Can Prescribed Fires Mitigate Health Harm?
Can Prescribed Fires Mitigate Health Harm?
A Review of Air Quality & Public Health Implications of Wildfire & Prescribed Fire
Fire is critical to maintaining the health, resiliency, and diversity of habitats and ecosystems. Indigenous peoples of North America have used cultural fires for millennia to enhance biodiversity and other ecosystem benefits, as well as for ceremonial activities. Following Euro-American colonization, practices and policies shifted to promote fire exclusion, contributing to increased fuel loading and increased wildfire risk.
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Prescribed Burns Helped Curb the Caldor Fire
Prescribed Burns Helped Curb the Caldor Fire
September 20, 2021 – The Caldor Fire defied expectations, climbing up mountains and crossing highways, destroying more than 1,000 structures in the process. South Lake Tahoe narrowly avoided the fire’s wrath, which fire experts say was largely thanks to fire prevention activities, including prescribed burns. The following maps show how prescribed burns and other methods of removing vegetation to reduce the risk of hotter, larger fires — known as “fuel treatments” — slowed or curbed Caldor’s growth.
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Meet the People Burning California to Save It
Meet the People Burning California to Save It
July 29, 2021 – Frequent, low-intensity fires known as prescribed burns are one of the best ways to stop wildfires. So why isn’t California lighting more of them?