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As someone who grew up in California and Utah, I’ve grown accustomed to wildfires. I have two friends who lost their entire towns to devastating fires, and I can’t count the number of people I know who have had to evacuate their homes because of a nearby blaze. It seems that the sky is smoky more often than not during the summer.

My experience is not unique — if you live in the West, you’ve been affected by a wildfire.

The size of wildfires in the West has steadily increased since the 1970s, Kevin Lind reports. More than 33,500 wildfires have burned 1.7 million acres in the U.S. so far this year alone.

Steven Griego, the supervisor of the Rio Grande Wildland fire fighting crew of the New Mexico Forestry Division, has been fighting wildfires since 2009. He tells Lind that his understanding of wildfires’ potential scale has changed considerably over the last 16 years — what used to be considered a big fire is now business as usual.

Fire is an essential part of nature. But the proliferation of larger, more destructive wildfires forces a reckoning with how we think and act about them.

Read more about how Westerners can reframe our understanding of wildfires — and what we can do to prepare.

Buffalo Soldiers in Utah finally getting their due

Lee Benson writes:

“There’s a mountain of history about these guys that had never been really tapped into, and we realized it was much broader than we thought — kind of like an iceberg.”

That’s Ian Wright talking. Ian’s the manager of Utah Cultural Site Stewardship, a state program tasked with “protecting and safeguarding Utah’s archaeological and cultural heritage.”

In simpler terms, they’re in charge of preserving Utah’s history.

The office has been operational for a little over four years, during which time Ian and his second-in-command, Lexi Little, have discovered an interesting pattern that repeats itself: When they start researching one bit of history, they often discover another bit that’s even more interesting.

Such is the case with the Buffalo Soldiers — two U.S. Army all-African American regiments that were stationed in Utah between 1878 and 1901. Thanks to Utah Cultural Site Stewardship, these men who played an important role in Utah history are getting a chance to take a bow more than a century later.

Read more about the Buffalo Soldiers and how you can learn more about them.

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FROM OUR SPONSOR PARK CITY SHOWCASE OF HOMES

2024 People's Choice Winner, Big Canyon Homes. Explore Park City's most prestigious homes Aug. 22–24 & Aug. 29–Sept. 1, 2025

These exquisite homes will be on display throughout the Park City area and Heber Valley, all within or in sight of the scenic mountain ranges that offer world-class skiing, hiking, biking, dining and golf. Every home achieves a balanced harmony with its natural surroundings.

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