Forest Health Research

Studying the Public Health Effects of Increased Prescribed Burns for Wildfire Management

Studying the Public Health Effects of Increased Prescribed Burns for Wildfire Management

The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection

Supported by a $500,000 grant from the Forest Health Research Program, the Sequoia Foundation, in partnership with the California Department of Public Health and others, is investigating the impacts of increasing prescribed fire on air quality and public health outcomes. Although prescribed fire plans are designed to limit air quality impacts to communities, they still produce some level of smoke. In this project, this interdisciplinary team will collect information that can help minimize the impacts of this smoke through a combination of smoke modeling, exposure assessment, health analysis, and community engagement.