skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Friday, March 29, 2024

Public News Service Logo
facebook instagram linkedin reddit youtube twitter
view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Study Stresses Need for Better Fire Management in NW Forests

play audio
Play

Tuesday, April 30, 2019   

SEATTLE — While the Northwest has seen massive infernos in recent years, a new report shows its forests actually are experiencing a historical deficit of fires. That deficit could be fueling recent, dangerous wildfire seasons.

The study conducted by The Nature Conservancy, U.S. Forest Service and University of Idaho shows only one-tenth of forest acreage in Washington and Oregon burned between 1984 and 2015, compared with a century earlier. However, 36 percent of those fires were high severity, compared with about 6% - 9% historically.

Ryan Haugo, the study's lead author and conservation science director at The Nature Conservancy in Oregon, said with the added pressure of climate change, the need to better manage forests is urgent.

"We need to look for opportunities in which we can have the fire that is going to occur burn at times and under conditions which are both safer to our communities, safer to our health, and more able to restore and replicate the natural ecological processes,” Haugo said.

This week begins a two-week period of prescribed fire training in central Washington, which is used to rid the forest of fuel for the most intense wildfires. Historically, low- and medium-severity fires played this role. The study found the fire deficit is worse in eastern Washington and Oregon, where only 3 percent of the historical acreage has burned.

Jon Bakker, a professor with the University of Washington's School of Environmental and Forest Sciences, has studied fires in the western part of Washington state and found there is fire deficit there too. He said we have to recognize that fire is a natural part of the landscape.

"We're either going to have it in the times when we want it to happen through prescriptions, or it's going to happen in larger, uncontrollable crown fires, as we've seen in the last few years,” Bakker said.

Washington Department of Natural Resources forest health scientist Derek Churchill said a combination of good fire suppression and removing fire-resistant trees has made forests more vulnerable. He said prescribed and managed fires are key, and also noted mechanical thinning of the debris that fuels those fires is critical to maintain forests.

"This study really quantified the amount of treatment it's going to take to do that maintenance over time,” Churchill said. “It gave us an idea in a really compelling way.”

Haugo noted the study is not advocating a return to historical numbers, which could be dangerous to communities and also because many fire-resistant trees are missing from forests due to past management decisions.


get more stories like this via email

more stories
The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments this week about the popular abortion pill Mifepristone and will weigh in on whether the U.S. Food and Drug Administration was correct in how it can be dosed and prescribed. (Ascannio/Adobe Stock)

Health and Wellness

play sound

Missouri residents are worried about future access to birth control. The latest survey from The Right Time, an initiative based in Missouri…


Social Issues

play sound

Wisconsin children from low-income families are now on track to get nutritious foods over the summer. Federal officials have approved the Badger …

Social Issues

play sound

Almost 2,900 people are unsheltered on any given night in the Beehive State. Gov. Spencer Cox is celebrating signing nine bills he says are geared …


The U.S. teaching workforce remains primarily white while the percentage of Black teachers has declined. However, the percentage of Asian and Latinx teachers is rising.(WavebreakMediaMicro/Adobestock)

Social Issues

play sound

Education advocates are calling on lawmakers to increase funding for programs to combat the teacher shortage. Around 37% of schools nationwide …

Environment

play sound

New York's Legislature is considering a bill to get clean-energy projects connected to the grid faster. It's called the RAPID Act, for "Renewable …

Social Issues

play sound

Earlier this month, a new Arizona Public Service rate hike went into effect and one senior advocacy group said those on a fixed income may struggle …

Social Issues

play sound

Michigan recently implemented a significant juvenile justice reform package following recommendations from a task force made up of prosecutors…

 

Phone: 303.448.9105 Toll Free: 888.891.9416 Fax: 208.247.1830 Your trusted member- and audience-supported news source since 1996 Copyright © 2021