Prescribed burns are important for land management and preventing wildfires, but a new study finds these managed fires are also significant contributors to air pollution in the southeastern United States – particularly in areas with large minority and low-income populations.
Prescribed burns are important for land management and preventing wildfires, but a new study finds these managed fires are also significant contributors to air pollution in the southeastern United States – particularly in areas with large minority and low-income populations. The study also finds these air quality impacts could become more pronounced in the decades ahead as the effects of climate change become more pronounced.
The term “prescribed burns” refers to activities where sections of land are intentionally burned to clear undergrowth, reduce the risk of wildfire, manage land for wildlife, and so on.
“However, smoke from prescribed burns can also pose challenges to air quality,” says Fernando Garcia-Menendez, corresponding author of a paper on the work and an associate professor of civil, construction and environmental engineering at North Carolina State University. “And climate change may reduce the number of days when it is possible to conduct a prescribed burn, due to meteorological conditions such as high temperatures, drought or high winds.”
“Given these concerns and given how important prescribed burns are to land management in the southeastern United States, we wanted to get a better understanding of how these burns affect air quality in the Southeast now – and how they may affect air quality in the future,” says Megan Johnson, first author of the paper and a Ph.D. graduate from NC State.
Read more at North Carolina State University
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