To save forests, sometimes you have to hurt them. A large-scale, 10-year-old experiment in the Malheur National Forest in Oregon aimed to make the forest more fire-resistant through limited logging (“thinning”) and prescribed burning. How did these two seemingly harmful activities help preserve the forest? By strategically thinning out the forest, not only do they limit the fuel source that quickly turns wildfires uncontrollable, but they also reduce the competition among the trees, allowing them to grow faster than before. Read full article here
