Environment – Triple benefit

January 4, 2017 – Strategic thinning of forests in the Pacific Northwest and other parts of the United States plagued by fires could produce benefits on multiple levels, according to Rebecca Novello, a researcher at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. In a collaboration with Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and the Forest Service, Novello and Yetta Jager are developing decision support tools for thinning forest understory that could provide biomass for energy, decrease the incidence of high-intensity wildfires and preserve habitat for threatened and endangered salmon. “Climate change is a big driver of this research,” Jager said. “Among many other factors, increasing temperatures have shifted seasonal patterns of flow from those that salmon have adapted to and increased the number and duration of wildfires.” The three-year project began Oct. 1.