DENVER — A new study from researchers at Western Colorado University found faster burning fires are also having more severe impacts on forest landscapes.
The research, published in Global Change Biology, was inspired by one of Colorado’s most devastating wildfires.
“The East Troublesome Fire was a huge inspiration behind this research. This fire occurred in 2020 and blew up over 100,000 acres in a single day," said Jessika McFarland, the lead researcher in the study. "It was absolutely unprecedented wildfire behavior across the Continental Divide and this really had us wondering, while these extreme fire spread events are obviously burning a large area in a short amount of time, what are the impacts to the ecosystems long-term?”
The researchers looked at satellite data from 623 wildfires across the southwestern United States and found extreme fire spread events — defined as those burning more than 12,500 acres in a single day — resulted in larger treeless areas.
Wildfire
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“Extreme fire spread events are generating these large, high-severity areas that effectively are increasing the distance to the nearest live seed sources. We can predict that these areas are less likely to recover to the forest they once were,” McFarland said.
That means ecosystems will be affected long-term.
McFarland said an ecosystem's resilience has impacts on a community’s recreation, tourism, culture and economics. Her research points to growing negative impacts of extreme fire spread events on ecosystems we depend on.
“I would say the biggest takeaway is just thinking about being proactive in the way that we manage our forests, instead of being reactive,” McFarland said.
The study, published in Global Change Biology, was co-authored by Dr. Jonathan Coop, professor of environment and sustainability at Western, among others.