“Expanding Agricultural Residue Shredding” Forest Service Focuses on Fall Wildfire Prevention

"We will expand support for the crushing of agricultural by-products and focus on preventing autumn forest fires through tailored countermeasures addressing specific causes, including North Korea's trash balloon provocations," said Lim Sang-seop, Administrator of the Korea Forest Service, at a press conference held on the 31st at the Government Complex Daejeon, where he announced the '2024 Autumn Forest Fire Prevention Measures.'

The forest fire measures designate the period from next month 1st to December 15th as the 'Autumn Forest Fire Caution Period,' focusing on tailored countermeasures by cause to prevent forest fires.

Over the past 10 years, an average of 38 forest fires occurred annually during the autumn forest fire caution period. Considering that the caution period lasts 45 days, this means a forest fire occurred approximately every 0.8 days. Autumn is a time when forests become dry due to less rainfall, and the number of visitors to the mountains increases, raising the risk of forest fires.

Provided by Korea Forest Service

Accordingly, the Korea Forest Service plans to respond to autumn forest fires this year by focusing on key tasks such as ▲implementing tailored prevention measures by forest fire causes ▲establishing a forest fire response system based on advanced scientific technology ▲systematic and rapid forest fire suppression ▲efficient operation and capacity building of forest fire prevention personnel.

They have also prepared countermeasures for forest fires caused by North Korea's trash balloons.

In particular, this year, the 'Visiting Agricultural By-product Crushing Project' will be expanded. This project is implemented through collaboration between the Korea Forest Service, the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, and the Rural Development Administration to support the crushing of agricultural by-products, aiming to solve the problem of illegal burning, which is a major cause of forest fires in spring and autumn.

The effectiveness has been verified. As a result of implementing this project, during the spring forest fire caution period from February to May this year, the number of forest fires caused by illegal burning was 37, significantly reduced compared to the recent 10-year average of 106.4. This indicates that the agricultural by-product crushing project is effective in preventing illegal burning and forest fires in rural areas, which is why the Korea Forest Service is expanding the project in autumn.

The Korea Forest Service crushed 117,000 tons of agricultural by-products in the first half of this year and plans to crush an additional 36,000 tons in the second half.

During the autumn forest fire caution period, an AI-based continuous forest fire detection system will also be operated. The core is that AI connected to CCTV detects smoke and flames in real time to determine whether a forest fire has occurred. Additionally, by establishing a multi-layered monitoring system with basic and metropolitan local governments, the Korea Forest Service aims to reduce workload and increase monitoring efficiency.

They will distribute 'wearable robots for forest fire suppression' equipped with GPS to the field to enhance the operational capabilities of forest fire suppression personnel and establish a forest fire response system based on advanced scientific technology, including strategically deploying suppression personnel during nighttime forest fires.

A total of 196 'forest fire suppression helicopters,' considered key resources in forest fire sites, will be mobilized to ensure a full-scale response when forest fires occur.

Especially this year, in close cooperation with the Ministry of National Defense, measures will be taken to prevent forest fires caused by North Korea's trash balloon provocations by tracking the movement paths and drop locations of trash balloons and preemptively deploying additional forest fire suppression personnel and resources in expected drop areas.

In line with this, the Korea Forest Service plans to strengthen preparedness by forward-deploying two helicopters to the DMZ Forest Aviation Management Office and increasing the number of specialized forest fire prevention and suppression personnel in the Northern and Eastern Regional Forest Services from 630 to 680.

Administrator Lim said, "Protecting forests from forest fires is paramount to maintaining valuable and healthy forests," and added, "We ask for cooperation in preventing forest fires by refraining from entering restricted areas during the autumn forest fire caution period and avoiding causes such as cigarette butts and illegal burning."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.