Oregon Public Broadcasting

Conventional wisdom holds that catastrophic wildfires are getting more common in the Northwest. Now a newly published study on wildfires questions that. Correspondent Tom Banse reports.

The study relies on satellite pictures of fire-prone forests in the Cascade Range from north-central Washington down to northern California.

Four scientists analyzed wildfires since 1984 to see how many burned so hot that little of the forest canopy survived.

Study co-author Dominick DellaSala of Ashland says fire severity is not increasing as widely thought.

Dominick DellaSala: “The assumption was that we've seen a measurable increase in the severity of fire over time and we need to get in and thin as quickly as possible. We're not really opposed to thinning, but what we're saying here is ‘time out.'”

The study authors favor a time out in spotted owl territory to give biologists a chance to pin down possible impacts of tree thinning on the threatened birds.

The study in the journal Conservation Biology does not project future fire risk. Other studies warn that wildfire losses are on the increase with global warming.