Monster Wildfire Tests Years of Forest Management Efforts
Voice of America
PORTLAND, OREGON - Ecologists in a vast region of wetlands and forest in remote Oregon have spent the past decade thinning young trees and using planned fires to try to restore the thick stands of ponderosa to a less fire-prone state.
This week, the nation's biggest burning wildfire provided them with an unexpected, real-world experiment. As the massive inferno half the size of Rhode Island roared into the Sycan Marsh Preserve, firefighters said the flames jumped less from treetop to treetop and instead returned to the ground, where they were easier to fight, moved more slowly and did less damage to the overall forest. The initial assessment suggests that the many years of forest treatments worked, said Pete Caligiuri, Oregon forest program director for The Nature Conservancy, which runs the research at the preserve. "Generally speaking, what firefighters were reporting on the ground is that when the fire came into those areas that had been thinned ... it had significantly less impact."Director Lou Ye is pictured during a photo call for the film "An Unfinished Film," presented as part of Special Screenings at the 77th Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, France, May 17, 2024. From left, producer Philippe Bober, producer Yingli Ma, director Lou Ye, actor Hao Qin and actor Huang Xuan are pictured during a photo call for "An Unfinished Film" at the Cannes Film Festival in France, May 17, 2024. FILE - Chinese artist Ai Weiwei takes pictures in front of his pieces displayed during the press preview for the exhibition "Ai Weiwei: Making Sense" at the Design Museum in London, April 4, 2023. FILE - In this May 30, 2019, photo, a computer screen shows web content from outside China, including a clip of Chinese singer Li Zhi singing his song "The Square."