With worsening climate change causing increasingly drier and hotter conditions, wildfires have been increasing throughout our country, and across the globe. Within our local community of the Greater Boston Area in Massachusetts, wildfires have historically been small and scarce, but the risk is increasing.
In April 2023, we experienced one of the worst brush fires in the area in years, burning over 1,000 acres in the Middlesex Fells Reservation. Officials reported that over the past decade, wildfire rates across the state have nearly doubled due to longer dry spells and warmer spring temperatures.
Moving a little further down the east coast to New Jersey, the problem has only gotten worse. New Jersey is known for having a Pines Barrens ecosystem, which means the soil is sandy and the area is filled with pine and oak trees. This makes the area one of the most fire-prone areas in the eastern United States. In 2022, a wildfire in Wharton State Forest burned through over 13,500 acres of land, becoming New Jersey's biggest fire in over fifteen years. Additionally, air quality throughout the area has been worsening, and many communities are affected by closing highways and neighborhood evacuations.
Finally, on a national stage, California stands as one of the most immediate risk areas for climate-driven wildfire when compared to the rest of the continental United States. In the first half of 2025 alone, the state had 6,928 wildfires, which burnt through tens of thousands of acres of residential, urban, and agricultural land. The most prominent example was in January 2025, when a series of horrible wildfires, like the Eaton fire in Altadena and the Palisades fire in the Pacific Palisades, worsened due to extreme drought and strong winds. These fires burned over 521,000 acres of land and forced over 200,000 people to evacuate, as well as destroying over 18,000 homes. 12 lives were lost in the Palisades fire.
If things were not already bad, the effects of wildfires spread much further than just the lives and communities of Americans. Due to increasing fire size and frequency, forest biodiversity and composition are changing rapidly. Climate change is also amplifying the wildfire season by increasing drought frequency and severity, which leads to higher susceptibility of vegetation to wildfire, making wildfire prevention only a more and more pressing issue today. These changes are having detrimental effects including pollution, health, property, and ecology.
If things were not already bad, the effects of wildfires spread much further than just the lives and communities of Americans. Due to increasing fire size and frequency, forest biodiversity and composition are changing rapidly. Climate change is also amplifying the wildfire season by increasing drought frequency and severity, which leads to higher susceptibility of vegetation to wildfire, making wildfire prevention only a more and more pressing issue today.
In terms of the environment, wildfires affect two major areas: air quality and water quality. In terms of air quality, wildfires produce smoke, fine particulates (microscopic solid particles suspended in the air), and greenhouse gases when they burn. Over extended periods of time, these products severely negatively impact air quality, affecting both animals and humans. In terms of water quality, wildfires release harmful contaminants, sediments, and heavy metals to seep into nearby natural water sources making it unsafe for animal and human consumption. This also severely impacts and even destroys aquatic life.
Wildfires also have dangerous effects on human health, particularly, on the respiratory and cardiovascular systems. Inhalation of smoke and fine particulate matter causes significant respiratory issues, ranging from general irritation to serious issues like asthma and bronchitis. Furthermore, the lack of oxygen in the air for inhalation can lead to serious cardiovascular issues such as heart attack or heart failure.
A significant and perhaps the most obvious impact of wildfires is the loss of land and property, including homes, agricultural crops, animals (both wild and domestic), and resources. This affects both where people live and work. Furthermore, wildfires also damage utility poles and cell towers resulting in loss of communication, power shutdowns, and loss of cell service. This can make it harder for firefighters that rely on radio communication to work together to stop wildfires. Oftentimes, utility companies are forced to shut down their power grids and cut off electricity during wildfire season to lower the risk of wildfire incidents, however this can complicate maintaining communication, performing evacuations, and administer medical help when a wildfire does occur.
While wildfires are a natural part of some ecosystems, an overabundance of wildfires disrupts animal and plant life, and can ultimately destroy it. Wildfires burn up entire trees and ground vegetation. They also kill and displace animals. Additionally, as described earlier, pollutants from wildfires contaminate water sources, harming aquatic, plant, and animal life. Wildfires also burn up vegetation, which makes the soil no longer stabilized by plant roots, causing it to erode faster. This leads to land degradation, landslides, and more severe flooding. These changes affect the management of biodiversity, groundwater, forestry, recreation, and human safety. Furthermore, large, high-severity fires can hinder the ability of an ecosystem to recover, resulting in long-term or even permanent loss of native vegetation, expansion of non-native, invasive species, loss of essential habitat for native flora and fauna, and an overall inability to conserve the native biodiversity.
Overall, the devastating effects of wildfires highlight the need for the United States as a whole to reevaluate wildfire risk management and direct greater efforts toward wildfire combat and prevention.