BOULDER, Colorado, Feb. 12 -- The Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences issued the following news: * * * Fewer forest fires burn in North America today than in the past--and that's a bad thing New research analyzed tree rings and fire scars to compare modern fires to those in the past Fewer wildfires burn in North American forests today than in previous centuries, increasing the risk of more severe wildfires, according to research published this week in Nature Communic  more