Fire agencies, politicians, and tribal governments tout prescribed burns as an effective fire mitigation strategy. California needs to use every tool it has amid what’s shaping up to be the largest fire season in state history. But it’s different in Southern California’s chaparral and grasslands than in northern forests. Some residents and fire ecologists say prescribed burns here will do more harm than good.
Why controlled burns don’t always effectively prevent wildfires in SoCal
This year is expected to be California’s worst wildfire season. That’s after 2020 was the largest wildfire season ever, and before that, it was 2018. Could an effective mitigation strategy be prescribed burns? That’s when firefighters set blazes in areas that can be contained. Photo by Shutterstock.
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