This TED Talk features research landscape ecologist Paul Hesberg, recorded live at TEDx Bend 2017.

As you've probably noticed in recent years, a lot of Western forests have burned in large and destructive wildfires.

If you're like me, this Western landscape is actually why my family and I live here.

And as a scientist and a father, I've become deeply concerned about what we're leaving behind for our kids,

and now my five grandkids.

In the U.S., an area that's larger than the state of Oregon

has burned in just the last 10 years,

and tens of thousands of homes have been destroyed.

Acres burned and homes destroyed have steadily increased over the last three decades.

And individual fires that are bigger than 100,000 acres, they're actually on the rise.

These are what we call megafires.

Megafires.

Megafires are the result of the way we've managed this Western landscape over the last 150 years in a steadily warming climate.

Much of the destruction that we are currently seeing could actually have been avoided.

I've spent my entire career studying these Western landscapes, and the science is pretty clear.

If we don't change a few of our fire management habits,

we're going to lose many more of our beloved forests.

Some won't recover in our lifetime or my kids' lifetime.

It's time we confront some tough truths about wildfires and come to understand that we need to

learn to better live with them and change how they come to our forests, our homes, and our communities.

So why is this happening? Well, that's what I want to talk to you about today. You see this

forest?

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