Does logging really reduce wildfire danger? New California study finds key exception
The timber industry and its supporters, joined by many in the Trump administration, have long promoted logging as a way to reduce fire danger. Some even blame declining timber operations in recent decades for the uptick in catastrophic wildfire. A growing body of research, however, suggests the benefits of logging are far more limited. The latest study to examine the impact of harvesting trees on fire behavior, published Wednesday in the journal Global Change Biology, finds that lands administered by private timber companies were nearly 1½ times more likely to burn at “high severity” levels than public lands with less timber production.
Other forest and wildfire news:
- EurekAlert! (American Association for the Advancement of Science): Industry managed forests more likely to fuel megafires
- KRXI (Reno, Nev.): Intensifying wildfires threaten Nevada’s water quality, study finds
