What Are The Potential Impacts For Californias Forests?
The California Regional Assessment notes that an increase in the number and extent of areas burned by wildfires in recent years, and modeling results under changing climate conditions suggest that fires may be hotter, move faster, and be more difficult to contain under future climate conditions. The factors which contribute to the risk of catastrophic fires (fuel loads, high temperatures, dry conditions, and wind) are typically present already in summer and fall seasons in California, but can exist at other times of the year, especially in drought conditions. Public safety is an issue as more home and tourism developments on coastal hills and mountains and the foothills and higher elevations in the Sierra Nevada are highly susceptible to catastrophic wild fires. Other climate impacts affecting forestry are: Higher CO2 concentrations which may increase growth, drought which can kill forests, changes in mineral nutrients, and pest population dynamics. However, more research is needed to
