Showing papers by "Daniel C. Donato published in 2022"
TL;DR: In this paper , the authors evaluate five questions regarding the 2020 Labor Day fires: (1) How do the 2020 fires compare with historical fires, (2) How did the roles of weather and antecedent climate differ geographically and from the recent past (1979- 2019)? (3) How does fire size and severity compare to other recent fires (1985- 2019), and how did forest management and prefire forest structure change?
Abstract: Wildfires devastated communities in Oregon and Washington in September 2020, burning almost as much forest west of the Cascade Mountain crest ( “ the westside ” ) in 2 weeks (~340,000 ha) as in the previous five decades (~406,00 ha). Unlike dry forests of the interior western United States, temperate rain forests of the Pacific Northwest have experienced limited recent fire activity, and debates surrounding what drove the 2020 fires, and management strategies to adapt to similar future events, necessitate a scientific evaluation of the fires. We evaluate five questions regarding the 2020 Labor Day fires: (1) How do the 2020 fires compare with historical fires? (2) How did the roles of weather and antecedent climate differ geographically and from the recent past (1979 – 2019)? (3) How do fire size and severity compare to other recent fires (1985 – 2019), and how did forest management and prefire forest structure
9 citations