Big wildfires burning in Chile are torching a region where native forests have been replaced with highly-flammable industrial tree farms which have experienced many large/disasterous fires in the past.
This map shows current fires with perimeters of 2023 fires in yellow, and 2017 fires in blue.
These maps show industrial tree farms, in green.
Many of the areas managed intensively for timber production are harvested on fairly short intervals for pulp production, and as such, a large proportion of the landscape is covered with densely-packed small trees. This webcam shot shows how dense some of these ‘forests’ are.
This photo shows two of the fires shortly after they ignited.
I did an interview in 2023 with my brother-in-law, who is a Geography professor at University of Colorado who has studied forestry issues in Chile since the 2000s. We spoke during a month when similarly destructive fires were occurring, and the conversation is still relevant.
We also did an interview with forester Tracy Katelman in 2023 about forestry and wildfire in Chile. Tracy has worked extensively in the country.