Prescribed burns are widely recognized as an effective wildfire mitigation tool. Now, using satellite imagery, land management records and fire emissions data, a team of researchers has put hard numbers to those impacts. During the 2020 season, fires that burned over recent prescribed fire areas were 16 percent less intense and emitted 220 fewer pounds of smoke per acre.
“One ton of prescribed fire smoke reduces 3.2 tons of future wildfire smoke,” said Makoto Kelp, a postdoctoral scholar at the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability and the paper’s lead author. Those calculations include the smoke emitted by the prescribed fires themselves.
“Currently, federal and state wildfire mitigation policies don't really include the potential avoided emissions from future wildfires as a benefit of prescribed fires,” he added. “So including these in risk benefit analyses could justify greater investment and public support.”
One troubling finding is that prescribed fires near structures adjacent to the wildlands appear to be less effective. Kelp hypothesized that heightened caution among land managers may lead to less thorough prescribed burning near homes, adding: “you don't want that prescribed fire to escape.”
“It's a bit concerning because these are areas of heightened policy focus,” he said.
This story was produced by the Mountain West News Bureau, a collaboration between Wyoming Public Media, Nevada Public Radio, Boise State Public Radio in Idaho, KUNR in Nevada, KUNC in Colorado and KANW in New Mexico, with support from affiliate stations across the region. Funding for the Mountain West News Bureau is provided in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
