How two record-shattering years of megafires in California affected wildlife habitat
Western Klamath Restoration Partnership prescribed fire at Roger’s Creek near Somes Bar, California, June 2023.
Between 2020 and 2021, the state of California experienced fire activity unlike anything recorded in modern history. When the smoke cleared, the amount of burned forest totaled ten times more than the historical average. Nearly half of that burning was high-severity, the vast majority occurring in very large patches, where wildlife species are not adapted to these kinds of large, high-severity fires.
Researchers set out to investigate how much wildlife habitat burned in 2020 – 2021, especially at high severity. They found that during this two-year period, 16 species of conservation concern – and 100 vertebrate species total – were subject to burning across more than a tenth of their ranges. All of these species experienced severe fire in parts of their ranges, which points to important changes in habitat structure. Land managers have access to many tools that can reduce severe fire behavior to lessen major changes in wildlife habitat.
Prescribed fires, managed wildfires, and tree thinning can increase forest resilience to disturbance by reducing the fuels that promote high-severity fire. This may help to avoid forests converting to shrublands or grasslands, which is more likely when forests burn more often and at higher severity than they used to. Between fuel buildups and climate-worsened drought, it is likely that extreme wildfire seasons will be more common in the future. For managers, it is important to continue to restore dry forest ecosystems to conserve both forests and the wildlife that rely on them.