This year is shaping up to be a doozy for wildfires. Already, more acres have burned this year than all of 2023, and we’re only just entering late summer’s peak wildfire season. Fires have forced the evacuation of tens of thousands, closed national parks, and done untold environmental damage.
There are many reasons why there are more fires burning bigger and more intense today than in decades past: climate change has increased drought and expanded the “fire season,” expanded development near and recreation in forests has increased opportunities for fires to start, mismanagement has led to unhealthy forests vulnerable to insects and disease, and decades of fire suppression have caused a dangerous level of fuel accumulation.
Environmental law plays a significant role too, by helping to exacerbate this unprecedented fuel build-up. Laws intended to protect the environment can paradoxically jeopardize wildlife habitat, air and water quality, and forest ecosystems. The reason: those laws were designed to stop or slow public or private action that can have environmental impacts, giving short shrift to the environmental consequences of inaction and delay.
