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by micro_cam 1785 days ago
You are correct that there have always been really bad years (that chart doesn't go back very far but look up the great burn of 1910). However total size is effected by us getting better at fighting them.

What has changed is that the fires burn hotter and so fully destroy vegetation and even seeds with intense heat which makes it much harder for the forests to regrow in the way they typically would in a "fire adapted ecosystem": https://www.cpr.org/2020/09/01/colorado-wildfires-forests-re...