Lauren Sommer of NPR writes on why the south is decades ahead of the west in wildfire prevention.
- States in the south prioritize responsible forest management practices such as prescribed burns and thinning out fuel load on forest floors.
- Florida, the current leader in prescribed burns, has done prescribed burns on more than 1.6 million acres this year.
- By following the south’s lead and increasing active forest management practices, western states could see the damage from wildfires be effectively reduced.
“As Western states contend with increasingly catastrophic wildfires, some are looking to the Southeastern U.S., where prescribed fire is widespread thanks to policies put in place decades ago. From 1998 to 2018, 70% of all controlled burning in the country was in the Southeast.”
Read the full article here.
The views and opinions expressed are those of the author’s and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of C3.
