How towns can adapt to fire as bigger burns loom

With historic intensity and severity, the recent L.A. fires have been a catalyst for scientific research surfacing nearly every news article, publication, and journal – many of which feature Conservation Biology Institute’s very own, Dr. Alexandra Syphard. Take a look at the PNAS article, How towns can adapt to fire as bigger burns loom.

Firefighters and land managers have been using fuel breaks for decades, but only recently have actual studies emerged suggesting that fuel breaks can reduce fire severity and damage (1). Fuel breaks “can work and can alter fire behavior,” especially in forests—where the majority of this research has been done—says Alexandra Syphard, a senior research ecologist at the Conservation Biology Institute, headquartered in Corvallis, Oregon. Forests are good candidates for fuel breaks because breaks mimic what natural fires would have done in the past, thinning out the understory every so often, so there’s not an accumulation of massive tinder to burn.