The Pioneer Fire burns in the Boise National Forest near Idaho City in 2016.(Photo courtesy of the U.S. Forest Service)
Decades of federal forest managers pursuing suppression-focused tactics led to a logjam of unmanaged forests waiting to ignite. Current federal policies barely chip away at the buildup, with only 0.08% of public lands treated with prescribed fire. A rate far below the accumulation of vulnerable fuels on public lands in the mountain states.
The U.S. Forest Service manages 193 million acres, and 80 million acres need to be restored. Accounting for all management practices, like selective logging and prescribed fire, it will take 40 years to restore the forests needing remediated today. This does not account for the millions of acres that will become vulnerable in the future. It is little wonder that catastrophic wildfires continue to burst from this ever-growing logjam…