![]() ![]() Strong late-season Santa Ana winds are now rapidly driving the flames forward, putting one of the most populated regions of the country at risk this week. That these blazes, which are mostly still uncontained, are all happening now is due in part to low rainfall and high temperatures this year, which left dry fuel all around Southern California. The largest of these are the Thomas Fire, the Creek Fire, the Rye Fire, the Lilac Fire, the Liberty Fire, and the Skirball Fire. Javier Zarracina/VoxĪmid the harrowing images of smoldering hillsides and homes turned to ash, one of the most remarkable facts about these fires is that they are burning large swaths in separate places at the same time, as you can see in this map. They’ve already torched 158,000 acres, and forecasters are expecting strong winds throughout region over the weekend, making the fires worse. Given the impacts of large-scale habitat shifts in a short period of time, coupled with the likelihood that extreme fires will be more common in the future, this new paper adds to the body of research and underscores the importance of increasing the pace and scale of proactive forest management.Six large fires are now simultaneously burning around Southern California. Gavin Jones, senior author and Ayars' advisor, has conducted research on how proactive forest management can offset risks over the long term of California spotted owl habitat loss from increased wildfire size and severity. ![]() Some good news is that by looking more closely at some of the details around habitat change by species, scientists learned that these fires are not disproportionately impacting habitats for species of conservation concern compared to wildlife species in general, a finding that suggests that where these species live may serve as refugia for them. Previous research shows that some species such as great gray owls may benefit from fire in terms of foraging habitat and can be somewhat resilient, but again, the unknown is whether that benefit holds true with this magnitude of habitat change in such a short time. Sixteen of those species are considered species of management concern, such as the great gray owl, wolverine, Pacific marten, and northern rubber boa. One hundred species experience high severity fire over more than 10% of their geographic range within California. Researchers looked at more than 600 wildlife species and found that for 50 species, fires spanned 15-30% of habitat within their range in the state. The fires and habitat studied were mostly located in the Sierra Nevada, southern Cascades, and Klamath mountain regions of California. ![]() Jessalyn Ayars, the lead author, said, "Our intent was to take a broad look to gain a better understanding of the impacts of these kinds of fires on wildlife habitat as a whole." She continued, "and since each species is different, this study provides a good jumping-off point for others to be able to focus on a single species of interest or small group of species that share similar habitats." Coupling that with Forest Service records of wildfires and some fancy computer footwork gave researchers an opportunity to take a broad look at how these types of "megafires" are shaping wildlife habitat within the state. California's Department of Fish and Wildlife curates a comprehensive wildlife database, mapping habitat suitability of hundreds of species across the state. Nearly half of the forests that burned experienced high-severity fire, killing 75-100% of the vegetation, and much of this fire covered large continuous areas, rather than a patchy mosaic. When the smoke cleared, the amount of burned forest totaled ten times more than the annual average going back to the late 1800s. Why California and why this time period? In 20, California experienced fire activity unlike anything recorded in the modern record.
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