PHOENIX — A dire prediction is out from the Forest Service with Arizona just weeks away from the 2013 wildfire season.
A new report said wildfires will only chew up more area in the next few years because of climate change. The area burned by wildfire is expected to at least double in the next 25 years. Wildfire expert Jim Paxon with Arizona Game and Fish said the situation has been building for a long time.
“Firefighters have been watching this situation. The last time we had normal winter snow coupled with a normal monsoon was 1992 to 1993. This is a very serious situation.”
Paxon said the forests are a tinderbox because of bark beetles, which have killed off millions of trees in the west. The tree-destroying insects thrive in drought situations.
Arizona’s largest wildfire on record burned more than a half-million acres in eastern Arizona in 2011. The Wallow Fire forced the evacuation of thousands of people from Alpine, Eagar, Greer and Springerville. Paxon said huge fires are going to become commonplace in our future and across the west.”
“We will see a lot of half-million- to million-acre fires in the next few years.”
Wildfires burned more than one million acres in Arizona in 2011 but 2012 brought a relatively tame year with about 200,000 acres charred. Colorado and New Mexico had devastating, record-setting wildfires. More than nine million acres burned in the lower 48 states, which is the third-highest year on record.
“We’ve had record high temperatures in Missoula, Mont. when it was warmer than Phoenix. This is crazy weather. If we don’t clean up the forests Mother Nature will. And when she does it we start over. Her broom sweeps the forests clean.”
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