fire management

Two wildfire detection cameras installed near Jackson Hole hope to shorten response times and improve evacuations by using artificial intelligence technology.

The faster a fire burns, the more severe its ecological impacts. That's one of the findings of a new paper in the journal Science Advances. Climate change only promises to further accelerate those fires, according to its lead author.

From Spokane, Wash. to Pueblo County, Colo., fast-moving fires have again wreaked havoc in neighborhoods this summer. Now, a network of scientists, fire professionals and other experts have joined forces to seek research-based solutions to the problem.

So-called process based restoration (PBR) has a number of ecological benefits. But it can make ecosystems more resilient to wildfires when they come, and better able to recover in their wake.

One of the studies found that over seven recent years, U.S. Forest Service projects helped communities avoid $2.8 billion in fire-related harm.

“Suppression is always going to be there,” Chief Brian Fennessy told the Mountain West News Bureau. “But we're not going to suppress our way out of this situation.”

The Trump administration is trying to repeal the Roadless Rule, which prohibits new road construction in large swaths of national forests. They say this will aid fire response, but new research is calling that into question.

Going into the state budget session, a group of lawmakers backed projects to support fisheries and manage species like cheatgrass throughout the state. But actually funding some of them is a bit uncertain.

As wildfires get more intense, there are questions about how effective prescribed fire and other fuel treatments can be. New research suggests that they can still have real impacts.

Brian Fennessy has nearly 50 years of fire experience, which began in the late 1970s on elite federal hotshot crews and other wildfire teams.