By Dave Upthegrove, Commissioner of Public Lands
Last fall, I stood on a hillside east of White Salmon overlooking the Columbia River Gorge.
Below me was the burn scar from the Burdoin Fire, an 11,000-acre wildfire that had swept through the Gorge just months earlier, destroying 45 structures and threatening hundreds more.
What struck me wasn’t where the fire had burned. It was where it hadn’t.
From that hillside, you could see exactly where the flames had raced across the landscape—fast, tall, hungry. But you could also see where they had slowed and ultimately stopped because of forest health treatments and fuel reductions completed before the fire ever began.
That line on the landscape wasn’t an accident. It was the product of years of work by scientists, foresters, firefighters, landowners, and community leaders—most of whom will never know the difference their work made that day.
It mattered.
Climate change can leave people feeling powerless. The work I see every day convinces me of the opposite.
As Commissioner of Public Lands, I have the privilege of leading the Washington State Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and its 2,200 employees. One of the biggest lessons this job has taught me is that while climate change is making wildfire more challenging, preparation still changes outcomes – even during the most difficult wildfire seasons, like the one we’re experiencing this summer.
Washington is in the midst of a historically devastating wildfire season. Right now, more than a dozen large fires are currently burning across well over 400,000 acres around the state.
So far this summer, more than half a million acres have burned, and destructive fires like the Spokane Complex fires and the Kaiser Canyon Fire on the Colville Reservation have led to the destruction of hundreds of homes and forced tens of thousands to evacuate.
Despite the challenges we’re experiencing, DNR – along with our federal, state, local, and Tribal partners – is working non-stop to contain these fires. We’re making progress, in large part thanks to our preparation.
That preparation begins with science.
Every spring, DNR’s Wildland Fire Meteorology team develops a seasonal outlook using drought monitors, snowpack data, long-range weather forecasts, and tools such as the Climate Reanalyzer, which analyzes atmospheric and ocean conditions and climate trends. Throughout the summer, those forecasts are continually refined as conditions evolve.
This year, historically low snowpack, a fourth consecutive year of drought across much of Washington, and changing weather patterns all pointed toward an above-average wildfire season; an assessment that has proved true over the past few weeks.
One lesson public service has reinforced for me is that uncertainty is not an excuse for inaction. Good science cannot eliminate uncertainty, but it allows us to make better decisions before lives, homes, and landscapes are at risk.
The public often sees wildfire through images of smoke, aircraft, and firefighters. What they don’t always see are the meteorologists, hydrologists, geologists, ecologists, and climate scientists whose work shapes so many of the decisions that make those firefighters—and all of us—more effective.
Science informs preparation, but people make preparation possible.
Each spring, DNR’s Wildland Fire Academy brings together local, state, tribal, and federal firefighters for interagency training. At the same time, we inspect and strategically position engines, helicopters, heavy equipment, and fixed-wing aircraft across Washington so they can respond quickly wherever fires emerge.
Wildfire doesn’t recognize jurisdictional boundaries, and neither can our response to it. Success depends on partnerships among firefighters, scientists, Tribes, local governments, federal agencies, private landowners, and communities working toward a common goal.
As important as emergency response is, our best opportunity to reduce wildfire impacts comes before a fire starts.
Forest restoration, strategic thinning, prescribed fire, fuel reduction, and carefully designed fuel breaks all share the same purpose: changing fire behavior before it threatens communities. These treatments create healthier forests, provide safer conditions for firefighters, and buy precious time during fast-moving fires—just as they did near White Salmon.
That work extends beyond public lands. We also help homeowners and landowners create defensible space around homes, reduce wildfire hazards, and improve the resilience of family forests and rural properties.
These investments are among the most effective tools we have for reducing catastrophic wildfire risk. They also require long-term commitment. Forest restoration and community preparedness cannot be built in a single budget cycle, which is why I was grateful the Legislature restored funding this year for our forest health and wildfire resilience programs after significant proposed reductions.
Climate change is also making post-fire recovery more important.
Beyond the immediate destruction, severe wildfires increase the risk of erosion, flooding, degraded water quality, and landslides. As storms become more intense, those hazards become even greater.
DNR’s Post-Fire Recovery Program helps communities restore damaged landscapes and plan for long-term recovery, while the Washington Geological Survey assesses hazards after our most severe fires so communities understand the risks that remain long after the smoke clears.
Taken together, these efforts reflect how Washington is adapting to a changing climate. Wildfire response no longer begins with the first emergency call, nor does it end when the flames are extinguished. It begins with research, forecasting, forest management, and partnerships, and it continues through recovery and rebuilding.
As I write this, more than 200,000 acres have burned on lands managed by DNR this year, and a dozen large fires continue burning across our state. We are still battling blazes in and around Spokane, across the Colville Reservation, and elsewhere around the state. Thousands of acres have burned, and hundreds of homes have been lost.
Those numbers are sobering.
Climate change is one of the defining challenges of our time. But it is also showing us that our choices still matter. Every forest we restore, every firefighter we train, every advance in climate science, and every partnership among researchers, Tribes, land managers, and local communities strengthens our ability to protect the people and places we love.
We cannot control every wildfire. But we can influence what happens when one starts and we can help to rebuild and restore after the flames have been put out.
When I remember that hillside overlooking the Burdoin Fire, I don’t just remember where the fire burned. I remember where it stopped—and everything that happened beforehand to make that possible.
That is what gives me hope.