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OSU Study Suggests Rate Of Severe Forest Fires To Increase

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A new Oregon State University studyshows forest fires have increased across the Pacific Northwest, with more severe blazes negatively affecting old growth forests.  KLCC’s Brian Bull reports.  

Matthew Reilly is the lead author and post-doctoral researcher at OSU’s College of Forestry.  He says despite rising trends in fire activity, fires are affecting much less area due to aggressive fire suppression. 

Now a deficit of low and moderate severity fire may be threatening big, old trees.

Credit Oregon State University
Geographic variability in spatial patterns of burn severity from 1985 to 2010 in the Pacific Northwest. Burn severity is based on the percent of basal area mortality low (75%).

“The big threats potentially is that as these forests get denser with smaller trees, these big large old-growth Ponderosa Pine potentially are threatened by that increasing competition," Reilly tells KLCC.  

"And so there’s growing consensus that more low and moderate severity fires can help thin out some of those smaller trees that had grown out over the last 100 years, and potentially give those larger trees a break from all that competition.”

Reilly says a continued deficit of low and moderate severity fires – along with more drought – will likely mean more high severity fires to come.

The findings are in the March edition of Ecosphere. Besides OSU, other authors include the Forest Service and the University of Vermont. 

Copyright 2017, KLCC. 

Brian Bull is an assistant professor of journalism at the University of Oregon, and remains a contributor to the KLCC news department. He began working with KLCC in June 2016.   In his 27+ years as a public media journalist, he's worked at NPR, Twin Cities Public Television, South Dakota Public Broadcasting, Wisconsin Public Radio, and ideastream in Cleveland. His reporting has netted dozens of accolades, including four national Edward R. Murrow Awards (22 regional),  the Ohio Associated Press' Best Reporter Award, Best Radio Reporter from  the Native American Journalists Association, and the PRNDI/NEFE Award for Excellence in Consumer Finance Reporting.
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