The Most Fundamental Response to Large Wildfires: Forest Roads and Scientific Forest Management

1. Introduction: Repeated Large-Scale Wildfires and the Need to Seek Fundamental Response Measures

In Korea, forest fires occur frequently due to seasonal factors such as dry spring weather and strong winds, and more recently, climate change has compounded the problem. When suppression is delayed, these fires can escalate into large-scale wildfires, causing enormous human and property damage. Over the past 10 years (2015–2024), Korea experienced 5,455 forest fires, damaging about 40,000 hectares of forest (about 138 times the total area of Yeouido, which is 290 hectares). Except for 2024, mega-wildfires occurred every year from 2017 onward. Their damaged area/economic losses have shown a growing trend, excluding 2021 and 2024: 418ha/20.48 billion won in 2015, 2,920ha/158.14 billion won in 2020, and 24,797ha/1.34628 trillion won in 2022.

Last March, following the largest wildfire ever recorded in North Gyeongsang Province, full-scale damage assessment and recovery work have been underway. According to Gyeongsangbuk-do, as of now, the five cities and counties of Andong, Uiseong, Cheongsong, Yeongyang, and Yeongdeok have suffered 75 casualties, including 30 deaths; the affected area is about 48,000 hectares; more than 5,000 homes and agricultural facilities were completely destroyed; 30 cases of damage to national heritage were reported; and total losses are expected to reach at least 1 trillion won. As the scale of wildfires and the extent of damage have recently continued to expand, the importance of wildfire response systems and infrastructure has grown even greater.

The Korea Forest Service’s National Institute of Forest Science has stated that the continuous expansion of forest roads—roads installed for the management and administration of forests—is necessary to foster future forest resources, produce timber, respond quickly to disasters such as wildfires, and protect the safety and property of the public (Korea Forest Service, 2023). This study analyzes the domestic and international status of forest roads and their multidimensional advantages for preventing and responding to large-scale wildfires, while also proposing scientific forest management measures as a more fundamental response, going beyond forest roads alone. The goal is to identify ways to achieve both environmental and economic gains.

2. Current Status and Comparison of Forest Roads in Korea and Major Countries

In wildfire response, forest roads are drawing attention as one of the most effective means of enabling rapid suppression and access to fire sites. The Korea Forest Service considers the expansion of forest roads essential for large-wildfire suppression because they allow personnel, vehicles, and equipment to enter quickly, making initial and nighttime firefighting possible. The total length of forest roads installed in Korea’s forests is still insufficient. According to the 2024 Statistical Yearbook of Forestry and Forest Industry published by the Korea Forest Service, as of 2023, the total national forest road network reached about 26,000 km, but its density relative to forest area remains markedly lower than that of advanced countries.

A comparison of forest road density in major countries shows 9.5m/ha in the United States, 24.1m/ha in Japan, 54m/ha in Germany, and 5.8m/ha in Finland, while Korea stands at 4.1m/ha, one of the lowest levels in the world. In other words, the United States has roughly twice Korea’s density, Germany 13 times, and Japan 6 times.

In particular, although forest roads are one of the key factors determining success in the initial suppression of wildfires, some analyses suggest that currently installed forest roads amount to only 2% of the total length needed. This indicates a lack of structural infrastructure to prevent wildfire damage from spreading, making the expansion of forest roads an urgent task for strengthening forest disaster response capacity.

3. The Multidimensional Advantages of Forest Roads as a Tool for Responding to Large-Scale Wildfires: Wildfire Response, Environmental Sustainability, and Economic Efficiency

◩ Ease of Fire Response and Suppression Through Forest Roads

From the perspective of wildfire response, forest roads play an important role. They enable firefighting equipment and personnel to reach deep forest areas quickly. In March 2024, two large wildfires broke out in Ulju County, Ulsan. These incidents, which occurred on Hwajangsan in Eonyang-eup and Daewunsan in Onyang-eup, became notable examples showing that the presence or absence of forest roads directly affects the speed of wildfire suppression and the scale of damage. At Hwajangsan, a forest road extended to the summit, allowing the fire to be extinguished in about 20 hours and enabling rapid deployment of firefighting resources. By contrast, the Daewunsan area lacked sufficient forest roads and had difficult terrain, so suppression took about six days, during which time the fire spread over a wide area. In the Hwajangsan case, wildfire suppression vehicles were able to approach the summit via the forest road, and helicopters were also operated efficiently using temporary landing and takeoff sites near the road.

According to a study conducted on national forests in the United States where large wildfires occurred, areas with low forest road density had higher fuel continuity and were more prone to large wildfires. Research on the relationship between wildfire damage and forest roads found that for every additional 1 meter in distance from a forest road, the damaged area increased by 1.55m². In Finland, by contrast, the construction of more than 130,000 km of forest roads was found to reduce wildfire damage by 0.4ha per incident (Korea Forest Service, 2023).

These cases clearly show that forest roads are more than mere statistical figures or administrative plans; they play a highly practical role in actual forest disaster response. Wildfire suppression forest roads are up to 67% wider (3.5m or more), increasing the travel speed of firefighting vehicles and maximizing suppression efficiency through the installation of multiple water intake points (Korea Forest Engineers Association, 2023). This suggests that strategically expanding forest roads can become a key factor determining wildfire response capacity.

◩ The Environmental Friendliness of Forest Roads, Including Forest Ecosystem Conservation

Awareness of the environmental functions of forest roads has recently been spreading. In the past, forest roads were often criticized as a major cause of forest degradation, but when built on the basis of systematic planning and eco-friendly design standards, they are now regarded as key infrastructure that can instead contribute to forest ecosystem conservation and sustainable forest management. If forest roads enable initial and nighttime suppression and thereby prevent large-scale wildfires, the scope of damage can be drastically reduced and forests preserved. They also have an indirect positive effect on reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Above all, there are concerns that constructing forest roads increases the risk of landslides. However, according to Korea Forest Service statistics for the recent five-year period (2018–2022), damage to forest roads accounted for only 0.18% (40.4km) of the total forest road length (22,497km) on average due to disasters such as heavy rain. In fact, forest roads can function to prevent landslides by blocking landslides descending from mountain slopes, preventing the expansion of landslides moving upward from below the road, and helping suppress the total volume of water by cutting off groundwater levels, among other functions (Korea Forest Engineers Association, 2023).

◩ Economic Efficiency of Forest Roads, Including Reduced Domestic Transport Costs and Higher Timber Utilization

Expanding forest roads not only improves the efficiency of forest management but also provides a variety of economic benefits. First, once forest roads are built, felled timber can be transported more easily, increasing forest utilization. The construction of forest roads significantly reduces transportation costs by about 10,000–20,000 won per cubic meter of timber. Expanding forest roads increases the usable forest area by about 5 to 8 times and reduces yarding costs by about 35–47% through mechanized timber production, contributing to the cyclical management of forest resources (Korea Forest Service, 2023). According to Korea Forest Service data, this yields substantial cost-saving effects in large-scale forest operations. Forest roads also improve the productivity of forestry operations such as reforestation, thinning, and pest control, shortening the payback period for forest resource investments and contributing over the long term to improved returns on investment.

Forest roads also significantly improve the utilization rate of domestic timber. The forest utilization rates of major European countries are 55.7% in Germany, 40.9% in Denmark, 99.1% in Switzerland, and 50.7% in Finland, whereas Korea remains at only 17.1%. A common characteristic of countries with high forest utilization rates is the sufficient expansion of forest roads. In other words, from the perspective of forest management, it can be concluded that adequately expanding forest roads can raise the utilization rate of domestic timber.

At the regional level, attention is also being paid to the potential to create jobs in the process of building and maintaining forest roads, as well as to use forest roads as tourism resources for forest recreation and forest sports. According to research by the National Institute of Forest Science, the production inducement coefficient of forest road construction was 2.767, the value-added inducement coefficient was 0.977, the production inducement coefficient for forestry and forest products was 1.565, and the value-added inducement coefficient was 0.985. Statistically, this confirms that forest road facilities are essential infrastructure for the development of forestry and indispensable elements for forest management, forest recreation, forest sports, village connectivity, timber production, and the production of short-term forest products (Seungjung Lee et al., 2017).

4. Seeking Fundamental Measures for Responding to Large-Scale Wildfires: Scientific Forest Management

◩ Exploring the Direction of Scientific Forest Management for Fundamental Large-Wildfire Response

Although forest roads are an essential element in the prevention, preparedness, and response to large-scale wildfires, the time has come to seek a scientific management approach for forests as a whole. As carbon neutrality has recently become a global issue, more attention must be paid to the public value of forests, which are the only natural resource that absorbs carbon dioxide and provides benefits in many different forms. Accordingly, forests need in the future to be conserved or utilized on the basis of highly systematic, specialized scientific technologies.

Scientific forest management is a concept encompassing: 1) understanding forest geography and three-dimensional spatial structures, ecological resources, and the distribution of tree species and vegetation; 2) mobilizing scientific measurement equipment in forestry; 3) making forestry and forest management smart; 4) expanding the application of science and technology to various forest-based cultural and industrial activities such as leisure, medical care, healing and meditation, recuperation, tourism, lodging, training, dining, and offices; 5) applying science and technology to forest disaster prevention; and 6) using science and technology for forest restoration (Kyungseon Lee et al., 2023).

◩ Scientific Forest Management Using AI and Big Data with High Environmental and Economic Value

Scientific forest management using AI and big data can achieve the two goals of environmental sustainability and economic efficiency at the same time. First, it can enable the collection of forest resource information using advanced drones, big data management, constant wildfire monitoring systems, and preemptive suppression operations. Second, for scientific wildfire prevention, expanding AI-based ICT platforms—such as 24-hour real-time automatic wildfire detection and analysis—can eliminate blind spots in wildfire monitoring, while the development of algorithms to calculate forest disaster damage areas can make data-based scientific forest policy decision-making possible. Third, it is also necessary to create disaster-prevention forests in the form of belts of selectively planted trees in places such as riverbanks and hills near residential areas for disaster prevention purposes. Fourth, in order to improve productivity and income in forestry worksites, the integration of advanced science and technology and convergence research is also needed. This includes the production and supply of superior forest seeds based on deep learning from forest seed big data and the development of customized food technology for short-term income-generating forest products based on robotics.

5. Conclusion: The Need to Legislate Scientific Forest Management to Achieve Both Environmental and Economic Goals

If excessive regulation and a sole focus on preservation are imposed on forests, the result will ultimately be neglect. In the coexistence of people and nature, scientific forest management that combines the expansion of forest roads with cutting-edge AI and big data technology is the most fundamental solution for wildfire response and the most rational way to achieve both environmental and economic goals.

At present, legal regulations related to science and technology in the forest sector are scattered across numerous laws, including provisions on forest informatization and forestry mechanization in the Framework Act on Forestry, regulatory provisions on technical business operators in the Act on the Promotion and Management of Forestry Technology, provisions on fostering science and technology for forestry and forest products in the Act on the Promotion of Agricultural and Food Science and Technology, and provisions on establishing a basic plan for the development of forest science and technology in the Act on the Creation and Management of Forest Resources (Kyungseon Lee et al., 2023). There is a need to regulate these widely dispersed science and technology-related provisions in the forest sector in a systematic and unified way, and to link them appropriately with related laws such as the Framework Act on Science and Technology and the Act on Promotion of Technology Development for Climate Change Response. Accordingly, this paper proposes future legislation in the National Assembly for an Act on Scientific Management of Forests as a legal alternative that can simultaneously promote wildfire response, sustainability, and the development of forestry.

◩ References

∙ Korea Forest Engineers Association, 2023.12.07. [Interview] Dusong Cha, Emeritus Professor, College of Forest and Environmental Sciences, Kangwon National University, “In the Era of Climate Crisis, Forest Roads Are Part of the Forest.”

∙ Korea Forest Service, 2023. 5. 4. Scientific Reasons Why Forest Roads Are Necessary for Wildfire Response. E-Forest News.

∙ Korea Forest Service (2025), Statistical Yearbook of Forest Fires.

∙ Korea Forest Service (2025), Wildfire Suppression Forest Road Performance, Korea Forest Service website.

∙ Kyungseon Lee, Junsoon Kim, Taeheon Choi (2023), Conception for Legislating the Act on Scientific Management of Forests, Kangwon Law Review Vol. 71.

∙ Seungjung Lee, Byeongheon Jeong, Gidong Kim, Hyunseon Jeon, Minwoo Cho (2017), Analysis of the Economic Ripple Effects of Investment in Forest Road Facilities, Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science 106(20).

∙ Korea Rural Economic Newspaper, 2023.5.4. Scientific Reasons Why Forest Roads Are Necessary for Wildfire Response, Forest & Forestry ESG.

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Original title: 대형산불에 가장 근본적 대응은 임도와 과학적 산림관리

Author: Center for Free Enterprise (CFE)

Date: 2025-04-02

Source: https://www.cfe.org/bbs/bbsDetail.php?cid=issue&pn=1&idx=27454