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'A Sierra Nevada without forest': West faces consequence of a century of avoiding fires  Last year’s brutal fire season, which smashed records for fire size and economic damage across the American West, seemed to have one silver lining: Land that burns once usually doesn't burn again quickly, giving firefighters and communities a reprieve.No such luck, Marc Castellnou, one of the world's premiere wildland fire scientists, told Equilibrium on Tuesday. And the U.S. Forest Service reported in May that it would be scaling up similar "fuel treatments" by a factor of three or four, according to Nichola Groom of Reuters.Doing things differently: On Monday, Sen. Mitt RomneyWillard (Mitt) Mitt RomneyOvernight Defense: Senate panel delays Iraq war powers repeal | Study IDs Fort Hood as least-safe base for female soldiers | Pentagon loosens some COVID-19 restrictions Senate panel delays war authorization repeal after GOP push Eliminate family and child poverty: Richard Nixon may help in today's debate MORE (R-Utah) introduced legislation calling for "the creation of a wildfire commission that would review federal wildfire policy and make recommendations to Congress," Connor Richards reported for Utah's Daily Herald."The fires are becoming bigger, the loss of life is more significant," Romney told a press conference in Draper, Utah, "and continuing to do the things the way we’ve done them in the past doesn’t make a lot of sense."But with the National Interagency Fire Center reporting that 47 large fires have already burned 519,761 acres across the country, coupled with escalating temperatures, arid soil and resources stretched thin, this fire season could present “a very real danger,” as Sen. Ron WydenRonald (Ron) Lee WydenThe Hill's Equilibrium — Presented by NextEra Energy — Tasmanian devil wipes out penguin population Wyden warns: 'Today's fires are not your grandfather's wildfires' Hillicon Valley: Cyber agency says SolarWinds hack could have been deterred | Civil rights groups urge lawmakers to crack down on Amazon's 'dangerous' worker surveillance | Manchin-led committee puts forth sprawling energy infrastructure proposal MORE (D-Ore.) told Equilibrium.Just how dangerous? To cope with some of these threats, which tend to disproportionately impact the country’s minority and lower-income population, scientists and policymakers are evaluating the role of “managed retreat” and how this strategy might help communities adapt to changing climate conditions.Managed retreat, at its core, involves the purposeful and coordinated relocation of people and infrastructure away from hazards — often in response to climate disasters such as floods or wildfires. At a conference devoted to managed retreat Tuesday — organized by The Earth Institute at Columbia University’s Climate School — participants explored at what point communities decide to leave.“Long-tail” risks: Communities and policymakers must consider “long-tail” climate risks — the kind of dangers that may be low-probability, but which would be so devastating if they occurred that they must be considered,” according to Radley Horton, a research professor at the Earth Institute at Columbia University and an organizer of the event.Accounting for such long-tail risks helps us cope with “bigger climate blind spots that we can’t see,” Horton said.