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Comprehensive science review shows fuel treatments reduce future wildfire severity - EurekAlert

There is a common belief that prescribed burning, thinning trees, and clearing underbrush reduce risks of the severity of future fires. But is that true? Kimberley Davis is a Forest Service Research Ecologist and led the project analyzing 40 studies where wildfire burned into different vegetation treatments, spanning 11 western states. Researchers found overwhelming evidence that in seasonally dry mixed conifer forests in the western U.S., reducing surface and ladder fuels and tree density through thinning, coupled with prescribed burning or pile burning, could reduce future wildfire severity by more than 60% relative to untreated areas. The study results were recently published in Forest Ecology and Management. 

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