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Wildfires have scorched around a third of Washington state鈥檚 Canada lynx habitat in the past two decades, dramatically cutting the region鈥檚 ability to support the felines.

Canada lynx (Lynx canadensis), which can be identified by their black ear tufts and tail tip, once ranged across cold, snowy forests in North America. The stocky, short-tailed cats were heavily hunted for their pelts in the 1900s, but habitat and hunting protections in recent decades have supported the species鈥� steady recovery. Tens of thousands of lynx are now found in Canada鈥檚 forests. But populations in the continental US have generally been slower to recover or are declining. There, the species is classified as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.

Based on limited observations, experts suspect that Washington state is home to , all of which live in the North Cascades mountains. Lynx rely on snowshoe hares as prey, but in recent years, fires have been charring the vegetation the hares feed on and, in turn, vacating the cats鈥� primary food source.

To find out how lynx鈥檚 habitat was impacted by past fires, at the Washington Conservation Science Institute and her colleagues used population simulation software to estimate how many lynx the region can sustain given its size and resources. They assessed the cats鈥� range in Washington state during three time periods: the year 2000 (before fires were common in the region), in 2013 when about 17 per cent of the region鈥檚 area burned and in 2020 when 15 per cent more was scorched.

The team found that wildfires dramatically altered the region鈥檚 ability to support lynx, reducing the maximum number of cats the area can host by up to 73 per cent.

鈥淚t provided this really apparent trend that things are not going in the right direction for lynx,鈥� says Lyons. The trend mirrors the region鈥檚 falling lynx numbers that since the turn of the century.

Contrasting three different time periods is a major strength of the paper, says at the University of British Columbia in Canada who wasn鈥檛 involved in the work. She says she was impressed by the collaboration between experts on forest, fire and wildlife. 鈥淚t really offers a unique opportunity for some of these insights.鈥�

The increase in high-powered fires is fuelled in part by rising temperatures and longer, drier summers linked to But the severity of these fires is also supported by a long tradition of stifling blazes. Limiting fires has loaded forests with combustible material, so when they do ignite, they can be bigger and more destructive, says Lyons.

鈥淭hese fires are burning so hot that it鈥檚 taking the food source for the snowshoe hares longer to recover,鈥� says Lyons. Some areas of lynx habitat may benefit from prescribed burns or removing flammable vegetation, which could limit the power of future fires. 鈥淟ynx habitat is generally managed with a hands-off approach, but we might need to do something a little differently for lynx here.鈥�