"The trend seems to be more intense wildfires and it's not even close to leveling out," says Neil Sugihara, a U.S. Forest Service fire ecologist and Humboldt State alum ('76, '81). "Almost all of the largest fires in California history have occurred since 2000. Before 1987 there were only a handful of fires over 100,000 acres in the state and now we have them several times a year."
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http://magazine.humboldt.edu/spring09/fire-on-the-mountain/