Growing fire risk fuels tree-plantation doubts

Ashes from a fire, one of hundreds that burned in Chile’s Biobío region in Feb. 2023, blanket the forest floor near the city of Cabrero. (Photos by Castro and Schnaidt/Shutterstock)

When record Canadian wildfires this past boreal summer fouled the air as far south as Atlanta, Georgia, the Americas for the second time this year experienced how bad woodland blazes can become in the era of climate change. The first example came in February, when Chile endured some of the worst wildfires in its history. Like many other countries in the Americas and around the world, Chile faces sharply elevated wildfire risk. That’s thanks in large part to shifting weather patterns associated with climate change. And in central-south Chile, the problem is exacerbated by the proliferation of monoculture tree plantations, whose exotic species—mainly pine and eucalyptus—tend to catch fire more easily and burn more intensely than native-forest tree species. In response, Chile’s government last month more than doubled the length of the official fire season. Until now, the fire season was considered to run from mid... Read more →