Scott L. Stephens | Research UC Berkeley

In the News

A photo of a prescribed burn in a conifer forest. The fire burns across the forest floor, generating flames and smoke, but does not extend into the branches of the trees. In the distance, a person wearing yellow fire protection gear is holding out a drip torch.

Twenty-Year Study Confirms California Forests Are Healthier When Burned — Or Thinned

An experiment in the Sierra Nevada confirms that different forest management techniques are effective at reducing the risk of catastrophic wildfire in California.

How wildfire restored a Yosemite watershed

Scott Stephens is the senior author of a new study that gathers together decades of research documenting how the return of wildfire has shaped the ecology of Yosemite National Park’s Illilouette Creek Basin and Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks’ Sugarloaf Creek Basin since the parks adopted policies for the basins to allow lightning-ignited fires to burn.

A swath of dead trees in the Sierra Nevada (Photo by Scott Stephens)

100 million dead trees in the Sierra are a massive risk for unpredictable wildfires

To drive through parts of the Sierra Nevada these days is to witness a morbid reminder of California’s extreme drought: Vast landscapes of standing dead tree

Wildfire management vs. fire suppression benefits forest and watershed

An unprecedented 40-year experiment at Yosemite supports the idea that managing fire, rather than suppressing it, makes wilderness areas more resilient to fire, with the added benefit of resistance to drought.

Let it burn: Prescribed fires pose little danger to forest ecology, study says

UC Berkeley-led research is giving the green light to fighting fire with fire. An analysis of controlled burns and mechanical thinning nationwide did not find substantial ecological harm from fuel-reduction treatments used to reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfires. And with a rise in wildfires predicted in many parts of the country, researchers say more treatments are needed to manage this risk.

Featured in the Media

Please note: The views and opinions expressed in these articles are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or positions of UC Berkeley.

February 6, 2024

Restoration thinning, prescribed burns can reduce risk of massive fires, study shows

NBC Bay Area

Scott Stephens, a professor at the Rausser College of Natural Resources, discusses new research on prescribed burns. The research was featured on Berkeley News.

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September 29, 2021

Scientists Are Racing to Save Sequoias

NPR

Scott Stephens, a professor of environmental science, policy and management at Berkeley and co-director of Berkeley Forests, joins SHORT WAVE, the daily science podcast from NPR with an urgent message: They've been here 1,500 years, and each tree maybe survived 60, 70, 80 fires. That's incredible. And then one fire comes in 2020. And all of a sudden, they're gone. That is a travesty. Unless we see some regeneration at some of these sites, my goodness, you're not going to see sequoia here.

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September 16, 2020

How To Keep California's Forests Healthy and Reduce Fires

KQED

Michael Krasny

As wildfires get bigger, more frequent and more dangerous, experts predict there will be no easing off unless the state and federal government spend billions of dollars on forest management, a reversal of decades-long policies of forest preservation. Listen as UC Berkeley professor of fire science, Scott Stephens joins other experts in talking about how to reduce fires in the coming years.

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Research Expertise and Interest

Research Description

In the News

Twenty-Year Study Confirms California Forests Are Healthier When Burned — Or Thinned

How wildfire restored a Yosemite watershed

100 million dead trees in the Sierra are a massive risk for unpredictable wildfires

Wildfire management vs. fire suppression benefits forest and watershed

Let it burn: Prescribed fires pose little danger to forest ecology, study says

Featured in the Media

Restoration thinning, prescribed burns can reduce risk of massive fires, study shows

Scientists Are Racing to Save Sequoias

How To Keep California's Forests Healthy and Reduce Fires