Researchers found a significant increase in wildfires across the eastern United States in an area known as the Eastern Temperate Forest, which spans from Michigan southward to eastern Texas, all the way to the Atlantic coast, including Florida.
Other research shows that more homes have burned within wildlife perimeters in recent years, according to Victoria M. Donovan, lead author of the UF study and an assistant professor of forest management at the UF/IFAS West Florida Research and Education Center.
Ms. Donovan isolated three core drivers of wildfires: patterns of ignition, changes in fuel, and the overall climate.
Patterns of ignition include not only natural events like lightning but also human activities like arson, fireworks, burning yard debris, smoking, and driving vehicles over dry vegetation.
Flammable debris, leaves, and underbrush are natural fuel sources, which can be mitigated with “prescribed fires,” or when state agencies use controlled fires to systematically burn swathes of underbrush, Ms. Donovan explained. These prescribed fires can remove the natural fuel sources that make wildfires stronger, larger, and harder to contain.
A hotter and drier climate also creates an atmosphere conducive to wildfires, she said.
Ms. Donovan emphasized the importance of prescribed fires in replenishing the natural ecosystem and in managing the natural fuel sources that make wildfires a threat to human life.
“So if we don’t put in these frequent fires, we see an accumulation of fuel, we see species that are not fire tolerant starting to encroach into these ecosystems and become dominant in the understory. And then when those systems do ignite, all of a sudden, the fires become a lot more intense, they can be a lot more destructive, and then much more difficult for us to suppress,” she said.
While different states have varying legislation to utilize prescribed fires, Florida is unique in its approach.
“Florida is definitely a leader in the country in terms of kind of supporting prescribed fire and leading in prescribed fire legislation or legislation that helps support the application of prescribed fire,” Ms. Donovan explained.
Florida regularly uses prescribed fires in natural preserves and state parks throughout the state, displaying signs in many of these areas that educate residents and visitors about the importance of these controlled burns.
While Florida’s fires historically occur in the spring and summer months, researchers are seeing more fires toward the end of the summer season as well, Ms. Donovan said.
However, present-day Florida is following practices that go back generations.
Indigenous communities have been using prescribed fires for centuries before American colonization, Ms. Donovan said.
But prescribed fires are not simply beneficial when wildfires break out; they also improve the soil and facilitate the natural ecosystem.
“Small fires that clear out overgrown areas of heavy brush allow room for a variety of new plants to grow. The assortment of new plants provides valuable food and habitat for many wildlife species, encouraging greater biodiversity.
“In forests, low-severity fires can help thin the canopy, allowing sunlight to reach the forest floor. For the soil, the combination of new light, open space, and nutrient-rich ash creates the perfect conditions for new seedlings,” according to the WFCA report.
The WFCA also notes that fires can help kill diseases and harmful insects. But, large fires that burn for too long can negatively impact air quality, damage homes and businesses, and diminish sources of drinking water.
Ms. Donovan notes that many plant species in areas prone to wildfires have adapted to fire throughout thousands of years.
“And most of the species that live in these frequently burned systems are adapted to avoid detriment from fire,” she said. “So fires aren’t damaging ecosystems, they’re benefiting them.”
Responding to the threat of encroaching wildfires can be as simple as using fire-resistant building materials like metal roofs on homes, but also by enacting evacuation plans before disaster strikes, Ms. Donovan said.
The critical factor is convincing the public of the importance of prescribed fires.
“And so the more people can learn and understand prescribed fire and its importance, both to ecosystems as a whole, but also for reducing wildfire risk, [then] the easier it’s going to be for us to continue to burn and help to reduce that risk from wildfires,” she said.
