Source: MercuryNews.com - 9/29/12
Each day in the 100 days leading up to Election Day, MercuryNews.com and Face the Facts USA will be partnering to bring you one exhaustively researched and vetted, non-partisan fact about a major issue facing our nation.
Wildfires are getting longer, fiercer, and more costly to contain. Wildfires have burned an average of 7 million U.S. acres every year since 2000. That's equal to burning all of Yellowstone National Park three times over each year. But from 1960 to 1999, wildfires consumed half that amount - an average 3.5 million acres a year. U.S. wildfire seasons now last an average 76 days longer than in the 1970s and 1980s. Before 1986, a wildfire was contained on average in less than eight days. Since then, the average wildfire has burned for 37 days.
