Forest fire carbon emissions continue to be a fraction of fossil fuel emissions

Record-breaking 2020 forest fires have stimulated discussions to increase forest harvest to prevent wildfire carbon emissions and to improve the forest carbon sink. These policies are based on flawed assumptions regarding carbon emissions from wildfires and harvest and are rarely contextualized historically or with fossil fuel emissions. To better contextualize 2020 and historic fire emissions against land management and anthropogenic emissions, we compare emissions from the 2020 forest fires to 1) average decadal US forest fire emissions, 2) average timber harvest emissions, and 3) average decadal fossil fuel emissions. Here, we show that annual average forest fire emissions in the western US are only 6% of average annual fossil fuel emissions for the same area, however, in 2020 forest fire emissions increased to 23% of annual fossil fuel emissions. Additionally, carbon emissions from the historic 1910 Big Burn, the largest forest fire in the contiguous US to date, dwarfed carbon emissions from contemporary forest megafires (1984-2020), although 2020 forest fire area burned exceeded the 1910 fire. Finally, we show that carbon losses from harvest outpace fire carbon loss in carbon-dense northwest forests. In the western US, fossil fuel emissions are the greatest contributor to climate change. Sustainable policies need to be enacted to protect communities from catastrophic wildfire, minimize emissions from harvest, and prioritize the swift reduction of fossil fuel usage to adapt to and mitigate climate change.