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Megafires: The New Normal In The Southwest

2:17 am

Thu August 23, 2012

How The Smokey Bear Effect Led To Raging Wildfires

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Adams (left) talks with Swetnam in their laboratory, nestled under the football stadium.

Credit David Gilkey / NPR

Rex Adams, a senior research specialist at the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research, steps away from a band saw that he uses to slice tree ring samples.

Credit David Gilkey / NPR

Swetnam leaves his laboratory for the evening. Fires in the Southwest have been getting bigger and bigger over the past two decades. The Wallow fire in Arizona, Swetnam says, was "a tornado of fire." "It burned more than 40,000 acres in the first eight hours," he says.

Credit David Gilkey / NPR

By cross-dating different tree-ring samples from a given area, researchers can get a clearer picture of how a forest burns.

Credit David Gilkey / NPR

Swetnam stands in the catacombs of storage boxes that house thousands of tree-ring samples. His laboratory is buried under the bleachers of the University of Arizona football stadium.

Credit David Gilkey / NPR

A perfect tree-ring slice is a window in time, a slice of a forest's history.

Credit David Gilkey / NPR

A tree's rings are marked on graph paper. Experts use this technique, called skeleton plotting, to help them cross-date tree-ring samples. This sample evinces no fire scars in the latest years of the tree's life.

Credit David Gilkey / NPR

University of Arizona professor Tom Swetnam examines a tree sample at the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research in Tucson, Ariz. Swetnam's research focuses on understanding how forest fires are influenced by climate change.

Credit David Gilkey / NPR

Tree-ring samples are collected from every corner of the world and meticulously studied and stored in Swetnam's lab. The thick, dark rings on these samples are fire scars. Last year, more than 74,000 wildfires burned over 8.7 million acres in the U.S.

Credit David Gilkey / NPR

Swetnam holds a tree ring sample; it shows no forest fire scars from the past 100 years. The Forest Service's aggressive efforts to fight fires over the past century have had unintended consequences.

Credit David Gilkey / NPR

A Smokey the Bear fire prevention sign sits in Valles Caldera along Highway 4, which was one of the front lines in fighting the Las Conchas Fire in 2011.

By Christopher Joyce

Originally published on Fri August 24, 2012 6:50 pm

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First of a five-part series

The history of fire in the American Southwest is buried in a catacomb of rooms under the bleachers of the football stadium at the University of Arizona.

Here rules professor Thomas Swetnam, tree ring expert. You want to read a tree ring? You go to Tom. He's a big, burly guy with a beard and a true love for trees.

Around the Nation

6:39 am

Wed August 22, 2012

Restaurant Request: Please Don't Pass The Salt

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DAVID GREENE, HOST:

Around the Nation

6:35 am

Wed August 22, 2012

Robber Thwarted By Pot-Wielding Kitchen Worker

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Police say a man had a knife, and confronted the woman behind the counter when he walked into Pop's Barbecue in New Iberia, La. Rather than just give up the money, she grabbed a pot that was on a counter, and whacked him again and again. The robber ran away.

Politics

5:26 am

Wed August 22, 2012

Sen. McConnell Reaches Out To Tea Party Supporters

By Philip Bailey, Kentucky Public Radio

Originally published on Thu August 23, 2012 12:55 pm

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DAVID GREENE, HOST:

In Kentucky yesterday, there was another sign of Tea Party clout. Mitch McConnell - minority leader in the U.S. Senate, and Kentucky's most powerful politician - turned up at his first-ever Tea Party rally. [POST-BROADCAST CORRECTION: This was not McConnell's first Tea Party rally. He participated in a Tea Party event in 2010.] This year, Tea Party candidates have scored upsets in Republican primaries in Missouri, Texas and Indiana. That's where longtime Senator Richard Lugar lost.

Africa

4:23 am

Wed August 22, 2012

Ethiopian Prime Minister Zenawi Dies At 57

By Steve Inskeep

Originally published on Wed August 22, 2012 5:35 am

Prime Minister Meles Zenawi died in a Belgian hospital this week at the age of 57 after a long illness. He came to power in 1991 after leading a rebel army from Ethiopia's north and toppling the Marxist leader. He was viewed as a firm U.S. ally in the war on terrorism, but also was accused of human rights abuses in Ethiopia.

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