Save the Forests? Set Them On Fire

We’ve done a lot of damage to our forests over the years through logging and poor fire management. All this has led to the devastating fire seasons that currently dominate the Western United States. But the Forest Service has learned a lot since then and now know the benefits that the right kind of fires can have on the ecosystem. Follow firefighters and ecologists as they perform a prescribed fire and demonstrate the power that these low-intensity fires possess.

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Adding fuel to the fire is usually not a good thing, especially when it comes to forests that are already wrecked by massive fires every year. So setting any fire on purpose doesn’t exactly sound like a good idea.

But the professionals in hazmat suits pouring fire on the ground are actually saving these forests from those devastating, out-of-control fires we see on the news.

Cuz over time we’ve learned that forest management isn’t always about saving the trees. Sometimes it’s about burning them. Down to the ground.

#climatechange #globalwarming #firefighting #controlledburns #forestmanagement #seeker #science

Read More:

Indigenous Tribes Have Been Rekindling The Ancient Art of Controlled Burning
“Indigenous people have been practicing controlled, deliberate burns in North America, and around the world, for millennia. For the Yurok, Karuk and Hoopa Tribes of Northern California, human-managed fires across their traditional lands are vital.”
https://www.nature.org/en-us/magazine/magazine-articles/indigenous-controlled-burns-california

On the French Meadows Restoration Project
“The 28,000-acre French Meadows Forest Restoration Project is using a collaborative, all-lands approach to restore forest health and resilience and reduce the risk of high-severity wildfire in the headwaters of the Middle Fork of the American River, a critical municipal watershed located on the Tahoe National Forest in California’s Sierra Nevada.”
https://www.nature.org/content/dam/tnc/nature/en/photos/FMPFactsheet2-27-19final.pdf

Bureau of Land Management - Why Do Prescribed Burning?
“Some forests and rangelands are more vulnerable to environmental stress (drought, insects, disease, and invasive species) without the role of low intensity frequent fire. Land management agencies use prescribed fire in a safe and carefully planned manner to help reduce wildfire risk to communities, municipal watersheds and other values, as well as restore natural ecologic processes and functions, and to achieve integrated land-management objectives.https://www.blm.gov/or/resources/fire/prescribedburns/burn_bkgrnd.php

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