Wildfires and the pain they cause to people, property and the planet are here to stay. And if Western management practices don’t change to anticipate more and more record fire years, that pain may spread and worsen. “It’s no longer about living with fire,” said Stephen Pyne, an Arizona State University professor who has written more than 30 books about fire and related environmental history.
“It’s about living with a fire age.” That was the message of the Desert Research Institute’s inaugural Adaptable World Environment summit at Encore Las Vegas, focused entirely on how leaders can better prepare communities for the growing danger of fire in a warming world. It brought together utility regulators, water managers and fire scientists to share solutions.
The conference was well situated in Nevada, the state with the country’s two fastest-warming cities that are experiencing more days with wildfire weather than ever before, according to science communications firm Climate Central. Perhaps the most life-threatening Nevada fire so far of 2024 was the nearly 700-acre Gold Ranch Fire that could have burned hundreds of homes near Verdi, a small town in Washoe County. Southern Nevada’s fires have been small and quickly contained.
It’s still nothing compared with California’s Park Fire, the state’s fourth-largest fire ever recorded that had burned 670 square miles and destroyed more than 630 buildings in Northern California as of Thursday. And there isn’t an.