Fire Priorities

Bright Sparks Rethink Wildfire Strategy The United States needs to revise its approach to forest wildfires, a group of scientists declared on Monday. They are proposing an action plan for thwarting and controlling such fires, based on growing research. ... the team proposes the creation of zones with different levels of risk. Prevention money and efforts would be focused first on high-risk areas where people live, and would include measures such as using fire-resistant building materials. In neighbouring zones, the group recommends restricting animal grazing, closing roads and carefully thinning out young, flammable trees. They propose leaving back-country forest intact, either allowing fires to burn out or deliberately torching certain areas. 'Salvage logging' of burned trees should be stopped, the researchers warn, because it damages soils and the ecosystem.

Those strike me as pretty obvious recommendations.