Wildfire burn area nearly doubles to 9.1% in watersheds serving 100K+ people
New research in Nature finds wildfire burn area in Western watersheds serving more than 100,000 people nearly doubled to 9.1% annually since a late 20th-century shift. The steepest increases hit forested, high-runoff ranges like Utah's Wasatch and Uinta Mountains and the southern Rockies. For climate and water managers, the findings link wildfire policy directly to water-security and source-water protection.