US President Joe Biden speaks with a fire victim as he tours a neighborhood destroyed by the Marshall Fire in Louisville, Colorado, January 7, 2022. – Authorities say the fast moving wildfire destroyed more than 1,000 homes | Photo by SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images
Federal authorities have a new plan to protect communities across the western US from increasingly explosive infernos by fighting fire with fire. In a shift from old-school firefighting strategies that attempted to stamp out naturally occurring blazes, the USDA and Forest Service will focus on thinning out forests to minimize “mega fires.”
The agencies released a 10-year strategy today that includes removing trees and using “controlled burns” to reduce the amount of vegetation that feeds flames. The plan is to treat up to 20 million more acres of national forest land than is currently managed, plus work with partners to employ the tactics on an additional 30 million acres on other federal, state, tribal, and private lands. All in all,…
