Can Air Quality Management Drive Sustainable Fuels Management at the Temperate Wildland–Urban Interface?

Abstract

Sustainable fire management has eluded all industrial societies. Given the growing number and magnitude of wildfire events, prescribed fire is being increasingly promoted as the key to reducing wildfire risk. However, smoke from prescribed fires can adversely affect public health. We propose that the application of air quality standards can lead to the development and adoption of sustainable fire management approaches that lower the risk of economically and ecologically damaging wildfires while improving air quality and reducing climate-forcing emissions. For example, green fire breaks at the wildland-urban interface (WUI) can resist the spread of wildfires into urban areas. These could be created through mechanical thinning of trees, and then maintained by targeted prescribed fire to create biodiverse and aesthetically pleasing landscapes. The harvested woody debris could be used for pellets and other forms of bioenergy in residential space heating and electricity generation. Collectively, such an approach would reduce the negative health impacts of smoke pollution from wildfires, prescribed fires, and combustion of wood for domestic heating. We illustrate such possibilities by comparing current and potential fire management approaches in the temperate and environmentally similar landscapes of Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada and the island state of Tasmania in Australia.

Vegetation fires in the Anthropocene

“…Smoke from large-scale prescribed burning programmes can cause death and hospitalization, which could potentially exceed the human-health impact of the wildfires that these managed fires are intended to mitigate 151 . Air-quality regulation by governments has demonstrable public and environmental benefits and has driven technological innovation 152 , so, in principle, government regulation of the smoke pollution from both wildfire and prescribed fires could drive innovation in fuels management and achievement of more economical, sustainable and safer strategies 153 .…”

Bioclimatic drivers of fire severity across the Australian geographical range of giantEucalyptusforests

“…These approaches include broadening silvicultural practices beyond the widely applied ‘clearfell, burn and sow’ (CBS) model (predicated on the predominance of high‐severity fire) to include practices such as variable‐density thinning (Carey, 2003) and dispersed‐retention harvesting (Neyland et al., 2009). These approaches would create more of the structural heterogeneity that is characteristic of older TWEF (Lindenmayer et al., 2000), and reduce the smoke pollution caused by burning large quantities of logging debris (Bowman, Daniels, et al., 2018). Novel fuel reduction techniques, such as mechanical thinning and removal of the understorey (Hurteau & Brooks, 2011), ‘shaded’ fire breaks (Agee et al., 2000), and candling (i.e.…”

Climate change, environmental extremes, and human health in Australia: challenges, adaptation strategies, and policy gaps

“… 41 , 57 The substantial health impacts of bushfires on large human populations are a compelling reason to fast-track climate change mitigation and adaptation interventions. 58 …”