Does anyone know a book/article/research that talks about forest fire prevention?

This book is based on Australian experience, some of it may be relevant of North American wildfires. I read it ten years ago.

Paul Collins, Burn - The Epic Story of Bushfire in Australia, Allen & Unwin, 2006, ISBN 9781741750539, ISBN 1 74175 053 9.

Part 4, titled: The Great Fire Debates, has three chapters (9 to 11);

 09 To burn or not to burn
 10 Fire thugs
 11 Fireproofing Australia.

Contact for Allen & Unwin:

83 Alexander Street
CROWS NEST NSW 2065
Australia

Telephone: + 61 2 8425 0100
Fax: +  61 2 9906 2218
Email: [email protected]
Web: [www.allenandunwin.com][1]

Another book you may want to try is:

Stephen J. Pyne, Burning Bush - A Fire History of Australia, University of Washington Press, Seattle & London, 1998.

Also published by Henry Holt & Company, New York, 1991

As part of his "Cycle of Fire" suite of books, the same author has written books, titled:

• Vestal Fire: An Environmental History, Told through Fire, of Europe and Europe's Encounter with the World
• Fire in America: A Cultural History of Wildland and Rural Fire
• World Fire: The Culture of Fire on Earth

The CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific & Industry Research Organisation) in Australia, used to have two departments that researched bushfires/wildfires:

• CSIRO Division of Forest Research Library
• CSIRO National Bushfire Research Unit

Stephen J. Pyne mentions them in his book. You might be able to get access to the results of research carried out by the CSIRO.

Just be mindful of the different terminologies used in different countries to describe the same thing: bushfires in Australia and wildfires in North America.

One book "Introduction to Wildland fire" by Stephen J. Andrews

The area burned in California has declined over 80% since Europeans arrived. And that’s not necessarily a good thing.

Prehistoric annual average acres burned: 4,447,897. 2010-2019 average acres burned: 775,325. Xeric climate ecosystems that depend on periodic fires are essential to regenerating those environments.

• The smoke of the fire bakes cones and seed pods to finally release their seeds or stimulate seeds to germinate
• the fire produces ethylene gas which stimulates growth of new plants
• the fire itself cleared weedy competition permitting fire tolerant plants that normally survive, to continue
• The ashes provide a soluable nutrient rich dressing. In dryer forests decomposition is a slower process.