Forest fires Archives

Forest fires

Tree Sleuths

How DNA is transforming the fight against illegal logging

Combustion Engines

On any given day last summer, the smoke-choked skies over Missoula, Montana, swarmed with an average of twenty-eight helicopters and eighteen fixed-wing craft, a blitz waged against Lolo Peak, Rice…

There Will Always Be Fires

by Scott Sayare,

The pinhal interior, a wooded region of hills and narrow hollows in rural central Portugal, used to be farmland. Well into the latter half of the past century, the fields…

Strike Team

by Peter M. Leschak,

The first thing we did was build a bridge over Slough Creek, a pristine trout stream in the northern reaches of Yellowstone National Park. I felt strange—digging and hammering in…

Ravalli County, Montana

by Celia Talbot Tobin,

In the summer of 2016, the Roaring Lion fire destroyed 8,500 acres across western Montana. Fighting the blaze, which required nine helicopters and 735 firefighters and other personnel, cost $11…