Three Forks Voice - Connect With Your Community!

MISSOULA – New University of Montana research suggests recurring continent-spanning drought patterns set the tempo for forest recovery from wildfire.

A study published Nov. 9 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences shows that forest recovery from fire follows a drought seesaw, called a climate dipole, that alternates between the Northwest and the Southwest every few years.

The researchers examined the relationship between this drought seesaw and post-fire regeneration of ponderosa pine across the Interior West of the U.S. They found that severe droughts under climate chang...