How can young stand tending, vegetation management, and fuel management contribute to wildfire prevention and greater forest resilience across Europe?
Climate change, prolonged periods of drought, and increasing wildfire risks are prompting Europe’s forestry sector to explore more effective prevention strategies. Greater attention is being paid not only to wildfire detection and suppression but also to measures that can reduce fire intensity and limit its spread.
One promising approach is integrating routine forest management activities into long-term wildfire prevention strategies. Young stand tending, brushcutting, understory thinning, and other vegetation management practices can provide benefits beyond traditional silvicultural objectives, contributing to wildfire risk reduction.
This approach has been a recurring topic of professional discussions between Davi Müller, Business Development Manager for Germany at Best Planter, who holds a Master’s degree in Forestry System Transformation from Eberswalde University for Sustainable Development (HNEE) and has practical experience in forest disturbance and wildfire management, and Alexander Held, Senior Expert in Fire, Silviculture and Wildlife at the European Forest Institute (EFI).
Over the past two years, both specialists have participated in the Waldbrand-Camp in Poland, exchanging knowledge on wildfire management strategies, preventive measures, and their practical implementation.
These discussions have raised an important question: How can existing forest management activities be planned to contribute not only to forest development but also to wildfire risk reduction?
Wildfire Prevention Starts with Vegetation Structure
Wildfire behavior is influenced by several factors, including weather conditions, topography, vegetation moisture, fuel loads, and the spatial distribution of combustible materials. While weather and terrain cannot be controlled, vegetation structure can be actively managed in selected forest areas. This is the principle behind fuel management – a range of practices designed to reduce fuel loads, modify their distribution, and limit the conditions that contribute to intense wildfire behavior. Both horizontal and vertical fuel continuity play a significant role in how fire spreads through a forest.
Dense grasses, shrubs, understory vegetation, and low-hanging branches can create connections that allow flames to move from the forest floor into higher vegetation layers. These vertical connections are known as ladder fuels.
According to the National Wildfire Coordinating Group (NWCG), ladder fuels are combustible materials that provide vertical continuity between surface fuels and tree crowns, potentially facilitating the transition from surface fires to crown fires.
“In wildfire prevention, it is important to consider not only the amount of combustible vegetation but also how it is distributed. Vegetation structure has a significant influence on how fire can spread through a forest. This is why properly planned stand management can become an important part of long-term wildfire prevention.”
— Alexander Held, European Forest Institute (EFI)
Reducing these connections is one way to influence potential fire behavior. Properly implemented vegetation management can interrupt vertical fuel continuity and reduce the connectivity of combustible materials. However, such measures do not prevent wildfires entirely. Their effectiveness depends on local conditions, fire intensity, and the management methods applied.
Young Stand Tending: Supporting Forest Development and Wildfire Prevention
Young stand tending and vegetation management are essential components of professional forestry. These activities aim to reduce competition between plants, improve growing conditions for selected tree species, and support the development of healthy, stable, and high-quality forest stands. However, when carefully planned, the same operations can also provide additional wildfire prevention benefits.
For example, brushcutting, removing dense competing vegetation, thinning the understory, and pruning lower tree branches can modify the distribution of combustible materials. These activities can reduce vertical fuel continuity and, under suitable conditions, limit the potential for surface fires to spread into tree crowns. This is particularly relevant in forest areas with dense vegetation or where local conditions indicate elevated wildfire risk.
“Young stand tending is usually considered an investment in the future quality of a forest. However, when planning these operations, we can also take fuel structure into account. This means that the same forest management activity can contribute to two objectives: improving stand development and reducing wildfire risk.”
— Davi Müller, Best Planter
It is important to recognize that not every young stand tending or vegetation removal operation automatically reduces wildfire risk. In some cases, inappropriate thinning intensity or poorly managed cutting residues can alter local microclimatic conditions and increase the amount of surface fuels. For this reason, forest management activities intended to provide wildfire prevention benefits should be planned according to site conditions, stand structure, and long-term forest management objectives.
Shaded Fuel Breaks: Wildfire Prevention While Preserving Forest Structure
One practical approach to fuel management involves strategically located areas known as fuel breaks. Their purpose is to reduce fuel loads and continuity in selected locations, potentially influencing fire behavior and creating more favorable conditions for firefighting operations. However, a fuel break does not necessarily mean completely clearing a strip of forest vegetation. One approach is the creation of shaded fuel breaks, where fuel reduction is combined with the preservation of part of the tree canopy. In these areas, understory vegetation is selectively thinned, ladder fuels are removed, lower branches are pruned, and stand density may be reduced where necessary. At the same time, a partial canopy cover is maintained. The remaining canopy can help reduce direct solar radiation reaching the forest floor, limit surface heating, and maintain more favorable microclimatic conditions.
The National Wildfire Coordinating Group describes shaded fuel breaks as areas where fuel loads are reduced while retaining sufficient canopy cover to provide shade. In practice, these areas may be established along forest roads, strategic access routes, or other locations important for wildfire management.
Their width, tree density, and treatment intensity depend on topography, dominant tree species, local wildfire risks, and the intended function of the fuel break.
“A fuel break does not necessarily have to mean a completely cleared strip of forest. By selectively reducing understory density and removing ladder fuels, it is possible to influence fire behavior while preserving part of the tree canopy. The key is to adapt these measures to local conditions and maintain them regularly.”
— Alexander Held, European Forest Institute (EFI)
Shaded fuel breaks are not absolute barriers against wildfires. Under extreme weather conditions, fires can still cross these areas. However, properly designed and maintained fuel breaks can reduce fire intensity under certain conditions and provide firefighters with better opportunities to control fire spread.
Professional Forest Management Teams: An Essential Part of Practical Wildfire Prevention
Effective fuel management requires not only appropriate planning but also skilled implementation. One of the main challenges is managing vegetation selectively – identifying which trees should be retained, which competing vegetation should be removed, how stand density should be adjusted, and where lower branches need to be pruned. In such situations, experienced teams using manual and motor-manual forestry techniques can play an important role. Selective vegetation management allows operations to be adapted to the specific requirements of individual forest stands.
This approach is particularly relevant in areas with complex terrain, sensitive soils, or heterogeneous stand structures, where the use of heavy machinery may be limited. Mechanized solutions also remain important, particularly when large areas need to be treated quickly or mineral-soil firelines must be established. However, these operations serve different purposes from long-term selective stand management. Another important consideration is the treatment of cutting residues.
Removing shrubs, understory vegetation, or lower branches can interrupt vertical fuel continuity. However, leaving large amounts of fine vegetation residues on the forest floor may temporarily increase surface fuel loads. For this reason, professional fuel management must also address how cut biomass is handled, whether through redistribution, mulching, removal, or other methods appropriate to local conditions.
Lessons from Portugal: Integrating Forest Management into Wildfire Prevention
Southern European countries, which have extensive experience dealing with large-scale wildfires, have developed prevention systems that integrate vegetation management into broader wildfire strategies. One example is Portugal, where specialized forestry teams known as Sapadores Florestais carry out preventive forestry operations, fuel management, vegetation maintenance, and other activities related to wildfire prevention and response. This model demonstrates how vegetation management can become a continuous component of a wider wildfire management system rather than an isolated intervention.
Portugal’s experience also highlights the importance of regular maintenance.
Vegetation removed during an initial treatment will eventually regrow. Therefore, fuel management must be considered an ongoing process requiring repeated interventions. However, forest conditions in Southern and Central Europe differ significantly.
Methods used in Portugal cannot simply be transferred to Germany, Austria, or other Central European countries without adapting them to local climate conditions, forest structures, and silvicultural practices.
The Growing Need for Preventive Forest Management in Central Europe
In Germany and other Central European countries, increasing attention to climate resilience is encouraging forest managers to reconsider the broader role of traditional silvicultural practices.
At the same time, the forestry sector faces shortages of skilled workers, while young stand tending, brushcutting, and selective vegetation management remain labor-intensive activities.
Successful implementation of long-term preventive measures therefore depends not only on scientifically informed planning but also on sufficient operational capacity. This is where experienced forestry service providers can contribute.
Best Planter has more than 20 years of experience delivering forest planting, young stand tending, and vegetation management projects across Europe.
The company’s operational model is based on organizing large, mobile, and experienced forestry teams capable of implementing projects across different forest conditions and at varying scales. This experience in selective vegetation management provides a practical foundation for applying existing forestry capabilities to projects that also incorporate fuel management objectives.
“Wildfire prevention measures often require significant labor resources, particularly when vegetation needs to be managed selectively across larger areas. Experienced and mobile forestry teams make it possible to implement these operations at scale. However, the most important factor is ensuring that every project is planned according to the specific needs of the forest.”
— Davi Müller, Best Planter
Such operations may include understory thinning, brushcutting, selective removal of competing vegetation, preservation of target tree species, pruning lower branches, and maintaining strategic vegetation management zones. However, achieving meaningful wildfire prevention benefits requires close cooperation between forest owners, forest managers, silvicultural specialists, and wildfire prevention experts. This collaboration can help integrate routine forest management activities into broader, long-term forest resilience strategies.
Forest Management and Wildfire Prevention: A Shared Direction for the Future
Wildfire prevention involves much more than establishing firebreaks, monitoring forest fires, or developing emergency response infrastructure. It can also begin with decisions made during the planning of routine forest management operations. Young stand tending, selective vegetation management, and strategic fuel management can complement each other when they are designed around the specific silvicultural and wildfire prevention objectives of a forest area.
This integrated approach creates opportunities to achieve two important outcomes: supporting the development of healthy, stable forest stands while reducing certain factors that contribute to more intense wildfire behavior.
The future of wildfire prevention may depend not only on new technologies and specialized infrastructure but also on better planning and more consistent implementation of everyday forest management practices.
This is an area where practical forestry experience, scientific research, and wildfire management expertise can work together to support more resilient European forests.
