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USING FIRE TO MANAGE PUBLIC LANDS

[image: plain of grass and wildflowers with inset photo of management worker working in a small burnt area]

FIRE'S NATURAL ROLE

Knowledge and understanding has grown since the days when all fires were automatically put out. Federal agencies now recognize that fire is a critical natural process that helps maintain healthy ecosystems and guards against natural disaster. For example, periodic fires naturally occurred before European settlement of the West, regularly cleansing the land of overgrown and dead vegetation. Natural fires on rangelands promoted seasonal growth of forage and a mosaic of wildlife habitats. Low-intensity fires crept protectively through forests, clearing the understory "ladder" by which fire could otherwise climb into tree tops and cause devastation. Hotter, infrequent fires every century or so are natural in some forests, such as lodgepole and jack pine, which need high temperatures to open seed cones and regenerate.

Although restoring the natural role of fire has been part of federal fire management policy since the 1980's, landscape conditions in the mid 1990's indicated that this effort needed even more attention. After record fire seasons in 1994 and 1996, which destroyed millions of acres and cost taxpayers billions of dollars, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and other federal agencies embarked on a major initiative to use more prescribed fire to reduce hazardous and unnatural build-up of vegetation, and to maintain the health of the land.

REINTRODUCING FIRE TO THE LANDSCAPE

Prescribed burns are planned under specified conditions intended to improve the health of the natural landscape and/or reduce hazardous build-up of vegetation. Prescribed burns help reduce the risk and devastation of a raging wildland fire. Prior to a prescribed burn, the public is involved in a land-use planning process to determine fire management goals and "prescriptions." A prescription identifies specific conditions under which a burn will be conducted, such as humidity ranges, vegetation moisture levels, wind speed and direction, temperatures, atmospheric conditions affecting smoke dispersal, and designated boundaries.

Congressional funding for prescribed burning doubled from 1994 to 1997, and redoubled for 1998. BLM alone plans prescribed burns on 100,000 to 200,000 acres of public lands per year. This cost-effective and controlled use of fire saves many times the dollars needed to fight fires, and
reduces the loss of lives, property, and natural resources.

Fires started naturally (by lightning) may be managed to achieve natural resource benefits, if an approved fire management plan and prescription exist. The fire is monitored to ensure that it remains within prescription. Fires that don't meet these conditions may be tackled with a wide range of firefighting strategies and tactics.

RESTORING NATURAL FIRE CYCLES

Natural resource managers use prescribed fire for many restorative purposes, in addition to reducing hazardous build-up of vegetation. As a natural process, fire plays a role in many ecosystems and helps maintain healthy public lands. The BLM and other land management agencies use fire as a tool to reestablish natural conditions and restore natural fire cycles. BLM uses fire to:

♦ Promote healthy vegetation on rangelands
♦ Improve forest health
♦ Maintain natural habitats for wildlife
♦ Create barriers to protect timber
♦ Control the spread of noxious weeds
♦ Increase available water by eliminating encroaching plants, especially non-native species
♦ Encourage plant growth in certain areas to decrease flooding, erosion, and siltation
♦ Enhance soil pH and increase soil nutrition

For example, fire on BLM rangeland often provides a two- or three-fold increase in forage, and also increases forage protein content. Prescribed fire also prevents unwanted growth of cactus, salt cedar, and juniper.

[image: photo of new growth in a burnt area]
[image: management worker clearing brush with an axe]
[image: prescribed fire burning by a road]
[image: management workers putting out a small fire]
[image: management worker burning a small area of forest]

FIGHTING FIRE WITH FIRE

Since the 1940's, Smokey Bear and Walt Disney's Bambi have led the American public to believe that all wildland fires are undesirable. For half a century, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), along with the U.S. Forest Service and other federal and state land management agencies, has fought these fires in an effort to protect lives, property, and natural resources.

Despite these often monumental and costly efforts to protect the environment from fire, it became apparent over time that wildland fires were getting larger and burning hotter, faster, and more frequently. Overgrown vegetation accumulated unnaturally in areas where fire was kept out, providing fuel for unprecedented, raging fires that no human effort nor any amount of money could control. America began to lose its war with wildland fire.

Natural resource managers and scientists began to realize that complete fire suppression was not the best protection and, in the long run, actually created an even more dangerous situation. They began studying the natural role of fire, and modern fire management policy evolved.

Strict fire control is now being replaced by more balanced fire management that emphasizes protection and lets fire function as a natural process in many ecosystems. Fire managers today protect wildlands and the public by both using prescribed fire and putting out unwanted, unplanned fires. Carefully and safely reintroducing fire to the landscape reduces hazardous build-up of vegetation, promotes growth of forage, and preserves wildlife habitat. Smokey and Bambi both approve!

[image: photo of a pine forest]

INVOLVEMENT OF LOCAL COMMUNITIES

Local communities are an essential part of the process to reduce the risk of wildland fire. Using prescribed fire and other methods to reduce flammable vegetation is critical to keeping this risk at manageable levels. BLM works closely with state air quality agencies for guidance and approval of fire prescriptions that ensure smoke is maintained within acceptable levels and disperses quickly. Any short-term inconvenience caused by prescribed fire is well worth the protection it provides againist an uncontrollable wildland fire that destroys lives, homes, property, and valuable natural resources.

As populated areas grow, they extend closer and closer to natural settings susceptible to wildland fire. The dream of living close to nature can create a dangerous situation if homes are vulnerable to the flammable wildland. In these cases, homeowners and firefighters must work together to ensure that homes can be protected without a great risk to lives. Homes in this "wildland/urban interface" or "I-Zone" need to be constructed of fireresistant materials, with defensible, cleared space from the surrounding wildland. There must also be adequate vehicle access to homes, with sufficient room for fire engines to get in and out quickly.

For more information please contact your local BLM office or:

Chief, External Affairs
BLM national Office of Fire and Aviation
National Interagency Fire Center
3833 S. Development Ave.
Boise, Idaho 83705-5354
phone (208)387-5457
www.nifc.gov

BLM/RS/GI-97/001+9210

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