Washington town burns 500 forest acres to build shield against future wildfires
The town of Roslyn, Washington, is utilizing prescribed burns to clear forest undergrowth and reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfires. This strategy reverses a century of fire suppression policies that led to dangerously dense forests and increased vulnerability to climate-driven infernos.
Why it matters
Prescribed burning is emerging as a critical land management tool for communities in the American West to mitigate the increasing threat of climate-related wildfires.
In Washington, a team of igniters are walking across the forest with canisters filled with a mixture of diesel fuel and gasoline. They walk in parallel, lighting grasses and shrubs, moving forward as flames spread in the back, and thousands of pine needles combust into a smoke show. At the same time, more than a dozen people are working to ensure that the blaze stays under control. What is being done is a prescribed burn on a forested ridge above a small town, Roslyn, that was nearly wiped out by a wildfire a few years ago, as per a report by Stateline.The spectre of wildfire is increasingly haunting the existence of communities throughout the West and this work could point to a new model of living with the phenomenon.A fiery landscapeBefore white settlers arrived in the late 1800s, the forests in this part of Washington burned roughly every decade.
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