West Coast Forests on Fire

Oregon battles blazes across the state on two fronts: humans and lightning

Kiran Hubbard - December 9, 2023

Fire has been a permanent fixture in Oregon ecosystems as long as they have existed: Intermediate rates of disturbance events, such as wildfires, help promote the growth of new vegetation and animal populations through the release of nutrients from burned material into the soil. Small prescribed burns are often used to ensure the health of forests.

However, fires around the globe have been rapidly increasing in recent decades due to human behavior.

Syracuse University professor of geography and the environment Jacob Bendix researches natural disturbances and their impacts on plant communities. He explained that natural fires tend to be driven by factors such as drought and heat, which have both been amplified by global climate change. This has the potential to be especially harmful to plant species with the capabilities to survive only small fires, not larger, sustained ones.

“Not surprisingly, although unfortunately, we're getting more and especially larger wildfires,” said Bendix. “The kinds of trees or other vegetation that we had before the fires are not going to be replaced in the way that they might have been in the past.”

In addition to causing ecological damage, fires can harm the human communities they reach. Economic hardship can result from the burning of resources, such as timber or buildings, and smoke inhalation and air pollution are significant health hazards. Residents of Oregon constantly live with the possibility of these life-altering effects.

Ethan Manzano, 19, grew up in Sandy, Oregon relatively unaffected by the fires around him. He never gave the blazes a second thought until he was at a utility construction company in 2020.

“I was working one day, and just all of a sudden, the sky just started turning red, orange, it was so scary," Manzano said. "We got the call that I needed to come down because the air wasn't safe. We needed to start evacuating. And it was definitely one of the most surreal moments of my life.”

In 2022 alone, over 200,000 acres of land were estimated to be affected by fires across Oregon. In the past five years, a total of around 2.5 million acres of impact were reported, with a high of 1.1 million acres in 2020 (figure 1).

Jessica Neujahr, the public affairs officer for the protection division of the Oregon Department of Forestry (ODF), described how widespread the effects of these burns are, using the example of the Willamette National Forest fires in 2023.

“These two fires that were in the same spot pretty much affected the entire state at one point. We had a couple of days of bad air quality, and so that's impacting people who have any respiratory issues, any allergies,” said Neujahr. “And you know, fire's terrifying, especially if it's happening right in your backyard. So your people are having to prepare go bags or having to watch out for those evacuation alerts, make sure that they're in the safe zone… and all of that is extremely stressful.”

During every year from 2000-2022, humans have started more fires than lightning strikes. Of the 883 fires with known causes—not under investigation—that occurred in 2022, 667—or 75%—were started by humans. In 2016, 91% of the annual fires with known causes were caused by human activities (figure 2).

Human-caused blazes do have relatively smaller areas of impact than those started by lightning, typically because they happen in more accessible areas and can be reported to 911 immediately by those who start them. However, they divert firefighting time and resources away from larger natural fires. Neujahr explained that the primary goal of reducing human-caused fires is to allow more energy to be allocated toward fighting lightning strike fires.

One of the fundamental aims of general fire mitigation is to help forests become more fire-resilient. Forests that have not undergone the beneficial moderate amount of natural burning become more vulnerable to larger fires, creating a feedback loop that amplifies the size and scale of wildfires. Shaping forests to be fire-resilient will allow them to better contain fires on their own, making these fires much smaller and easier for humans to fight.

As of now, fires in Oregon are only expected to increase in intensity and size. The ODF is preparing to adjust its efforts accordingly, to prevent risk to people and loss of resources as much as possible.

“We are anticipating for more aggressive fire seasons. And with that comes also more aggressive fire prevention, more aggressive mitigation efforts to create those fire resilient forests. And hopefully [we will] bend with the times, move forward with the future of the way the landscape's gonna work. So, that's all we can do on our side,” Neujahr said.