BEACON ROCK STATE PARK, Skamania County \u2014 As night fell last Monday \nin the Columbia River Gorge, the Oregon slopes burned as if \ncarpet-bombed from above. Winds acted like bellows in a hearth to \nsupercharge the flames spread by embers flying from ridge to ridge. \nStands of trees that matured over decades \u2014 sometimes centuries \u2014 were \nengulfed within minutes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This Eagle Creek blaze is a dramatic reminder that the forests of Western Oregon and Washington, so often cloaked in snow or drenched by rain, have a cycle of fire and renewal. When conditions are right, they can burn in spectacular fashion just like the more arid landscapes east of the Cascades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The\n fires are less frequent than in drier forests, but the burn cycles are \nnot etched in stone. They reflect a climate that scientists forecast to \nundergo big changes in the decades ahead as global combustion of fossil \nfuels warms the Earth. In the Pacific Northwest, climate models indicate\n that average summer temperatures will warm later in this century by 4.7\n degrees to 6.5 degrees compared with the last half of the 20th century.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This\n warming is likely to shorten the burn cycles in the Puget Sound region \nas well as other parts of Western Washington and Western Oregon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Those risks likely will include more smoke hanging around Western \nWashington and Oregon, and more fire threats to west-side communities, \nwhere many homeowners have yet to consider removing close-by trees and \nbrush to create defensible spaces should flames threaten their land.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This year, the smoke is the result of fires that have burned around \nthe Pacific Northwest, including more than 732,000 acres in Washington \nand Oregon. Significant fires have flared west of the Cascades, \nincluding the Eagle Creek fire that has burned more than 32,000 acres, \nand threatened small communities outside of Portland.\nADVERTISING<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If\n the models analyzed by the University of Washington are accurate, this \nPacific Northwest summer could be a mild preview for the kind of heat we\n are likely to routinely experience later in the century. The three \nmonths that ended in August ranked as the third-hottest Pacific \nNorthwest summer on record. Yet, they fall on the low end of what is \nforecast in the last half of this century, according to Snover.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That additional heat would make the forests more vulnerable to fire. \nTwo studies cited by the Climate Impacts Group estimate that the average\n acreage burned in a year west of the Cascades at the end of this \ncentury would be double the average burned during the last half of the \n20th century.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fire ecologists who study the history of our region note earlier periods of intense fire activity in the west-side forests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Olympic Peninsula, for example, had a series of mega-fires that \nburned more than 1 million acres during a 33-year period in the 1700s, \naccording to research that looked at tree rings and fire scars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
More recently, the September 1902 Yacolt Burn raged across more than 230,000 acres, spreading largely through Western Washington forests north of the Columbia River Gorge. This was a fearsome fire even for residents from Seattle who were hit with what The Seattle Times reported as \u201cgreat banks of smoke clouds\u201d that drifted over the city, blotted out the sun and \u201cfloated through the streets of the city like an awful quiet harbinger of approaching doom.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Delivered \nweeknights, this email newsletter gives you a quick recap of the day’s \ntop stories and need-to-know news, as well as intriguing photos and \ntopics to spark conversation as you wind down from your day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Prolonged summer heat is a key ingredient for such \nbig fire seasons, and the Climate Impacts Group forecasts that predict \nthe 21st-century warming are based on an analysis of more than three \ndozen climate models with different projections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Researchers then develop an average annual temperature based on a \nscenario that assumes aggressive efforts to reduce fossil-fuel \nemissions. They also include scenarios with the use of petroleum, coal \nand natural gas continuing roughly at current levels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The models project that the summer heat will come with less rain, further drying out the forests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This year a dry, hot August primed west-side forests to burn. Forest \nService officials, since 1990, have estimated the moisture content of \nlarge dead trees on the ground. By the end of August, those estimates \nindicated they were potent fuel for fires, according to John \nSaltenberger, fire weather program manager for the Portland-based \nNorthwest Interagency Coordination Center.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAll across the Northwest, they were either at \u2014 or exceeding \u2014 the \nlowest values on record, especially on the west side,\u201d Saltenberger \nsaid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Wildfires don\u2019t happen without a source of ignition. People often \nprovide that first flame, particularly in west-side forests where \nlightning is less common than east of the Cascades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Oregon State Police say a 15-year-old boy from Vancouver, Washington,\n is suspected of starting the Sept. 2 fire in the Columbia River Gorge, \nbut he has not been charged. He allegedly tossed a firework while on a \ntrail along Eagle Creek, a steep side canyon near Bonneville Dam that \nincluded old-growth Douglas fir, cedar and other softwoods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
More than 150 hikers were trapped until Sunday, when they could be \nsafely evacuated. The fire blew up Monday afternoon, as temperatures \nclimbed past 90 degrees, humidity dropped and winds from the east roared\n through the Gorge with gusts as high as 55 mph.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 16 hours, the fire marched some 12 miles to the west, moving\n through the heart of one of the most popular hiking areas in the \nPortland area. People gathered along the Washington side of the river \nfor a ringside seat to an enthralling and humbling display of nature\u2019s \nforces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As trees ignited, fiery red avalanches of flames snaked along the \nGorge\u2019s steep flanks. Some embers flew north across the Columbia River \nto Washington, and set off a new fire near the town of Skamania.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThat fire made a historic run. It\u2019s fire behavior we haven\u2019t seen in\n this area for a long time,\u201d said Jim Trammell, fire-defense chief for \nHood River County in Oregon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In recent days, there has been an outpouring of grief over what was lost, as well as anger at the act that touched off the fire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As the weather eased, the fire \u2014 while far from contained \u2014 grew calmer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
During a media tour along the Oregon side of the Gorge, it was \npossible to take a closer look. You could see how the fire \u2014 despite its\n ferocity \u2014 burned unevenly. In some areas, once-green forests turned \ninto patches of dead snags. Elsewhere, the flames laid low and crept \nalong the forest floor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Scientists remind us that such fires help to bring about new \nlife, and remain an essential part of the forest ecology. Berry plants, \nfor example, will flourish in newly opened areas and provide food for \nwildlife. Seedlings will emerge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cEven in the areas of the most intense burn, it is not an end, but a beginning, when you understand the processes that are at work,\u201d said Dominick DellaSala, chief scientist for the Geos Institute, of Ashland, Oregon, and co-author of a book that focuses on the ecological importance of forest fires.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Scientists still are uncertain just how the west-side forests will evolve in a century with more frequent fires.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some studies predict forests will contain less wood, and thus store \nless carbon, according to the Climate Impacts Group. That\u2019s largely due \nto the forecasts that more will burn, as well as greater impacts from \ndisease and insects, according to Snover.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The mix of trees may change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some species, such as hemlock and cedar, have thin bark and readily \nsuccumb to fire. So they may find themselves in retreat. Other species, \nsuch as Douglas fir, have thicker bark and are far more resilient to \nfire and regenerate in direct sunlight. They are likely to fare better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018\u201dI fully expect, with climate change, some shifts in \nvegetation to occur,\u201d said Jane Kertis, a U.S. Forest Service scientist \nbased in Corvallis, Oregon. \u201cFire is laying bare the conditions for that\n to begin.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
BEACON ROCK STATE PARK, Skamania County \u2014 As night fell […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":37,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[35,42,47,66],"class_list":["post-2956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-update","tag-bigger-fires","tag-cascades","tag-climate-change","tag-forests"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/millionairemag.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/millionairemag.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/millionairemag.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/millionairemag.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/millionairemag.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2956"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/millionairemag.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2956\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/millionairemag.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/millionairemag.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/millionairemag.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/millionairemag.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}