controlled burns

A new paper finds that current wildfire suppression policies can increase fire severity as much as decades of fuel accumulation and climate change. Using fire models, the area burned annually grew much faster under current suppression policy when compared to a policy of allowing low- and moderate-intensity blazes to burn.

It made national headlines in October 2022 when Forest Service burn boss Ricky Snodgrass was arrested while overseeing a prescribed fire in rural Oregon. Now, a year and a half later, Snodgrass has been indicted on a misdemeanor reckless burning charge. The union he’s a member of is hopeful that he won’t be found guilty, but a representative says the case has still had impacts.

The federal government is allocating almost a billion dollars to 10 Western states to help with wildfire mitigation, and notably, Wyoming is left out. Some state lawmakers and officials say Wyoming should have been included.

Scientists still aren't sure what maintains the Great Plains Grasslands and keeps them separate from forests. A very common hypothesis is that there are climatic differences between the areas where each type of ecosystem forms. But the boundaries between the two ecosystems have been slowly disintegrating since around 1850, which caused a U.S. Forest Service research ecologist to wonder if something else was responsible for keeping them separate.

The Bureau of Land Management has announced it will be lighting controlled burns in Southwest Wyoming. The target area includes more than 7,000 acres…