There isn’t a no-fire option in California — but with sound land management, we can choose the kind of fire we experience, and ensure we experience it as safely as possible.
After a century of fire suppression and improper management, our forests are unnaturally dense and overgrown with fuels that can increase the intensity of fires.
Using intentionally-lit controlled fires is one of the best ways to reduce backlogs of fuels and reduce the severity of future wildfires. Through controlled burns and managing naturally-occurring wildfires when the conditions are safe, we can help avoid destructive, uncontrolled fire events. Prescribed fire in forests has been a cultural legacy of California Indigenous communities for thousands of years and created an environment of less-intense wildfires. When we return good fire to the landscape, we are protecting both our landscapes and our communities.
Healthy forests are diverse, with different kinds of plants and habitats. However, many California forests have become overgrown, dense with fuels that increase the intensity of wildfires.
Thinning is an effective fuel reduction tool, but it must follow ecological principles — that means no clear-cutting, protecting sensitive wildlife, and leaving the larger, older, more fire-resilient trees. When areas of overgrown forest are thinned and subsequently treated with prescribed fire, the area can begin to return to a healthier cycle of lower-severity fire and regeneration.
When fuel treatments like prescribed fire and ecological thinning are done right, they provide multiple ecosystem benefits, including improving forests’ resilience to wildfire, enhancing biodiversity, protecting communities, and storing carbon.
Fuel treatments are not intended to stop wildfires. They are intended to influence fire behavior so that fires burn less severely. They are also intended to allow reintroduction of beneficial fire. No two areas in need of treatments are the same — remote areas will need different solutions than heavily populated California communities.
As Californians, we can ensure we experience wildfire as safely as possible.
For homeowners, that means hardening your home for greater wildfire resilience, establishing defensible space around structures on your property, and committing to fire-appropriate landscaping. For communities, that means understanding the wildland-urban interface, local ecosystem types, and your area’s own history of fire. And for forest managers, that means incorporating prescribed or managed fire and natural regeneration wherever possible.
Fire is a natural part of California’s ecology — and it’s here to stay.
Scientists estimate that 4.45 million acres burned annually in California prior to the Gold Rush. These fire patterns don’t just go away. “No fire” simply isn’t an option going forward. However, we can choose what kind of fire we experience. By greatly expanding the amount of good fire that our landscapes experience each year, we can reduce wildfire intensity and reduce the number of destructive megafires in our state.
While we each have a responsibility to prepare for fire, community-level planning is essential to fire safety.
By understanding local levels of fire risk and the characteristics of fire in the area, communities can establish evacuation routes, building codes, and early warning systems that keep residents safe. Fire-smart communities identify wildfire fuels in their area, create strategic fuel breaks to slow the spread of fire, and make smart planning decisions based on their wildfire risk.
All fires, regardless of type, come with smoke — but a little smoke from a prescribed burn is much safer than the smoke caused by extreme megafires resulting from too much fuel buildup.
Planned fires result in approximately 17% fewer smoke effects than unplanned fires. While some wildfire smoke is natural and inevitable in California, we can reduce our overall smoke exposure by burning throughout the year, reducing fuels on our landscapes, and personally preparing our homes for smoke. And while smoke affects all of us, regardless of income and location, its impacts aren’t equitable — low-income communities are less likely to be prepared for hazardous smoke and are the least likely to be able to leave their homes during smoky conditions.
There has never been a more important time for us to reassess our relationship with fire.
To restore our ecosystems, we must understand fire as a naturally occurring part of the landscape and a force for ecosystem growth and regeneration. California ecosystems rely on fire, and our landscape management strategies must reflect that. Rather than trying to extinguish all fire on our landscape, we must respect and embrace the power of good fire to help return our forests to a balanced state.
The best way to protect lives and property from the increased risk of fire is through home hardening, better planning, and a focus on fuel reduction near communities.
By building homes out of non-flammable materials, and by reducing wildfire intensity in more populated areas, we can reduce the chances and impacts of megafires on communities. These approaches to fire also reduce the intensity and impact of smoke when fires occur.
Some California forests historically saw fire as frequently as every five years, but fire suppression and improper logging practices over the past century have created an unnatural buildup of fuels in our forests. To restore balance, we must improve how we manage our forests with a priority placed on managed wildfire when possible and the use of prescribed fire when appropriate to enhance our state’s rich native biodiversity and protect our watersheds.
Wildfires in chaparral — especially in Southern and Central California — aren't a vegetation problem. They’re a people problem. Human activities and communities in and around chaparral create inroads for highly flammable invasive grasses and other weedy plants that outcompete native species. The replacement of native shrubs with non-native annual plants results in frequent fires, which can lead to more frequent fires and the permanent loss of diverse shrublands. Protection of chaparral habitats is essential to protecting California’s biodiversity.
