National Geographic - USA (2022-01)

AUG. 2 6

IN THE U.S.,

WILDFIRES HAVE

ON AVERAGE

BURNED TWICE AS

MUCH LAND PER

YEAR IN THE PAST

TWO DECADES

AS IN THE

PREVIOUS TWO.

—National Interagency

Fire Center

Lassen National Forest, California

PHOTOGRAPH BY

LYNSEY ADDARIO

Firefighters spent
months in 2021 battling
to contain California’s Dixie
fire, which burned nearly a
million acres and destroyed
most of Greenville, a town
of around a thousand.
The number and size of
wildfires across western
North America have
increased in recent years,
driven in part by climate
change, which intensifies
hot, dry conditions that
suck water from living
and dead plants, making
them likelier to burn. Part
of the solution, scientists
agree, is more widespread
use of “good” fire: con-
trolled, low-intensity burns
that clear leaf litter and
brush from the forest
floor, reducing the fuel
for wildfires.

THE INFERNO IN THE FOREST

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