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The 2020 August Complex was the largest fire in recent history, burning over one million acres. Scientists warn that large fires like these will likely become more common in the future, as climate change produces longer fire seasons and more extreme weather.

If large fires are the new future, what can we learn from the August Complex? One lesson that might be surprising to some is that the fire had large beneficial effects on the fire-adapted landscape.

Ryan Henson from the California Wilderness Coalition joins Gang Green to talk about wildfires, the environmental costs of fire suppression, and how we should (and should not) approach post-fire management.

AUDIO:

“The EcoNews Report,” Jan. 23, 2021.

LINKS:

• “Post-Wildfire Logging Hinders Regeneration and Increases Fire Risk,” Science, Jan. 20, 2006.
• “Salvage Logging, Ecosystem Processes, and Biodiversity Conservation,” Conservation Biology, June 20, 2006.
• “The forgotten stage of forest succession: early‐successional ecosystems on forest sites,” Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, March 2, 2010.
• “Stop the Salvage Logging of Post-Fire Forests,” EPIC, Sept. 21, 2020.