How decades of stopping forest fires made them worse

1910’s Big Blow Up remains one of the most disastrous wildfires in US history. Hurricane-force winds fanned and threw embers for miles. Full, flaming trees became dangerous projectiles as they were reportedly torn from the ground. After two days, 3 million acres throughout Idaho and Montana had burned. The devastation had a lasting effect on the United States and shaped US forestry policy for the next century. But it also created a deep misunderstanding of what fire means to a forest.

A century of fire suppression has reshaped our forests. The floor is littered with material that is dense, dried, and dead. Now, climate change is highlighting why that’s a problem. Increasingly hot, dry weather has resulted in a longer, more dramatic wildfire season, and the forests are ready to ignite. The United States is struggling to keep up with the blazes year after year, so scientists and Indigenous people are pushing to bring back a centuries-old practice: burning the forests on our own terms, through prescribed burning.

You can find this video and all of Vox’s videos on YouTube.

---

We have a request

In moments like this — as people grapple to understand variants and vaccines, and kids head back to school — many outlets take their paywalls down. Vox’s content is always free, in part because of financial support from our readers. We’ve been covering the Covid-19 pandemic for more than a year and a half. From the beginning, our goal was to bring clarity to chaos. To empower people with the information they needed to stay safe. And we’re not stopping.

To our delight, you, our readers, helped us hit our goal of adding 2,500 financial contributions in September in just 9 days. So we’re setting a new goal: to add 4,500 contributions by the end of the month. Reader support helps keep our coverage free, and is a critical part of sustaining our resource-intensive work. Will you help us reach our goal by making a contribution to Vox with as little as $3?

source https://www.vox.com/videos/22687988/forest-fire-management-controlled-burn