Research presented in Missoula argues logged areas can burn hotter; speaker urges shift from remote thinning to community protection and emissions reductions
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Summary
Dr. Dominic DellaSala summarized peer-reviewed and in-review analyses arguing that logged landscapes often experience higher-severity fires, and recommended redirecting treatments toward the wildland-urban interface, closing roads to reduce human ignitions, and focusing on emissions as the root cause of extreme fire weather.
Dr. Dominic DellaSala, Senior Conservation Science Associate at the Conservation Biology Institute, told a Missoula audience that recent research—some in review and some already published—shows logged and heavily managed landscapes often burn more severely than wilderness areas. "We looked at, I think it was 25 million acres over a four decade period...Here are the logged areas burning in high severity," he said, summarizing the analysis reviewers will see.
DellaSala argued the scientific record identifies root causes of extreme fires—rising temperatures, earlier spring snowmelt, drought and high winds—rather than simply dead trees in the canopy. "What's driving these big fires is this temperature increase, early spring snow melt, drought and high winds," he said, and warned that focusing exclusively on remote thinning and backcountry treatments treats the effect rather than the cause.
On management choices, DellaSala said some localized thinning and prescribed burning can reduce fire intensity under low-to-moderate fire weather, but stressed the costs and ecological trade-offs of scaling those measures across large landscapes: road building, carbon loss, damaged soils and loss of biological legacies. "If you log them, you're going to bring all of that fine fuel down on the ground...that's fire spread and that's what kills firefighters," he said.
As alternative priorities, DellaSala recommended concentrating treatments nearer homes and infrastructure, investing in prescribed burning where it functions ecologically and culturally, and aggressively limiting human ignitions by closing or obliterating roads during high-risk periods. "You have to close some of the roads when you have a fire emergency," he said, pointing to analyses linking human-caused ignitions to access.
During a question-and-answer exchange, audience members asked about vapor pressure deficit (VPD) and how scientists should talk about risks. DellaSala used a simple metaphor: "If you think of the atmosphere as a sponge...as temperature goes up...you're going to cause more vapor pressure deficit problems which translate into droughts." He also encouraged scientists to present ensemble ranges and sometimes take bolder communication stances when the evidence and stakes require it.
Ending: DellaSala concluded by urging a policy pivot that pairs local community protection with broader emissions reductions, and said further peer-reviewed analyses and public outreach are forthcoming from his team.
