Prescribed Burning

A group of mostly Western U.S. Senators is demanding answers on why the U.S. Forest Service has fallen behind on efforts to reduce hazardous wildfire fuels. The 12 senators – all Democrats – are from Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico and other wildfire-impacted states.

Data analyzed by the advocacy group Grassroots Wildland Firefighters shows that prescribed fires and other hazardous fuel reduction efforts have fallen by nearly 40% across the West this year.

Wildfires have grown substantially in size in recent decades, but they’re also burning much more intensely, with high severity areas growing much faster than fires overall. New research projects additional significant jumps in the scale of wildfires that kill most trees unless major management measures - like prescribed fire - are carried out.

Prescribed burns are widely recognized as an effective wildfire mitigation tool. Now, using satellite imagery, land management records and fire emissions data, a team of researchers has put hard numbers to those impacts.

The Forest Service's new chief recently published a letter that called for wildfires to be suppressed "as swiftly as possible." That may sound prudent to many, but it raised eyebrows among some who study fire policy. They worried that it may signal a return to aggressive suppression that has been linked to growing wildfire severity.

The Karuk of Northern California are one of many Native peoples with a long tradition of burning their ancestral lands. These practices are key inspiration for an annual prescribed fire training that’s been going on for more than a decade.

The Klamath Prescribed Fire Training Exchange – or KTREX – has been held Northern California since 2014. Part of what sets it apart from similar efforts is the central role played by the Karuk Tribe, and the emphasis on their cultural burning practices. Like many Native people, the Karuk have a time immemorial tradition of burning on their ancestral lands, and many point to it as a key inspiration for thinking of new and better ways to live with fire.

In the wake of the devastating Hermit’s Peak/Calf Canyon Fire in 2022, the U.S. Forest Service paused prescribed fires – which started the infernos – to review the agency’s program. A newly released Government Accountability Office report looks into how well the agency has implemented changes since then. While acknowledging that changes necessary to resume burning have been made, the government watchdog says more work remains.

Beneficial fire is an essential part of confronting the wildfire crisis. But for now, there’s not enough people to do the work. A prescribed burn this spring in Central Idaho shows how partnerships can get more workers on the line.

Home insurance is becoming a more uncertain market, in large part due to climate-fueled disasters like wildfires. Some states in the West are taking steps to address the situation, like Oregon where a 2023 law requires insurers to account for home-hardening measures in their underwriting models. In California, they’re trying to take it a step further.