As Climate Change Experts Predict More Forest Fires, Stockton Students Study Prevention

GALLOWAY TWP, N.J. (CBS) – They say you have to fight fire with fire, but students at Stockton University are learning there's a lot more to that idea than smokes the eyes.

While many students were packing up for Thanksgiving break on Wednesday, some of the environmental studies students were in the campus woods watching them burn.

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In the midst of a 10-year forest management program, they were studying how controlled burns react in areas of the forest that have been logged with different methods.

"I'm taking temperature readings of all the fires they're setting up in multiple different areas where we have a clear cut, a thinning and a control area," says student Anthony Zelinsky.

One of the reasons this research is so important is climate change.

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Experts predict as the earth continues to warm weather patterns will become more dangerous, droughts will be more severe and there will possibly be more catastrophic forest fires.

New Jersey is both heavy populated and heavily forested – a potentially deadly combination.

"We want a much more bio-diverse forest, we want a forest that is more resilient in case of disturbances and the bottom line is we'd like to protect from catastrophic fire and disease," says Professor George Zimmermann.

Robert Williams, of Pine Creek Forestry who developed the 10-year plan, said he enjoyed seeing the students get a hands on education Wednesday with the N.J. Forest Fire Service.

"This is a forest with a campus in it," says Williams, "we need the next generation to take care of managing it."