States, long-standing wildfire research suggests that wildfire risk is high in the western part of the country, especially in California.

However, a new study says that wildfires are also increasing in other parts of the US, including in the eastern US, amid wildfire research is focused in the drought-stricken, warmer American West.

US Wildfire Research

In the study entitled Increasing Large Wildfire in the Eastern United States, scientists have determined that the western US has remained a focus of wildfire research and resource allocation. However, wildfire risk is also increasing in the eastern US, with increasingly large wildfires also being reported in multiple regions of the globe.

The study was published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters on Monday, December 18. The scientific paper was led by a University of Florida research team, who conducted in-depth assessment of large wildfire regime characteristics.

The team collected data on the size, number, total hectares burned, seasonality, probability of occurrence, and ignition source of the wildland fires in the eastern US over a 36-year period. In general, the researchers focused on fires that burned large areas across the US region.

Eastern US Wildfire

Based in a news release by the University of Florida on Monday, the study about the increasing eastern US wildfires used data from the federal Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity Database between the years 1984 and 2020. The database includes large wildfires that burned more than 200 hectares or 490 acres of total land area.

As mentioned earlier, the decades-long wildfire risk increase in the eastern US was overlooked as attention and budget are focused more on the West Coast. The recent study's lead author, Victoria Donovan, stated that this is a "serious issue" that lacks the attention of people since there is also a rising incidence of wildfires across the US.

The increasing wildfire risk can be attributed mainly to fire weather conditions such as warm temperatures and humidity, which are in favor of fire growth and spread. Since the western US is relatively more subjected to wildfires, the latest findings on its eastern counterpart are a matter of great concern.

One of the study's advocacies implies that there is a need for proactive management and individual preparedness in the context of increasing US wildfires.