The West is so dry even a rain forest is on fire [View all]

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In a normal year, Washington state’s Olympic National Park is arguably the wettest place in the continental U.S. An annual 150 inches of rain inundate the park’s western slopes, soaking the soil and slicking the branches of the lush temperate rain forest that grows there. Mosses, lichens and ferns festoon the trunks of centuries-old trees, whose thick canopy casts the forest floor into damp, dark shadow. The landscape has a primordial feel to it — cloaked in mist and swathed in green, it looks as though a dinosaur could come stomping out of the underbrush at any minute.

But this is not a normal year.

This year, ancient tree trunks smolder at their base as they burn from within. The downed wood and debris that carpet the forest floor have dried up into kindling. The abundant lichens that are characteristic of this type of rain forest are now facilitating the fire that’s burning it up: The flammable plant-like organisms pass the flames from tree to tree. As they burn, they drop from tree trunks to the ground, spreading the fire there as well.

Now in its third month, the Paradise Fire has consumed nearly 1,600 acres of forest, making it the largest since the park was founded. According to the National Wildfire Coordinating Group Web site, officials don’t expect to have the fire contained until Sept. 30.

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/07/13/the-west-is-so-dry-even-a-rainforest-is-on-fire/?tid=sm_fb