Aerial LIDAR scans make it easy to see the difference between a fire-resistant forest and one where fire has been suppressed.
: They’ll race through the grass and underbrush rather than “torching” whole stands of trees. That reduces fire danger for humans, but it can also benefit local ecosystems by creating habitat for sun-loving wildflowers, edible plants, and birds.. “However, fire suppression over many decades allowed trees to fill in the openings, creating dense stands prone to intense fires.”
Compared to a moderately burned forest again, the aftermath of a high-intensity fire, shown on the right, a forest can transform into grassland.Intense fires, fueled by thick forest and drought-stressed trees, can set off an ecological cascade. They can scorch soils and incinerate seedlings, making it hard for the forest to recover as it would from a milder burn. Across the West, forested landscapes are transitioning to open grasslands in the wake of fires.
Over the last 50 years, however, Yosemite’s forest managers have attempted to reintroduce regular fires, both by setting prescribed burns and leaving room for lightning-ignited blazes. But it takes time to undo decades of fire suppression, especially as climate change makes it harder to find the Goldilocks zone of healthy, moderate burning.National Park Service
In areas of the national park where fires were regular, the researchers found that the forests had opened up—and were better able to survive, which burned hundreds of thousands of acres. But surprisingly, they saw that even a single, low- to medium-intensity fire could leave a forest looking a lot like one with regular burns.
That means that even as the climate warms and Western forests dry out, one well-timed prescribed fire could go a long way toward making a landscape more resilient.Philip Kiefer is a staff writer at Popular Science. He started as a freelancer for the science desk in 2021, and joined the team fully later that year. He’s covered the evolution of COVID variants, carrion-eating honeybees, and prehistoric algal blooms.
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