Forest Restoration And Hazardous Fuels Reduction Efforts

Years of fire suppression and increasing constraints on natural and prescribed burning, possibly along with climate change, have altered historical wildfire regimes resulting in increased wildfire severity in the Nation's forests. The growing wildfire threat has motivated increasing interest in reducing hazardous fuels through prescribed burning, thinning, and harvesting. There is debate about whether such fuel treatments are necessary owing to the complexity of the wildfire issue and to general disagreement about whether long-term wildfire impacts present a real problem. This report presents one way of conceptualizing the costs and benefits of fuel treatments and wildfire and reviews issues related to their evaluation. Illustrations. This is a print on demand report.