Natural History Wanderings

Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health reports

There is no longer any question of how to prevent high-intensity, often catastrophic, wildfires that have become increasingly frequent across the Western U.S., according to a new study by researchers at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and Stanford University. The analysis reveals that low-intensity burning, such as controlled or prescribed fires, managed wildfires, and tribal cultural burning, can dramatically reduce the risk of devastating fires for years at a time. The findings are some of the first to rigorously quantify the value of low-intensity fire and be released while Congress is reassessing the U.S. Forest Service’s wildfire strategy as part of reauthorizing the Farm Bill. The study was published in Science Advances(link is external and opens in a new window).

Read more at Low-intensity Fires Reduce Wildfire Risk by 60 Percent, Study Finds | Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health