The images broadcast worldwide in January 2025 were shocking: Southern California was on fire, with strong winds and extreme conditions relentlessly fanning the flames and causing the wildfires to spread. Thousands of homes were destroyed and numerous people lost their lives. In Northern California, DAAD scholarship holder Yve Mehlan watched the situation unfold. A student at Eberswalde University for Sustainable Development (HNEE), she was doing an internship with the U.S. Forest Service in the Klamath National Forest as part of her bachelor’s degree in international forest ecosystem management. This gave her insights into the complex interplay between forest ecology, climate change and sustainable forest management – and into modern fire prevention strategies. “This region of California is repeatedly affected by serious forest fires. In the past, the U.S. Forest Service relied on a strict strategy of suppressing fires – in other words extinguishing them immediately,” explains Mehlan. “However, this led to a huge accumulation of combustible material that made it easier for large-scale wildfires to develop.”
Nowadays, fires are regarded as a natural part of the ecosystem cycle, though attempts are made nonetheless to prevent severe fires from spreading by creating firebreaks or following close-to-nature forestry principles. That said, prolonged periods of drought and high temperatures are making it increasingly difficult to keep major fires under control. “During my internship I was able to learn much about the region and about my subject from my colleagues,” Mehlan says. “The Forest Service was the perfect learning environment thanks to its various experts in hydrology, wildlife biology, botany and fire ecology.” —