A top strategy for preventing catastrophic wildfires is periodically burning forests under controlled conditions. The U.S. Forest Service conducted more "prescribed" fires than ever this year.

For example, a prescribed fire comes at the cost of smoke pollution, but it also decreases the risks of wildfires in an unnaturally dense forest during a record-setting heatwave.

Piles of brush burn during a prescribed fire north of Paradise Lake near Magalia, California on Wednesday, May 7, 2025. (Jake Hutchison/Enterprise-Record) ...

A prescribed fire is a planned, low-intensity fire conducted by a team of trained professionals under specified weather conditions to restore health to ecosystems that depend on fire.

Prescribed vs. Wild Fire. Prescribed fire is intentional. It’s applied to a specific area under specific conditions to accomplish specific objectives. A great deal of planning and preparation go into ...

The Prescribed Fire Training Exchanges (TREX), a collaboration developed by the Forest Service and The Nature Conservancy in 2008 to train such a workforce, started in the Great Basin.

“Despite its widely known benefits, prescribed fire is rarely used on private lands in Pennsylvania,” Penn State researchers wrote last year. “Out of the 14,093 acres burned in 2019, ...

Prescribed fire could help Wisconsin Point, study shows A research team found that the reintroduction of burning could reduce debris and increase plant diversity.

A burn conducted in April 2014 on 357 acres of National Wildlife Refuge in Georgia. Proper prescribed fire should burn slowly, creeping rather than raging across the landscape. Photo by Josh O’Connor ...

One of the fire ignition capsules meant to ignite flames on Red Mountain at the Sunnyside prescribed burn on Monday, April 14. Colin Suszynski/The Aspen Times The igniters dropped, invisible to ...

A wildfire in southwestern Massachusetts grew to 1,000 acres this week, the second fire in the region to reach that size this month. New Jersey has suppressed 500 wildfires and counting this fall.