DENVER—Despite a wet spring over much of the nation, the Obama administration warned Tuesday of potentially catastrophic wildfires this summer, especially in the Southwest and Northwest.
“We’ve been very fortunate here in the central part of the country to have above-normal precipitation to allow us to postpone the fire season,” U.S. Forest Service chief Tom Tidwell said at a news conference in Denver.
But as the summer heat dries out forests and rangeland, the fire danger will rise, said Tidwell, who joined Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and Interior Secretary Sally Jewell at the Denver briefing.
Southern Arizona and drought-stricken California are especially vulnerable to large, costly fires, Tidwell said. Washington, Oregon, northern Idaho and western Montana will face increasing fire danger later in the summer, he said.
Jewell said climate change and drought are to blame for worsening wildfires, which she said destroy homes and businesses, threaten power grids and drinking water and damage river valleys that cost millions and take decades to restore.
“There’s a lot at stake for everyone,” she said.
