While you’re here, checkout these fun facts!

1) The Forest Service conducts about 4,500 prescribed fires each year! 99.84 percent of those burns go as planned.

2) An inventory in 1911 showed that a typical acre of ponderosa pine habitat had 50 to 60 trees. By the end of the 20th century, after a long national policy of suppressing natural fires, that number has skyrocketed to 1,089 trees per acre.

3) According to a new report from the UN, catastrophic fires could increase by up to a third by 2050 and up to 52 percent by 2100. If emissions are not curbed and the planet heats up more, wildfire risks could rise by up to 57 percent by the end of the century.

YOUR SOON-TO-BE BADGE OF HONOR:

4) In 2020, fires in the western U.S. charred more than 10 million acres, killed at least 43 people, and inflicted $16.5 billion in damage.

5) Even the Arctic, a region that has historically been too wet and cold for large wildfires, could start to regularly host big fires like it did in 2020 and 2021 as global warming transforms permafrost and peatland swamps from soggy, fire-resistant areas into flammable tinderboxes.