Reply to Loehle, C. Comment on “Hanson, C.T. Cumulative Severity of Thinned and Unthinned Forests in a Large California Wildfire. Land 2022, 11, 373”

Chad T. Hanson ()
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Chad T. Hanson: Earth Island Institute, 2150 Allston Way, Suite 460, Berkeley, CA 94704, USA

Land, 2025, vol. 14, issue 11, 1-3

Abstract: In Hanson (2022), I found that commercially thinned forests had significantly higher overall tree mortality, or cumulative severity, from the combination of pre-fire commercial thinning and the Antelope fire of 2021 in northern California. A comment on Hanson (2022) by Loehle (2025) does not dispute my central finding about cumulative severity but suggests that the findings might be limited to the Antelope fire, that differences in accuracy might exist between tree mortality estimates for thinning versus fire, and argues that there are other benefits from commercial thinning, such as financial gains for logging companies and reduced rate of fire spread in low-density forests. In this reply, I address these and other criticisms and explain why they do not affect my results or conclusions.

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: 2025
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