Leveraging Wildfire Footprints to Increase Forest Resilience to Future High Severity Fire

Description

The increase in large wildfires across the West has resulted in significant loss of mature conifer forest cover. Yet, these large wildfires also create extensive areas with low- to moderate-severity fire effects, where mature overstory has been retained and surface fuels reduced. These areas often far exceed those treated with mechanical treatments or prescribed fire. In this study, the authors recommend that forest managers consider working in and around wildfire footprints to increase the pace and scale of much needed fuel treatments by capitalizing on two key benefits of recent wildfires.