b'last 30 years and the number of acres affected annually, while also variable, has increased. Since 2000, an annual average of 70,600 wildfires has burned an annual average of 7.0 million acres. This figure is more than double the average annual acreage burned in the 1990s (3.3 million acres), although a greater number of fires occurred annually in the 1990s (78,600 average). 3 3 Congressional Research Service. (2020). https://crsreports.congress.gov 10'