“Understanding how climate, ignitions and fuel conditions have changed over centuries and millennia can help us better understand why fire seasons in Montana have been getting worse and lend important context to events such as the Bridger Foothills Fire we saw in Bozeman last year.”

That quote is from Professor Dave McWethy of Montana State University’s Department of Earth Sciences. He presented at a Cafe Scientifique program sponsored by Montana INBRE, entitled “The Past and Future of Wildfire in Montana: How Changes in Climate, Fuels and Human Activity are Driving Longer, More Destructive Fire Seasons.”