What do healthy forests look like?

Healthy forests look quite different across geographies and climates but they share key traits like resilience and species diversity that allow for self-perpetuation (Hadziabdic D, et al., 2021). When thriving, these forests had cleaner floors, patchy mosaics of different-aged trees, areas of open canopy, and diverse vegetation communities. (Hessburg, et al, 2016). These characteristics fostered resistance to disturbances like wildfire, disease outbreaks, insect infestations, and drought.

What do forests look like today?

Many Western U.S. forests today are overgrown with large stretches of homogeneous, fire-intolerant species. There are also more areas with dead trees from beetle infestations and drought. The forest floor is overstocked with shrubs and young trees that create continuous vegetation to the canopy (Hagmann, et al. 2021). These are considered “ladder fuels.” Under these conditions, western forests are vulnerable, unbalanced, and significantly more prone to high-intensity wildfires (North, et al 2021).

What caused these current conditions?

Decades of fire suppression has allowed for more vegetation to grow back and debris to accumulate. Furthermore, stressors of climate change have made vegetation drier and more prone to burning (Kelsey, Rodd. 2019, Abatzoglou et al. 2016.). Select land management practices, despite good intentions, have also played a part in changing forest composition, pushing forested ecosystems out of balance.

Shouldn’t we just leave forests alone?

Human intervention has created these problems, and there is broad consensus among academics and land managers that it will take human intervention to fix them. Science-driven methodologies combined with holistic stewardship practices can sustain human needs while adapting forested ecosystems to climate change. Active forest management prescribed by professional foresters to achieve and maintain healthy forests, consistent with land management objectives can take many forms. In Western forests, creating more resilient stands may require a fundamental rethinking of how frequent-fire forests can be managed (North, et al. 2022).

What does “forest restoration” entail?

Forest restoration projects typically have a long timeline (Sierra Nevada Conservancy, 2022). Typical restoration activities include mechanical thinning and prescribed burning among other treatments like grazing, habitat monitoring, and reforestation. Forest thinning reduces tree stand density and competition for resources among trees. This is typically done by hand crews or heavy equipment according to land management objectives. Prescribed fire following forest thinning can further remove excess vegetation on the ground, promoting regeneration and nutrient recycling. Research has shown that restoration thinning is a viable option for forest management and can be used in tandem with beneficial fire without harming forest health or biodiversity (Stephens, et al. 2023).

Is forest thinning alone sufficient to mitigate wildfire hazard?

Typically not. Forest thinning is just one, typically the first, step in the suite of treatments intended to make forested lands resilient. After successful thinning operations, fire practitioners can use prescribed burning to reintroduce low-to-moderate severity wildfire back into the ecosystem. To better mitigate the risks that wildfires pose to homeowners, communities need to adopt additional solutions like home hardening, defensible space, prevention education and more.

What are the challenges to scaling forest restoration?

In response to the wildfire crisis, The U.S. Forest Service has a 10-year plan to treat up to an additional 50 million acres by 2030. This is an ambitious and necessary goal, but there are two key challenges to scaling this work. The first is a shrinking workforce that simply cannot meet the demand. Second, there are few viable uses for woody residues (e.g. leftover small-diameter logs, branches, and slash from thinning projects), which hinders forest restoration project economics. In California alone, key forest sector occupations are projected to decline when we need them to grow (North State Planning and Development Collective, 2021) and 84% of woody biomass material is left in the forests or placed in piles to burn (OPR, 2022).

What does Kodama do?

We’re creating forest management solutions that improve safety and productivity of remote operations. Improving operations entails automating machinery, implementing teleoperations, and bolstering remote-site connectivity: getting work done faster and making job sites safer for ground personnel. Our method of utilizing unmerchantable biomass consists of storing carbon-dense woody residues from thinning operations in a way that minimizes decomposition with low-capital investment. These residues would otherwise be pile-burned, which is both costly and a source of CO2 emissions.

What does the carbon storage pilot entail?

Kodama is developing a methodology to extract carbon-dense, woody residues from thinning operations and store them in geological vaults designed to minimize decomposition and remain durable for the long term. This model leverages private investment to serve as a cost-effective, climate-positive alternative to pile-burning. For more details on the technology and project scope, please see our project application to Frontier.

Is forest thinning a source of carbon emissions?

Yes, but forest management practices that implement expanded thinning operations reduce wildfire emissions because it reduces the amount of fuel to be consumed (Long, et al. 2022). Additionally, there are carbon accounting frameworks in development to quantify the "avoided wildfire emissions" associated with forest thinning according to project area boundaries.

What about the impact of operations on wildlife habitats?

Registered professional foresters (RPFs) are trained and certified to prepare forest management plans that reduce impact on the operating environment. This includes following best available science and environmental review guidelines to minimize erosion, operate outside of animal breeding periods, and preserve socioecological value to the land. Furthermore, forest fuel reduction treatments have been known to have few unintended consequences on ecosystem health (Stephens, et al. 2012)

Are wildfires really a net source of carbon emissions? Trees grow back after all.

While forests are key carbon sinks in combating climate change, wildfires can emit alarmingly high levels of greenhouse gases (GHG). California wildfire emissions in 2020 were estimated to be two times higher than the state’s total GHG emissions reductions since 2003 (Jerrett et al. 2022). Furthermore, frequent, high-severity wildfires coupled with climate stressors are likely to cause forested landscapes to convert to shrubland and grassland, losing key carbon storage properties (Paudel, et al. 2022).

How can you help?

The wildfire and forest health problem requires all hands on-deck. Private forest and woodland owners can explore resources like the Forest Management Handbook for Small-Parcel Landowners in Sierra Nevada and Southern Cascade Range that can help assess land conditions and develop management plans to mitigate wildfire risk and improve land health. Nonprofits and public benefit organizations can seek out capacity-building partnerships to advance projects. And individuals can get more involved in community wildfire prevention, forest health, and defensible space initiatives organized through entities like Firewise Communities and Fire Safe Councils.

If you want to work on solving these problems with us, please see our Careers Page or get in touch.