Cumulative Tree Mortality from Commercial Thinning and a Large Wildfire in the Sierra Nevada, California

Bryant C. Baker and Chad T. Hanson
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Bryant C. Baker: Los Padres ForestWatch, P.O. Box 831, Santa Barbara, CA 93102, USA
Chad T. Hanson: Earth Island Institute, 2150 Allston Way, Suite 460, Berkeley, CA 94704, USA

Land, 2022, vol. 11, issue 7, 1-8

Abstract: Debate remains about the effectiveness of commercial thinning as a wildfire management strategy, with some studies reporting somewhat lower severity in thinned forests, and some reporting higher severity, during wildfires. However, while vegetation severity is a measure of basal area tree mortality, research on this question generally omits tree mortality from thinning itself. We investigated whether cumulative tree mortality, or cumulative severity, from commercial thinning and wildfire was different between thinned and unthinned forests in the Caldor Fire of 2021 in the northern Sierra Nevada mountains of California, USA. We found significantly higher cumulative severity in commercial thinning areas compared to unthinned forests. More research is needed to determine whether cumulative severity is higher in commercially thinned forests in other large western US wildfires.

Keywords: fire severity; wildfire; mixed conifer; forests; commercial thinning (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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