The 1930s also saw record heat and fires, similar to the current period. In 2002 the area west of Colorado Springs had huge fires - now they have record snow.
http://www.gazette.com/articles/snow_22774___article.html/summit_cadets.html

The trend appears to be a cyclical, not linear.

Come on, you can do better than this. There is no correlation between current forest fires and global warming. There is currently only a 1 or 2 degree increase in temperature since 1900. If global warming was the cause than we would have fires in Mexico all the time because it is several degrees warmer than Florida. At my site at http://www.globalwarming-factorfiction.com I am constantly trying to set the record straight on bad testimonials like this and would have expected more from this site.

Current severe Droughts and a rise in global temperatures of 1-2 degrees will increase the risk of forest fire globally and force prolonged fire danger seasons on all continents.
However with more people per square mile since the 1930's and less forest cover due to the deforestation that has occurred in the period. I would say that it is clear that forest fires have been reduced only because humans have cut down the forests.
I would think deforestation rates in Mexico has also reduced fuel loads just as I know that Europe�s forests have burnt in record fire seasons over the last decade because arsonists have caused most of them. Australia�s horrendous loses have confirmed forests worldwide are showing that they now represent a positive feed back of CO2 into the atmosphere rather than storeing it.
This undermines the value of carbon credit tree plantations, as there now can be no guarentees that the plantations will mature. Besides which permanent carbon storage can only happen if the trees are harvested and buried once mature. Unfortunately once matured the trees will represent a significant value to the landowners and will be sold as timber. Lumber made from carbon credit trees will still store co2 but the co2 emission during harvesting and processing will make mitigation difficult
It may also interest you to know that forests during heatwaves dump previously absorbed co2 as they shut down growth to cope with stress. Many trees also shed their leaves in an attempt to conserve soil moisture. This natural defence will emit methane as the tree dumps co2. In northern latitudes Canada/Russia forests are being lost to beetle infestations that can now squeeze in three breeding cycles a year. Across America, Asia and Australia die back has also increased in all forests.
65% of Indonesian forests are gone 80% of Australias and 70% of Americas forests have dissapeared in a century.
With these impressive losses its not hard to accept that forest fires happen less often.