fire

Civilization has been shown by a new study to have had a major influence on the incidence of natural area fires. The last two millenia have seen wild swings in fire frequency due to changing human activities. Since about 1970, and the wide-spread loss of human control, the pattern has been "burn baby burn."

Twenty years ago, America awoke to frantic headlines that our first national park, Yellowstone, was being destroyed by fire. Now, after 20 years, the facts on the ground say otherwise.

Small-scale Fires Key to Understanding Forest Structure

For 94 years, forest caretakers have restricted Mother Nature by suppressing forest fires. Now a Penn State geographer wants to know what the forests would have been like if we'd let them burn.