In the past few decades, wildfires have been increasing all over the United States. These fires have put people in danger and have caused billions of dollars worth of property damage. The Wildland Urban Interface (WUI) has expanded by more than 46 million acres in the past 20 years (Hodgins, 2018). Also, natural resources like merchantable timber that many rural communities depend on have been destroyed by these (mega) fires as well. This massive spike of large, fast-moving fires has been a combination of several things such as, over a century of fire suppression, climate change, and forests that are planted more densely than historical, pre-European conditions. The following policy brief will promote fuel reduction and the removal of biomass from decades of over-fire suppression and policies passed based on fear and misinformation.
