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A forest in motion

A healthy pine forest in Conecuh National Forest.
Dense, dangerously crowded stands of trees are giving way to healthy, spacious forests across Alabama. This transformation is because active forest management on Alabama’s national forests is moving faster than it has in years, and the efforts are improving forest health and supporting local…
#Alabama, #Thinning, #MechanicalThinning, #Timber, #Forestry, #TimberSales, #GoodNeighborAuthority, #HealthyForests, #PrescribedFire, #ForestRestoration, #HabitatRestoration, #Habitat

Igniting the future: Technology on prescribed fire

A large agricultural style drone on the ground, sitting on a portable landing marker on the edge of a forest.
Fire managers filling the plastic sphere dispenser in the Alta X on Blackberry Prescribed fire on the Helena Ranger District, Montana. (Forest Service photo by Mariah Leuschen-Lonergan) Along the foothills of the Big Belt Mountains near York, Montana, it’s unusual to see bare ground above 5,…
#Fire, #PrescribedFire, #ControlledBurn, #UAS, #UnmannedAircraftSystems, #WildfireAwarenessMonth, #HelenaLewisAndClarkNationalForest, #Technology, #Drones

Putting fire on the ground

Image shows a firefighter squatting down applying prescribed fire while several other firefighters look on in a forest setting.
Fire personnel monitor the Crystal Reservoir prescribed fire near Colorado Springs, Colorado, on May 16, 2025. (Forest Service photo by Josh Cowden) In places like the Pike-San Isabel National Forests across the country, fire has shaped the land for thousands of years. Many forests depend on…
#PrescribedFire, #Fire, #ControlledBurn, #FirePrevention, #WildfirePrevention, #WildfireRiskReduction, #PikeNationalForest

Post-wildfire restoration in the 2018 Camp Fire area on the Plumas National Forest

A pile of ashes is left after a prescribed burn.
Editor’s note: Across the West, land managers are working together to accomplish what they cannot do alone — to restore massive areas affected by past wildfire while also strategically planning how to best suppress the next.Forest Service firefighter James Lico, and Julia Sidman, a forestry program manager for the Butte County Resource Conservation District talk about the work that's needed to…
#Campfire, #PrescribedFire, #ControlledBurn, #PileBurning, #Wildfire, #WildfireRiskReduction, #WildfireCrisis, #Fire, #PlumasNationalForest

Prescribed fire boosts community safety & forest health

Image shows a wildland firefighter in safety gear and helmet dripping fire onto vegetation to continue a prescribed fire.
USDA Forest Service’s Michael Moranda uses a drip torch to light an underbrush fire during a prescribed fire operation in the Weaverville Community Forest. (USDA Forest Service photo by Bob Doucette)  On the lower slopes of Jackass Ridge, smoke wafted through an oak woodland canopy, its…
#PrescribedFire, #Fire, #Wildfire, #ControlledBurn, #Safety, #Firefighters, #WildlandFire

Saving historic Mount Wilson and crucial communications from Eaton Fire

Image shows three wildland firefighters on a ridgeline with the sun setting behind them and the sky is orange with smoke from the Eaton wildfire.
The Mount Wilson Observatory and communications equipment at the summit of Mount Wilson were protected both by actions taken by firefighters during the Eaton Fire and treatments applied months before the fire. (USDA Forest Service video by Andrew Avitt)At just under 6,000 feet, the Mount Wilson Observatory and communication site sit within the San Gabriel Mountains of the Angeles National Forest…
#PrescribedFire, #WildlandFirefighters, #HazardousFuels, #FuelReduction, #WildlandFire