The chief of the U.S. Forest Service is warning that a billion acres of land across America are at risk of catastrophic wildfires like last fall’s deadly Camp Fire that destroyed most of Paradise, Calif.

As we head into summer, with smoke already drifting into the Northwest from wildfires in Alberta, Canada, Vicki Christiansen said wildfires are now a year-round phenomenon. She pointed to the hazardous conditions in forests that result from a history of suppression of wildfires, rampant home development in high-risk places and the changing climate.

“When you look nationwide there’s not any place that we’re really at a fire season. Fire season is not an appropriate term anymore.”

Christiansen’s agency is the nation’s lead firefighting apparatus. It’s trying to prioritize treatments such as thinning, brush clearing and prescribed burning on 80 million acres of its own land, mostly in the West. (Her billion acre estimate includes land across multiple federal, state and local jurisdictions as well as private land.)

Even with the push for more mitigation under Christiansen, the Forest Service is predicting it could spend upward of $2.5 billion just fighting fires this year alone. The agency was budgeted $1.7 billion and will likely again have to transfer money from existing forest management and fire mitigation programs to cover the difference.

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As California’s catastrophic wildfires recede and people rebuild after two hurricanes, a massive new federal report warns that these types of extreme weather disasters are worsening in the United States. The White House report quietly issued the Friday after Thanksgiving also frequently contradicts President Donald Trump.

The National Climate Assessment was written long before the deadly fires in California this month and Hurricanes Florence and Michael raked the East Coast and Florida. It says warming-charged extremes “have already become more frequent, intense, widespread or of long duration.”

The federal report says the last few years have smashed records for damaging weather in the U.S., costing nearly $400 billion since 2015. “Warmer and drier conditions have contributed to an increase in large forest fires in the western United States and interior Alaska,” according to the report.

The air pollution from wildfires combined with heat waves is a major future health risk for the West, the report says. During the fires in northern California, air quality hit “hazardous” levels, according to government air monitoring agencies.

The report is mandated by law every few years and is based on hundreds of previously research studies. It details how global warming from the burning of coal, oil and gas is hurting each region of United States and how it impacts different sectors of the economy, including energy and agriculture.

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Yellowstone National Park escaped the summer without any large conflagrations in its forests, but that could be an anomaly under the current pace of climate change. Pikas could vanish from parks such as Lassen Volcanic and Great Basin. Glaciers and Joshua trees could be seen only in photographs and paintings in their namesake parks, and Virgin Islands and Hawai’i Volcanoes national parks could see diminished rainfall.

Southwestern parks such as Canyonlands, Grand Canyon, and Arches, already hot and arid, stand to become more so as droughts such as the current one become more commonplace.

Those are just some of the changes coming to the National Park System in the coming decades if anthropogenic climate change isn’t reversed, according to new research from scientists at the University of California Berkeley, and the University of Wisconsin.

Simply put, the scientists say, the landscapes preserved by the National Park System are bearing a disportionately greater impact of climate change than the rest of the United States. The reason, they say, is that a greater percentage of the National Park System is located at higher elevations than most U.S. landscapes. Also, because Alaska has more national park acreage than the rest of the country.

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This summer has felt like a global warming turning point. Now, another milestone: Saturday, August 11, 2018 was the hottest day in the history of Glacier National Park, and its first recorded time reaching 100 degrees F. On the same day, lightning started three fires in the Montana park, which has since been partly evacuated and closed. On Sunday, hot and dry winds helped the biggest fire expand rapidly.

Right now, every state west of the Mississippi is at least partly in drought, including Montana. Missoula, the closest major city to Glacier National Park, hasn’t had any measurable rain for 40 days, and none is in the short-term forecast either — a streak that will likely wind up being the driest stretch in local recorded history, beating a mark set just last year.

It’s clear that Montana is already becoming a vastly different place. In recent decades, warmer winters have helped mountain pine beetles thrive, turning mountains red with dead pines. In 1850, there were 150 glaciers in the area now known as Glacier National Park. Today there are 26. They’ve been there for 7,000 years — but in just a few decades, the glaciers of Glacier National Park will almost surely be gone. By then the park will need a new name. Glacier Memorial Park doesn’t have the same ring to it.

As bad as climate change already is in Montana and throughout the West, the prognosis for the future is much worse. Compared to 1950, Montana has had 11 more 90 degree-plus days each summer. Without rapid emissions reductions, by 2100, there could be an additional 58 more in Northern Montana. Eastern Montana could have as many as 70 more — about the same as present-day New Orleans.

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The worst ravages of climate change are on display around the world.

Wildfires have ripped through towns in Greece, floods have submerged parts of Laos, and heat waves have overwhelmed Japan and Great Britain. These are striking examples of climate change playing out in its deadliest forms, and they’re making the term “natural disaster” an outdated concept.

People in Greece were jumping into the Aegean Sea to escape advancing wildfires. More than 70 are confirmed dead so far, and some scenes are horrific. Weather has played a role in drying out forests throughout Europe, where the number of fires this year is 43 percent above normal.

Greece and much of the Mediterranean region is projected to turn into desert over the next several decades, and there are signs that this shift has already begun. As the region’s native trees die off and urban areas expand into neglected forests, firefighting resources are becoming woefully overmatched.

Sweden has called for emergency assistance from the rest of the European Union to help battle massive wildfires burning north of the Arctic Circle. Across the western United States, 50 major wildfires are burning in parts of 14 states, fueled by severe drought. The wildfires burning in Siberia earlier this month sent smoke plumes from across the Arctic all the way to New England, four thousand miles away.

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He posted photos of himself on Facebook as he hiked hundreds of miles of the vast Pacific Crest Trail, masked in a bandanna to protect his lungs from the smoke of the fires that had closed down parts of it. She told him about the inner workings of NASA, where she was a college intern in Alabama.

As the West burned a year ago, Mark Beebe, the hiker, and Tara Prevo, the intern who was then stationed more than 2,000 miles away, began getting to know one another first through a connection on Facebook, then through texts, phone calls and trailside video. He told her of his job delivering pizzas in Portland, Ore., to make ends meet, leaving long days to rove the woods. She told him about her time of homelessness, living for a monthslong stretch out of a pickup truck.

But it was the fires, they said — and the lure of the Pacific Crest Trail, which Ms. Prevo was already dreaming of trying to hike herself — that forged their relationship.

By the end of 2017, the West had suffered one of the worst fire years in decades and an area more than three times the size of Connecticut lay charred, the second-worst year since the early 1950s. East of Portland, a portion of the Pacific Crest Trail — the western counterpart to the Appalachian Trail and a place that defines for many people a kind of spirit path on which to test oneself or find meaning — burned on for three months through the steep terrain of the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area.

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Located in the remote northern corner of Wind Cave National Park, Boland Ridge Trail crosses the wide open prairie, then a series of ridge climbs offer panoramic views of the Black Hills, the Red Valley, and the western South Dakota plains beyond. Because of the isolated nature, elk and bison are often seen along this trail. In fact, we had to cut this one about a mile short because of bison on the trail. My brother Dave and I hiked Boland Ridge Trail on Thursday, May 24, 2018 beginning about 10:00AM and finishing at 12:30PM. Our plan was to go to the end of the trail and turn around, but two groups of bison made it difficult to pass, so we stopped short.

As you drive the dirt roads through the heart of Wind Cave National Park, keep your eyes peeled for wildlife. Just in the few miles between Rankin Ridge and the Boland Ridge trailhead we saw pronghorn and buffalo grazing on the vast prairie. Keep your ears open too for the chirping sound made by the prairie dogs. Oh, and please don’t run over them with your car. They will come out on the roads.

The Boland Ridge trailhead is in kind of an odd place. It’s simply out in the middle of the prairie, miles from anywhere. There’s a sign there and a few parking places off the side of the road, otherwise it’s just as nondescript as the rest of the grassland.

For the first half mile the trail traverses the prairie, crossing a small creek once. There is an old trough by the creek, perhaps formerly used by cattle ranchers. The only grazing these days is by the wild animal variety.

This area is called the Red Valley, and you can see for miles in every direction. They call Montana Big Sky country, but you get the same effect here on the South Dakota plains. You can see from horizon to horizon.

There are two small hills to be climbed, each of about 200 feet elevation gain, neither particularly steep. On this day in late May there was a variety of wildflowers including phlox and puccoon.

The pines that line the ridges here were unfortunately damaged by a grassland wildfire that swept the area in 2010. Amazingly the pine needles did not burn, but they all turned an orangish/brown hue that detracts from otherwise delightful natural beauty. Black scars are a sign of the flames that licked the tree trunks.

As we topped the second ridge the wide expanse of the rolling hills came in to view. So too did an obstruction just 50 yards away, right in the middle of the trail. A small family of bison was grazing right where we were headed. There were six right in front of us, and another two about a hundred yards farther away. They didn’t seem threatening, but we certainly didn’t plan on walking right through them.

The trail curved right through this small herd of bison.

To our left was a small hill that would take us safely around the bison, while also offering a nice view of our surroundings. There also happened to be some nice rocks at the top of the hill, perfect for sitting, and a great opportunity to change to longer lenses on our cameras. We even found some rocks under a pine tree that made a perfect lunch spot.

As we photographed the bison and enjoyed our sandwiches, we looked ahead toward the next ridge on the trail. There was a dip into a small valley, then another climb back up to the level where we were. And… there were more bison over there too!

It was looking like if we wanted to hike to the end of Boland Ridge Trail that we would have to continue mingling amongst the giant mammals that outweighed us by ten times. Discretion became the better part of valor, and we decided it was best to just cut this hike short and be content with what we had seen so far.

The return was easier as it was mostly downhill. Even more flowers were popping out now as we entered afternoon, and there were several golf and tennis ball sized mushrooms growing on the prairie grass.

When we got back to the car we decided to continue out park road #6 northward where it enters the adjacent Custer State Park. To our right was a family of pronghorn, totally oblivious to our presence. The wildlife around Wind Cave are very accustomed to people.

In summary, this moderate hike of three to five miles will give you a good idea what the above ground terrain of Wind Cave National Park is all about. They say there are usually elk here. We didn’t see any on this day, but we sure got a treat with bison and pronghorn. Because of the remote nature of this trail, you are very likely to have it all to yourself.

I don’t normally promote businesses in my trail reports, but Dave and I had such an excellent experience at the Econolodge in Custer that I had to mention it. The staff that works there are all super friendly, helpful and knowledgeable. We stayed with them for six nights and were completely satisfied. The price is very reasonable and the amenities are all that we needed. If you’re staying in Custer, SD I highly recommend the Econolodge.

This post was created by Jeff Clark. Please feel free to use the sharing icons below, or add your thoughts to the comments. Pack it in, pack it out. Preserve the past. Respect other hikers. Let nature prevail. Leave no trace.

“Last year was the most challenging year we’ve had in terms of dealing with closures on the PCT,” said Beth Boyst, who for the last 11 years has been the trail’s chief administrator with the U.S. Forest Service (the PCT passes through all different designations of federal and state land, but USFS holds the lead oversight role). Boyst’s tenure has seen the PCT through some tenuous conditions. She watched California’s five-year drought take its toll on the trail, only to be mitigated by last year’s near-record snowfall that made hiking the Sierra Nevada mountains—even in midsummer—a dubious proposition.

The PCT, “America’s Wilderness Trail,” runs from the Mexican border to Canada, traversing some of the West’s most iconic places: the Mojave Desert, the Sierra, the Cascades. That it even exists is a symbolic statement about the country’s priorities—a single pathway from the southern border to the northern border of the United States, the vast majority of it on public land.

As it traces its way through six national parks, 25 national forest units, and 48 federal wilderness areas, it weaves a narrative of changing ecosystems and the monumental effort required to set aside and protect each one. It’s not just the snow-capped peaks that make the PCT iconic. It’s the long stretches in the arid Southern California desert, the thick, sunlight-blocking forests in the Pacific Northwest, the fact that they’re all part of the same trail and open to the public.

Every year, a few hundred thru-hikers walk the trail’s entire 2,650-mile length, but the number of people who simply set foot on some part of it each year is closer to a million. For thru-hikers, desert conditions in the south and heavy snowfall at high elevations mean their five-month hike must take place in a short window, generally between April and September.

Even more so than its East Coast sibling, the Appalachian Trail, the PCT is uniquely susceptible to the effects of climate change. “The West has been the center of the warming, and the warming in the West has been greater than it has been in the East,” said Hugh Safford, a regional ecologist with the Forest Service’s Pacific Southwest office. “Water stress is a much bigger issue in the West.”

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The Fourmile Canyon Fire, sparked by a backyard burn west of Boulder, Colorado, in 2010, caused $220 million in damage and destroyed 168 homes. It also scorched nearly a quarter of a watershed that supplies water to the nearby community of Pine Brook Hills. The problems didn’t end there: Long after the blaze was put out, intense rainstorms periodically washed sediment and other particles downstream, disrupting water treatment and forcing the local water district to stop pulling water from Fourmile Creek, leaving it reliant upon water already collected in its reservoir.

In forested watersheds — the source of 65 percent of the West’s water supply — trees, soil and leaf litter soak up precipitation like a sponge, then slowly release it to aquifers, streams and rivers. But wildfires can sear the soil, making it water-repellent, and incinerate stabilizing plant roots. “Then, when it rains, all that water gets transported right off the surface,” ferrying sediment, nutrients and debris downstream, says Jeff Writer, a hydrologist at the University of Colorado Boulder. Sometimes precipitation triggers deadly mudslides that destroy homes and bury highways. Sediment can also shroud streambeds and reservoirs, forcing managers to dredge or conduct other costly fixes.

Now, new research suggests that such water-quality problems might become more frequent across the West. Climate change is already causing a surge in wildfire activity. As a result, scientists expect to see a rise in erosion in most of the region’s watersheds in the coming decades. Sediment and ash running off burned hillsides into streams can clog reservoirs, smother fish and disrupt municipal water supplies.

In many places, however, water managers and other officials are already taking steps to prepare for both wildfire and its long-term aftereffects. For communities that rely on forested drainages for their water, “It is a key aspect of water supply and watershed protection to plan for a wildfire.”

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As of September 15, 2017, over 8,834,487 acres across the United States have been burned by wildfire, the highest number of wildfire acres burned in year-to-date records kept by the National Interagency Fire Center. The highest total acreage burned in any year on record is 9,873,745, in 2006.

Wildfire is a necessary and important part of a natural landscape, but it is undeniable that some wildfires have harsh and negative impacts on communities, water resources, outdoor recreation resources, and fish and wildlife habitat. In these cases, post-fire restoration can be crucial to prevent further damage and to spur recovery.

Loss of vegetation as a result of an intensely burning large fire can expose soil to erosion. Following such a fire, storm events or spring runoff on denuded slopes can cause ravaging floods and debris flows, which may damage structures, roads, trails, water reservoirs, put community water supplies at risk, and harm critical wildlife habitat. These adverse impacts can continue to occur for years after the fires are extinguished.

As soon as it is safe to do so, sometimes even before a fire is totally suppressed, the Forest Service begins a process called a burned area emergency response (BAER).

BAER is an assessment intended to protect life, property, water quality, important archeological resources, and impacted ecosystems from further damage. If emergency conditions exist after a fire, then, if possible, steps will be taken in attempt to alleviate emergency conditions such as helping to stabilize soil, and to control water, sediment and debris movement.

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