Forest Thinning Means Faster Fires
By Sofia Moss, WellKind Forestry Intern
Sofia Moss was an intern for WellKind Forestry during our spring 2022 session, exploring forest fires and other environmental issues.
Climate change has severely impacted the atmosphere and weather patterns, especially in California. I am Sofia Moss, an intern at WellKind, and I live in California. At 16 years old, I have already seen drastic and fast environmental changes. For example, the hills above my house are no longer green with tall healthy trees due to the droughts in my state. Additionally, during fire season, Califonians can barely breathe without masks on. So what can Californians do about the threats that wildfires pose and their increasing severity?
Supplies you can put in your house to increase your safety during a fire include fireproof shingles, sprinklers on the roof, a water source by the building, pumps that pump water onto the house, and water tanks.
It is also important to have established an escape route and have access to dependable communication networks. Ham radios are a reliable way to communicate with those in your community. They are important in the event of a fire because they don’t require internet or cell service. During a fire, the internet will most likely be down, so phones will not be reliable communication sources.
In addition, it is recommended to not have trees closer than 15 feet from one’s house. However, removing trees doesn't necessarily mean better fire protection.
A widespread view amongst land managers is that thinning forests reduces the severity of forest fires. Thinning is the process of cutting trees in a forest, which in theory should reduce wildfire risks by reducing the fuel for fires. However, this process has many negative effects on forest ecosystems.
Land managers argue that forest thinning is a win-win situation. They claim that forest clearing reduces fire risks and produces biomass that replaces fossil fuels. These ideas have inspired recent administrative and legislative proposals to reduce forest protection. However, researchers have found that forests with higher protection laws have lower fire severity. Even though protected forests have high levels of biomass and fuel loading, fires are not as severe.
A study done by Curtis M. Bradley, Chad T. Hanson, and Dominick A. DellaSala used Gap Analysis Program Protection classes to determine whether areas with more forest protection burned more severely than areas where intensive management is allowed. They compared the data of 1500 fires affecting 9.5 million acres of land (1984-2014).
They found that increased fire severity corresponds to decreasing protection status (and therefore more thinning).
When land managers manage and thin forests, forests burn hotter and faster. This is because by thinning a forest, the empty space between the trees allows the wind to move faster, and therefore fires will move faster. Fewer trees lead to less shade and therefore more heat, as well as less plant life leading to less atmospheric moisture. The increased atmospheric temperature heats up the ground and causes dry soil.
Therefore, land managers need to reconsider the simplistic idea that logging and less fire protection leads to less fire severity. The idea of the benefits of logging disregards how forest thinning is damaging to fire-adapted forests.
Old-growth forests that have been around for centuries and have adapted to forest fires. Ecosystems flourish off of a more biodiverse atmosphere. By thinning old growth forests, they are disrupting the ecosystem’s delicate balance it took centuries to develop.
By thinning forests and cutting down trees to make room for other trees, land managers not only reduce biodiversity with the trees they cut down, but also the biodiversity of all the animals living in the trees. In addition, when trees are cut down, they release CO2 back into the atmosphere.
More dense plant life will lead to lower wind movement, lower ground temperature, soil moisturizer, and more atmospheric temperature. All of these factors help lower the severity of forest fires.
Humanity depends on forests for oxygen, storing carbon emissions, and having healthy ecosystems. The increasing amount of forest fires threaten forests and all they do for us. So in order to minimize these risks, we need to reduce forest thinning and increase forest protections.
References
Agreement for shared stewardship of California’s forest ... (n.d.). Retrieved March 24, 2022, from https://www.gov.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/8.12.20-CA-Shared-Stewardship-MOU.pdf
Bradley, C. M., Handson, C. T., & DellaSala, D. A. (2016, October 26). Does increased forest protection correspond to higher fire severity in frequent-fire forests of the western United States? Ecosphere. Retrieved March 24, 2022, from https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ecs2.1492
Callalti, A., Keenan, T., Ibrom, A., Ben Bond-Lamberty, Grote, R., Vicca, S., Reyer, C. P. O., Migliavacca, M., Veroustraete, F., Anav, A., Campioloi, M., Scoccimarro, E., Sigut, L., Grieco, E., Cescatti, A., & Matteucci, G. (2018, September 19). Wiley Online Library. Journal Of Advances in Modeling Earth's Systems. Retrieved March 24, 2022, from https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2018MS001275
DellaSala, D. A., & Koopman, M. (1970, January 1). Thinning combined with biomass energy production impacts fire-adapted forests in western United States and may increase greenhouse gas emissions. Thinning combined with biomass energy production impacts fire-adapted forests in western United States and may increase greenhouse gas emissions | Northern Rockies Fire Science Network. Retrieved March 23, 2022, from https://www.nrfirescience.org/resource/17270
Eng, R. (2021, September 2). Amateur ham radio operators help Lafd Keep Residents Safe. Amateur ham radio operators help LAFD keep residents safe. Retrieved March 23, 2022, from https://spectrumnews1.com/ca/la-west/public-safety/2021/09/02/amateur-ham-radio-operators-help-lafd-keep-residents-safe-during-emergencies
Hanson, C. T. (n.d.). The ecological importance of mixed-severity fires. Google Books. Retrieved March 23, 2022, from https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=cbPsBAAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&ots=6zzVW6Pejj&sig=iRZhFscmFQK_Crx0rva4AF9dmtM#v=onepage&q&f=false