The fuel loads in the Inland Northwest in remote forests are even higher than that due to the beetle kill and overgrown forests with stressed trees competing for water.
This paper is correct and prescribed burns are the best answer to fix this, but thinning the forests by logging and fields by grazing are also very helpful and it makes the trees much healthier and fires less violent.
Collectively, government(s) at all levels are doing a horrible job of managing the forests and one of the consequences are catastrophic fires.
Here is a good 14 minute explanation from a PhD from the Forest Service that corroborates the obvious. He lives in an area that burns every year and he has 100 year old pictures to compare to what it looks like today.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edDZNkm8Mas
He has another presentation that is over an hour that shows how the lack of diversity in our forests and on public lands have contributed to “mega-fires.”
Environmentalists worship the “pecker pole” forests, with 1,000 trees per acre. I remember the days when trees were harvested to make room for trees to mature and grow tall and strong. In Washington state the “pecker pole” forests are vast.
Pecker pole defintion, 4”-14” tree trunks over 20’ tall. When the people clear the land for housing, they take the good sized trees, and leave the pecker poles. These snap off in the wind, and steal the sun from each other.