Forest News

Instead of calling for a massive increase in logging to reduce fuels, Biden’s forest fire plan should focus on making homes near forests more fire …

Dr. Dominick DellaSala calls for drastic cuts in fossil fuels, protection of older forests from logging and redirection of spending to community fire preparation.

The value of Intentional burning vast landscapes to control high severity fire is over stated in a study from Columbia University. The vast majority of forests that receive fuel treatments, including prescribed fire and cultural burning, never encounters a wildfire when their fuels are reduced. These burns must also be repeated as soon as every six due to regrowth of fuels. This seldom happens. Burning adjacent to communities can be effective if coupled with home hardening.

We need a new twenty-first century fire policy that prioritizes public safety. The old policy from an earlier era is failing to keep the most vulnerable safe during climate-driven wildfires. A more effective policy would provide low-interest loans, grants and technical assistance to rural residents to prepare their communities. Decades of research has shown that focusing on fire-safety home retrofits and the zone immediately around structures saves lives and protects property during wildfires.

By Ben Neary | For The New Mexican May 24, 2018 Conservation groups want the courts to block the U.S. Forest Service from thinning more …