Wouldn't the fires of the past (ie, the fires that these birds would have evolved to survive) have been larger? I've always assumed that, while fires of the past would have been more rare, they would have bigger if allowed to grow without any resistance.
I mean, all our firefighting efforts do some good, right?
That is not true. These are, broadly speaking, in unmanaged areas without fire suppression programs. It is extraordinarily hot and dry in the areas with fires, and that's why these are bigger than in modern human history.
edit: fair point on sources. There are a lot, and they're easily found. This was an interesting read https://www.fs.usda.gov/nfs/11558/www/nepa/19535_FSPLT3_3990... (pdf) though I'd warn anyone not to just look for supporting information for this pet theory. Fire suppression builds up fuel and causes worse fires. But there are worse fires in areas without fire suppression programs. There are even worse fires (vs historically) in areas with prescribed burn programs. Your propublica article is also linked to by https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_California_wildfires#Caus.... Adjacent to the "Fire Policy" section there is a robustly sourced "Climate Change" section. I don't have time to comment further here, so I'll leave it at that.
Everything that I've read on the subject says otherwise. I know of no unmanaged areas without fire suppression programs anywhere in the West. And as articles like https://www.propublica.org/article/they-know-how-to-prevent-... points out, scientists have been clear for decades that the disastrous fires we are now dealing with are the direct result of past human attempts to put out fires.
West coast wildfires are different for a lot of reasons. Brush fires under the redwood canopy rarely happen now, because almost all of the redwood canopy is gone. PNW fires look like upscaled christmas tree safety demonstrations, because the forests have been replaced by douglas fir farms. The fires are more intense and explosive now that water tables have fallen and soil retention has been compromised by continuous logging and terraforming.
Most of the modern west coast forest fires are a lumber farming problem of our own construction. Fires won't change that, as long as logging companies will be subsidized to harvest and sell the singed trunks for lumber and replant the same extremely flammable crop. The forests of the past are gone.
I mean, all our firefighting efforts do some good, right?