This article from the East Bay Times looks into our country's long history of fire suppression and how the practice to put fires out immediately has resulted in over-dense forests that are prone to large, highly destructive fires. What can be done to stop the trend of these megafires? Forest Service research ecologist Eric Knapp, on site at the Stanislaus Tuolumne Experimental Forest, shares how at the Experimental Forest researchers are bringing fire back to the forest in a controlled way that is thought to mimic how fire used to burn naturally in the forest before suppression became the standard practice.
Read this in-depth piece here, and click the link below to watch a short video on the methods being explored at the Stanislaus Tuolumne Experimental Forest to find the key to creating resilient forest environments.
Crews ignite a prescribed burn in California’s Stanislaus-Tuolumne Experimental Forest, near Pinecrest (photo courtesy of Eric Knapp to the East Bay Times).