https://phys.org/news/2018-07-aging-lookout-towers-key-season.html > "The biggest piece of this puzzle is to keep fires small," said Kassidy Kern, a U.S. Forest Service spokeswoman based in Oregon's Deschutes National Forest. "And the way to do that is to have someone who is vigilant and scanning." > Fire lookouts start taking on more responsibility about now as wildfire season transitions from lower elevation grasslands to higher elevation forests. Some towers are just getting staffed as snow melts and they become accessible. This week, according to the National Interagency Fire Center, there are more than 50 large wildfires, mostly in the West, that have consumed about 1,500 square miles (3,900 square kilometers).