California wildfires in long term declining trend

This article supplements 

my prior article 

on wildfires and hurricanes,

published a few days ago:
https://elonionbloggle.blogspot.com/2018/08/forest-fires-and-hurricanes-are-not.html

Fire data compiled by 

the State of California 

and the US Forest Service, 

and in the peer-reviewed 

scientific studies 

all show 

a declining trend

in the number 

of California wildfires

during past decades.

CALFIRE is the official group 

responsible for state numbers.

http://calfire.ca.gov/index

CAL FIRE covers areas 

mainly at lower elevations,

where the largest areas burned 

were early in the 20th century.    

CAL FIRE data show 
the number of wildfires 
over the past 30 years

                 (1987-2016), 

has dropped roughly in half:

For the same 30 years 

              (1987-2016), 

wildfire area burned 

has grown slightly, 

with huge peaks 

and troughs:

Final 2017 data

are not yet available.

A one century view 

of wildfire frequency and 

area burned in California 

is found in a paper 

in the International Journal 

of Wildfire Science:  

"Different historical
fire-climate patterns
in California"

by Jon E. Keeley 

and Alexandra D. Syphard.

They looked at:

(1) areas managed 

by the US Forest Service (USFS), and 

(2) areas managed 

by the State of California (CAL FIRE)

Their results suggest a maximum 

number of fires in the 1970s,

followed by a large decline.

US Forest Service areas are

mainly higher elevation regions 

in the northern part of the CA 

(where big fires are burning now).

The acreage burned there

was as large or larger 

at the beginning 

of the 20th century,

with a minimum around 1960. 

For the southern part of the state, 

the highest values are during

the past few decades, 

with a secondary maximum
early in the 20th century.