The connection between boreal wildfires and permafrost, explained

In June 2024, Brendan Rogers, Peter Frumhoff, and Kayla Mathes were in Alaska to visit the Yukon Flats National Wildlife Refuge and meet with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Alaska Fire Service, and the Gwichyaa Zhee (Fort Yukon) community and Council of Athabascan Tribal Governments. The trip was following up on previous work, which influenced the recent U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service decision to designate 1.6 million acres of land in the Yukon Flats National Wildlife Refuge of Interior Alaska to be protected from wildfire to keep its carbon and ice-rich permafrost intact.