Large-scale patterns of forest fire occurrence in the conterminous United States and Alaska, 2005-07

Potter, K.M. 2012. Large-scale patterns of forest fire occurrence in the conterminous United States and Alaska, 2005-07. Chapter 6 in K.M. Potter and B.L. Conkling, eds., Forest Health Monitoring 2008 National Technical Report. General Technical Report SRS-158. Asheville, North Carolina: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Southern Research Station. pp. 73-83.

Forest fire occurrence outside the historic range of frequency and intensity can result in extensive economic and ecological impacts. The detection of geographic clusters of fire occurrences should allow for the identification of areas at greatest risk of significant impact and for the selection of locations for more intensive analysis. The ecoregion sections with the greatest number of fire occurrences from 2005 to 2007, per 100 km2 of forested area, were located in southern California and the Northern Rockies. Hotspots of fire occurrence generally differed by year, with the exception of a highly clustered and extensive hotspot that appeared each year in central Idaho and western Montana. Other hotspots were detected in the Northern Cascades, northern California, east Texas and western Louisiana and Arkansas, east-central Arizona, and southern Georgia.