Viewpoint: What actually works — and what doesn’t — when managing wildfires
The good news is that we know what to do. Thin the understory. Conduct prescribed burns. Update building codes and zoning. Create real defensible space around homes. These are not partisan positions — they are the accumulated findings of decades of peer-reviewed research and on-the-ground experience.
The bad news is that more and more intense wildfires are coming regardless of what we do about carbon emissions in the next decade. We cannot apply 20th-century solutions to 21st-century fire. The forests around us are changing, the climate is changing, and our policies need to change with them — guided by evidence rather than ideology.
The good news is that we know what to do. Thin the understory. Conduct prescribed burns. Update building codes and zoning. Create real defensible space around homes. These are not partisan positions — they are the accumulated findings of decades of peer-reviewed research and on-the-ground experience.
The bad news is that more and more intense wildfires are coming regardless of what we do about carbon emissions in the next decade. We cannot apply 20th-century solutions to 21st-century fire. The forests around us are changing, the climate is changing, and our policies need to change with them — guided by evidence rather than ideology.
Thoughtful Forest Management and Better Building Practices Can Help Mitigate the Impact of Wildfires
More than five million acres have burned across the West Coast in this year’s unusually severe wildfire season. Billowing smoke has traveled across the country, degrading air quality as far east as Washington, DC, and amplifying health risks for a nation still grappling with COVID-19.
More than five million acres have burned across the West Coast in this year’s unusually severe wildfire season. Billowing smoke has traveled across the country, degrading air quality as far east as Washington, DC, and amplifying health risks for a nation still grappling with COVID-19.
Thinning forests no defence against fires
Having logging machines "thin" forest for fire reduction is largely ineffective, a new peer-reviewed, scientific study has found.
The study, led by researchers at The Australian National University and published in the journal Conservation Letters, compared fire severity in unthinned versus thinned forest burned in the 2009 wildfires. It covered two forest types—mixed species forest and ash forest.
Having logging machines "thin" forest for fire reduction is largely ineffective, a new peer-reviewed, scientific study has found.
The study, led by researchers at The Australian National University and published in the journal Conservation Letters, compared fire severity in unthinned versus thinned forest burned in the 2009 wildfires. It covered two forest types—mixed species forest and ash forest.