"California Forests Failing to Regrow After Intense Wildfires"

"Huge, destructive fires are more common with climate change, and the loss of regeneration threatens to exacerbate global warming."

"There are warning signs that some forests in the western U.S. may have a hard time recovering from the large and intense wildfires that have become more common as the climate warms.

After studying 14 burned areas across 10 national forests in California, scientists from UC Davis and the U.S. Forest Service said recent fires have killed so many mature, seed-producing trees across such large areas that the forests can't re-seed themselves. And because of increasingly warm temperatures, burned areas are quickly overgrown by shrubs, which can prevent trees from taking root.

"With high-severity fires, the seed source drops off," said study co-author Kevin Lynch, a forest researcher at UC Davis. "We aren't seeing the conditions that are likely to promote natural regeneration.""

Bob Berwyn reports for InsideClimate News December 21, 2016.