Step by step: Forests of the future
Forests in the West used to be a lot more open, so wildfires were much less severe. How do we know? By looking at tree rings! We can actually see scars from old wildfires in cross-sections like this one. By cross-dating fire scars from multiple trees, scientists can reconstruct what past forests looked like including how dense forests were. (Forest Service video by Erika Reiter)Near the community…
#PrescribedFire, #Dendrochronology, #Fire, #FireScience, #Thinning, #WildfirePrevention, #FirePrevention, #Planning, #Wildfire
A forest in motion
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
Going digital
An area treated using digital marking. Fewer trees, farther apart helps promote a healthy forest by reducing the amount of fuel for a potential wildfire. (Image courtesy of The Nature Conservancy)
With a paint can in hand, a forester walks step by step through the dense Arizona ponderosa pine…
#MechanicalThinning, #Thinning, #FuelsTreatment, #TimberSales, #Timber, #CoconinoNationalForest, #WildfireRiskReduction, #FuelReduction
Blackwell Job Corps students apply skills across East Coast
Blackwell Job Corps Civilian Conservation Center students Skylar Winters, Samarion Boykin, Justin Gatlin and Oceola Koontz take in the view from the top of Mount Washington, which is surrounded by White Mountain National Forest in New Hampshire. Photo courtesy Blackwell Job Corps Civilian…
#JobCorps, job corps civilian conservation centers, #PrescribedFire, #Thinning, #Trails
Science says thinned forests are healthy forests
Overgrown forests are one of the key contributing factors to the current wildfire crisis in the West. The new Forest Service strategy on Confronting the Wildfire Crisis outlines the agency’s plan for increasing fuels and forest health treatments to create healthier forests and reduce the risk to communities…