Finding A
Thinning alone (although shown to work in other wildfires) did not work well in our stands
burned by the Biscuit fire.
Thinning followed by underburning worked best, in this case.
What do we think we learned?
Caveats: The Biscuit
Fire burned through most LTEP plots on the same day. Because fire movement is determined by more than fuel, we
cannot be certain that these results would occur with a different fire,
climatic conditions,
or even a different arrangement of stands.
Our limited confidence comes from the similarity of fire effects on the two paired treatments
in different locations.
“Because thinning reduces fuels, it
also
reduces
fire movement and severity.”
A.