San Diego Declaration: Scientists Say Global Warming Limits Ability to Manage Wildland Fire
Posted on: Tuesday, 29 August 2006, 12:00 CDT
SAN DIEGO, Aug. 29 /PRNewswire/ -- Changes in climate will limit humans' ability to manage wildland fire and apply prescribed fire across the landscape, according to the "San Diego Declaration on Climate Change and Fire Management," released today by the Association for Fire Ecology, the world's largest assembly of fire ecologists.
"Under future drought and high heat scenarios," the Declaration reads, "fires may become larger more quickly and be more difficult to manage. Fire suppression costs may continue to increase, with decreasing effectiveness under extreme fire weather and fuel conditions. Extreme fire events are likely to occur more frequently."
Association President Robin Wills of Oakland, Calif. said the five-page Declaration is being submitted for delegate concurrence at the Third International Fire Ecology and Management Congress to be held November 13-17, 2006, in San Diego.
"We're going to see more fire, not less," Wills said, "and these increases in wildfire occurrence and severity are going to be part of our new reality. We, as a society, must be prepared to cope with these changes."
"Abrupt climate change can lead to rapid and continuous changes that disrupt natural processes and plant communities," reads the Declaration. "Managers are not safe in assuming that tomorrow's climate will mimic that of the last several decades.
"Increased temperatures are projected to lead to broad-scale alteration of storm tracks thereby changing precipitation patterns. Historical data show that such changes in past millennia were often accompanied by alteration of fire regimes with major migration and reorganization of vegetation at regional and continental scales.
"The impacts of climate change may already be emerging as seen in more frequent outbreaks of very large fires, widespread tree die-offs across the southwest United States, expansive insect infestations in the Rocky Mountains, and more rapid and earlier melting of snow packs globally.
"Currently, we are observing wildland fire conditions previously considered rare, such as extreme wildfire events (high heat release and severe impact to ecosystems), lengthened wildfire seasons, and large-scale wildfires in fire-sensitive ecosystems (tropical rain forests and arid deserts)," the Declaration continues. "Climate change has, in part, caused these trends. Therefore, we are deeply concerned that wildfire conditions will only become exacerbated by further climate change."
(Declaration at: http://www.fireecology.net/ .)
Association for Fire Ecology
CONTACT: Association for Fire Ecology, +1-530-204-7688,afe@fireecology.net
Web site: http://www.fireecology.net/
Source: PRNewswire
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