What are controlled burns? Here's how these fires can stop wildfires before they start

Yahoo

11-05-2025

Smoke from Arizona's controlled burns can be visible for miles, often causing people to wonder if a wildfire has ignited nearby.
However, these controlled burns are an essential part of a strategy to clean up forests and prevent wildfires before they begin.
Prescribed burns are part of an initiative from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service and the Arizona Department of Forestry and Land Management to maintain the health of fire-dependent ecosystems, which have a large presence in northern Arizona.
Here's everything Arizona residents need to know about controlled burns, also called prescribed burns, and how they help prevent wildfires.
Every year before wildfire season starts, forestry agencies across the southwestern U.S. conduct prescribed burns to protect ecosystems from insect infestations, disease and drastic wildfires.
These burns are planned in advance, and experts work to identify the best and safest conditions for the prescribed blazes. The U.S. Forest Service notes that they "consider temperature, humidity, wind, moisture of the vegetation, and conditions for the dispersal of smoke" before a prescribed burn is started. Those conditions are checked on the day of the burn to ensure it is safe to continue.
Wildfires are part of a natural process of ecosystems in northern Arizona to reduce forest fuels and clean up plants from plagues and diseases, but increasingly dry and warm weather conditions in the state can cause wildfires to grow beyond safe levels and become harmful to watersheds, wildlife habitat and put human lives at risk.
Forestry officials say that prescribed burns build resilient landscapes that are less vulnerable to extreme wildfires. They simulate wildfires in a controlled environment under suitable weather conditions.
According to the Forestry Service, prescribed burning's benefits include:
Helping thinned forests recover faster and develop resistance to insect and disease attacks.
Getting rid of dead wood, overcrowded trees and thick layers of pine needles that contribute to catastrophic wildfires, including crown fires.
Preparing land for new growth and helping certain plants germinate. Fire can expose plant seeds and facilitate their contact with soil, which is necessary for some species to regenerate naturally.
Assisting grazing wildlife such as elk and deer, animals that benefit from new growth as shrubs produce edible leaves when re-sprouting after a fire.
Helping protect communities from severe wildfires by creating buffer zones and areas where an out-of-control wildfire might be stopped by a lack of forest fuels.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Prescribed burns: What are they and how do they stop wildfires?