Study: Wide-scale cropland loss has consequences for wildfire resilience in the American West, new research finds
The Western U.S. is facing parallel and escalating hazards in the form of ongoing drought and increasingly frequent wildfires. Although the region’s ecosystems have evolved with wildfires, the intensity and frequency of blazes where people live and recreate remains a persistent challenge for communities. New research examines tradeoffs in wildfire resilience when Western communities face hard decisions about adaptation strategies to drought, such as retiring or converting irrigated cropland. … The research, published October 12th in the journal Environmental Research Letters, was co-led by Austen Lorenz and DRI’s Bea Gordon alongside colleagues including fire managers. … The study’s results found that cropland serves as a landscape-scale buffer to wildfire as demonstrated across 11 Western states. ... The research has implications for improving management of both water saving strategies and wildfire risk reduction, which the authors suggest should be managed jointly, rather than in isolation.
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