Wildfires spurred by the warming climate may pose some of their greatest long-term threats far away from the arid West, along the Gulf Coast, new research suggests.
The threat to the Southeast is one conclusion of a report from the Forest Service and Resources for the Future, a nonprofit research group focused on climate change and other environmental issues.
Based on computer modeling, researchers outlined where certain climate-related risks are likely to grow by 2070 because of worsening conditions and especially vulnerable populations.
They said the report could help guide policy decisions as the federal government grapples with where to target assistance, and in what form. With its dominance of privately owned forest, for instance, the Southeast may be suited to different approaches than federal lands that dominate in the West, they said.
