More Than 1 Million Acres Burn In Alaska Before The End Of June, Another New Record
A record number of acres have burned this month in Alaska, forcing Indigenous people from their homes, compromising air quality and stretching firefighting resources thin. More than 1 million acres have gone up in flames already, officials reported last weekend, the earliest date on record that the state has reached that milestone. The abnormally warm and dry weather — intensified by human-caused climate change — has helped ignite more than 300 wildfires in recent weeks. More than 100 are still burning, including the East Fork Fire, which has charred over 165,000 acres and now ranks as the state’s fifth-largest tundra fire on record.
The blazes reflect some of the shifts the state is experiencing amid climate change, as longer growing seasons thicken tundra vegetation, allowing wildfire spread to skyrocket in recent years. More than 2.5 times more acres burned from 2001 to 2020 than in the previous two decades, according to the International Arctic Research Center. Forecasts predict that more exceptional heat will swell over the state during the next week, which could spark new ignitions.
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The lightning-caused fire never broke through the main containment line, and nearly all evacuees have now returned home, she said. But residents, who depend on fish and wildlife harvests to feed their families, now must contend with the fire’s aftermath: Areas of tundra where they picked berries have burned, Ivanoff said, and some community members are wondering how firefighting retardant dropped from aircraft could affect fish and moose.
Meanwhile, managers have closed Yukon River salmon harvests amid a string of poor fish returns. Ivanoff said St. Mary’s residents are increasingly talking about the threats posed by global warming — even as they pulled together to get through the wildfire. “It’s warmer, it’s drier, even the kids are noticing the changes,” she said. “It’s definitely not what it used to be.”
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/06/23/alaska-record-fires-climate/