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HPPR Environment

More wildfires on the Great Plains

High Plains Public Radio | By Grant Gerlock

Published June 28, 2017 at 1:00 AM CDT

Wildfires can be started by neglected campfires or cigarette butts. They can ignite from prescribed burns run amok, or launch from lightning strikes.

However they’re caused, Victoria Donovan, a Ph.D. student at the University of Nebraska Lincoln, has been running the numbers to see how often they’re happening.

In a new study, she found a serious uptick in wildfires over the last 30 years across the Plains from Texas to the Dakotas.

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HPPR Environment wildfires Clark County Kansas

Grant Gerlock

Harvest Public Media's reporter at NET News, where he started as Morning Edition host in 2008. He joined Harvest Public Media in July 2012. Grant has visited coal plants, dairy farms, horse tracks and hospitals to cover a variety of stories. Before going to Nebraska, Grant studied mass communication as a grad student at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, and completed his undergrad at Buena Vista University in Storm Lake, Iowa. He grew up on a farm in southwestern Iowa where he listened to public radio in the tractor, but has taken up city life in Lincoln, Neb.

See stories by Grant Gerlock

HPPR News

Bills introduced a year after state’s largest blaze seek to limit wildfires

Jayme Lozano Carver

Among the proposals is a bill that would force more inspections of power lines, which a committee concluded ignited a blaze that burned more than 1 million acres last year.
HPPR News

To prevent wildfires in the Great Plains and Midwest, more landowners are burning their land

Anna Pope

Wildfires have become more frequent, burning bigger areas during longer seasons thanks to conditions exacerbated by climate change. More people in the Great Plains and Midwest are turning to “prescribed” burns, which can help reduce wildfire risk.
HPPR News

A year after the Smokehouse Creek Fire, recovery is still underway

Concerns are growing about a measles outbreak in West Texas as some legislators push to rollback vaccination requirements. It appears the threat of cutbacks from the federal government may already be having an effect on health services for veterans. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement conducted targeted enforcement actions in Austin last month, and Hispanic business owners say the impact has been immediate. And: Nearly one year ago, downed power lines sparked wildfires that ultimately burned more than 1 million acres in the Texas Panhandle. The recovery effort is ongoing today. The post A year after the Smokehouse Creek Fire, recovery is still underway appeared first on KUT & KUTX Studios — Podcasts.
HPPR News

Texas legislators talk accountability, loss, and recovery after historic Panhandle wildfire

Brad Burt

A panel of Texas lawmakers heard testimony Tuesday about the investigation into what caused the largest wildfire in Texas history, which burned more than one million acres of the panhandle in late February and early March.
HPPR News

Unregulated oilfield power lines are suspected of sparking Texas wildfires

Jayme Lozano Carver

No state agency is taking responsibility for making sure the privately built lines that power many oil and gas sites are safe. Such lines have been blamed for sparking two recent Panhandle fires.