A comprehensive 2021 Forest Service report by Theresa B. Jain, et al., identifies significant shortcomings in research supporting “fuel treatments” that focus on thinning our forests.
Out of 2,240 research papers, the authors identified only 179 (8%) that evaluated landscape-scale fuel treatments, and “very few are empirical studies that looked at the effectiveness of fuel treatments outside of the treatment boundary.”
The report notes a lack of empirical data along with areas “for significant improvement in future research.” To resolve these issues, the report calls for “well-designed and controlled field experiments over large areas that can produce empirical data to confront the higher-level questions on effectiveness over large landscapes.”
These forest-thinning fuel treatments are receiving record funding through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, even though Jain, et al., conclude that it “may take years or decades to acquire” the information needed to justify these treatments.
Photo shows a remote 2019 fuel-treatment project that used helicopters to thin 500 acres of Coconino National Forest, Arizona (photo by Brady Smith, Coconino National Forest).
