In this photograph from July 2021, One World Trade Center (left) and other New York City buildings are shrouded by smoke and haze from wildfires in western North America.
Credit: © Bjoern Kils, New York Media Boat/Reuters/Alamy Images

Have you looked at the sun or moon low in the sky in the past few weeks? You may have noticed them take on hues of orange and red. A hazy film may have blurred out the horizon. These visual effects were caused by smoke and haze from fires in western North America, in what is shaping up to be another record wildfire season. So far this year, wildfires have scorched nearly 3 million acres (1.2 million hectares) in the United States alone.

The Dixie Fire is the largest in California, burning almost 250,000 acres (100,000 hectares). It began near where the deadly Camp Fire burned in 2018, killing more than 80 people. Both fires were sparked by equipment from the utility company Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E). This month, PG&E announced its intent to bury 10,000 miles (16,000 kilometers) of power lines in areas of the state most at risk for wildfires. The project—which PG&E had long resisted—is estimated to cost at least $15 billion.

California usually dominates the wildfire season. The largest fire of the season, however, belongs to Oregon. The Bootleg Fire started on July 6 and has burned more than 400,000 acres (160,000 hectares). The fire persevered through rain and continues to defy efforts to contain it.

The Bootleg Fire threatened Mitchell Monument, dedicated to the only civilians killed on U.S. soil during World War II (1939-1945). Toward the end of the war, Japan released more than 9,000 bomb-carrying balloons, intended to land on the West Coast of the United States. The bombs caused mostly minor damage. But one bomb killed five members of a picnicking family near Bly, Oregon. Firefighters battling the Bootleg blaze worked to save the forest around the monument, including trees damaged by the bomb blast.

Nearby Idaho and Montana also have dozens of fires. The Canadian province of British Columbia declared a state of emergency due to the hundreds of wildfires raging there. The government of Mexico sent firefighters to the province to assist. Outside North America, fires burned in Greece, Turkey, Russia, and Italy.

Smoke from the North American fires drifted east on the prevailing winds, reducing air quality across the continent. Air quality was affected as far away as New York City. The smoke threatened people with such medical conditions as asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and heart disease.

Climatologists and other experts blame the severe fire outbreaks on the intense drought gripping the western half of the continent. In June, a sizzling heat wave killed hundreds of people in Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia. Experts strongly suspect the drought and heat were intensified by climate change.

Ammon Bundy, one of the sons of Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, arriving for a news conference at Malheur National Wildlife Refuge near Burns, Oregon, on January 6, 2016. Credit: © Rick Bowmer, AP Photo

February 12, 2016

Yesterday, February 11, the last four militants occupying a wildlife refuge in eastern Oregon surrendered to Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents. The surrender ended a 40-day armed occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. 

On Jan. 2, 2016, two brothers from Nevada, Ammon and Ryan Bundy, led a group of armed militants in the takeover of the empty Malheur Refuge headquarters. The Bundys are sons of Cliven Bundy, a Nevada rancher who refuses to pay the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) rents he owes for grazing his cattle on government-owned land. This refusal is part of a larger movement in the western United States, where some Americans feel the U.S. government should not be allowed to own land. The Malheur takeover was an antigovernment protest in support of two Oregon ranchers jailed for lighting fires on federal lands.

During the entire occupation, the FBI was patient and non-confrontational with the occupiers. The agency wanted to avoid escalating the situation. The occupiers were free to enter and leave the refuge until January 26. On that day, Ammon and Ryan Bundy and several supporters were driving from the refuge to a small town for a community meeting. The FBI stopped the militants. Five were arrested and one was killed when he refused to surrender.

A total of eight occupiers are under arrest awaiting trial in Oregon. The rest of the occupiers at the refuge had dwindled to four, and those holdouts occupied Malheur for two weeks before giving themselves up yesterday. Local people in Oregon had felt that the FBI was perhaps too patient with the occupiers. The end result, however, was peaceful and satisfactory.

Also on February 11, Cliven Bundy was arrested for actions taken by him in 2014 when BLM agents came to his ranch to remove Bundy’s cows from government lands. Armed men on the ranch refused to stand down to let the bureau do their job. To avoid bloodshed, the BLM pulled back from the Bundy ranch and law enforcement waited two years for a safe time to make the arrest.