Untrammeling the Wilderness: Restoring the natural conditions of wilderness through the return of human-ignited fire

The exclusion of fire from wilderness over the last 120 years has prompted widespread ecological changes which have made many fire-adapted wilderness ecosystems less resilient to climate change and more vulnerable to severe wildfires.

In an August 2024 published paper in Fire Ecology, our research team used a new framework to demonstrate the substantial, long-term, and negative effects of fire exclusion on fire-adapted wilderness ecosystems. 

We also presented potential solutions to this problem, including the implementation of active programs of prescribed burning and greater recognition and accommodation of Indigenous cultural burning within wilderness.