User:Nicholas222222/Wildfire suppression

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One method other than those mentioned before about fire lines is forest thinning. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, “Mechanical thinning of forests is a multifaceted process and often involves piling brush, pruning branches, and creating fuel breaks. ” Mechanical forest thinning and ground fire are an effective way of wildfire suppression. Forest thinning and ground burn are more effective in reducing wildfire risk together rather than just thinning or burning. According to Forest Ecology and Management, “Combined treatments (thinning + burning) tended to have the greatest effect on reducing surface fuels and stand density, and raising modeled crowning and torching indices, as compared to burning or thinning alone.” Thinning and burning also must be maintained, according to the Western Watersheds Project, “Second, thinning by removing competition between trees and brush often increases rapid regrowth of vegetation. Therefore, any thinning/fuel reduction program must have follow-up maintenance in the form of recurring prescribed burns and/or thinning to be effective. Yet most thinning projects do not even get the first prescribed burning, much less follow-up burns.” Forest thinning has brought up concerns with making fires more severe with the sun reaching the lower vegetation. With climate change already making the ground less humid, according to the NIDIS, “cause of the rapid increase of wildfires over the western U.S. is the rapid increase of surface air vapor pressure deficit, or VPD, a measure of how thirsty the atmosphere is.”