There's more than one way to cut wildfire risk
Prescribed burning, restoration thinning, or a combination of both are effective at reducing the risk of catastrophic wildfire in California.
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Prescribed burning, restoration thinning, or a combination of both are effective at reducing the risk of catastrophic wildfire in California.
Forest management strategies like restoration thinning and prescribed burning lower catastrophic wildfire risk, a California study confirms.
<p>A 20-year experiment in the Sierra Nevada confirms that different forest management techniques — prescribed burning, restoration thinning or a combination of both — are effective at reducing the risk of catastrophic wildfire in California. These treatments also improve forest health, making trees more resilient to stressors like drought and bark beetles, and they do not negatively impact plant or wildlife biodiversity within individual tree stands, the research found.</p>
The Mosquito Fire burned tens of thousands of acres, edging into a research forest just west of Lake Tahoe. Researchers are considering what to do in its aftermath.
As California struggles with an increase in extreme wildfires, researchers are studying exactly what a healthy or fire-resistant forest looks like.