Prescribed Fire 101 Controlling Fire for Ecological Benefits The very foundation of fire ecology is the premise that wildland fire is neither innately destructive nor in the best interest of every forest. Fire causes change and change has its own value. Certain forest biomes benefit more than others. Change by fire is biologically necessary to maintain many healthy ecosystems in fire-loving plant communities and resource managers have learned to use fire to cause changes in plant and animal communities to meet their objectives. Varying fire timing, frequency, and intensity produces differing resource responses that create the correct changes for habitat manipulation. A History of Fire Indigenous peoples used fire in virgin pine stands to provide better access, improve hunting, and ridding the land of undesirable species so they could farm. Early settlers observed this and many continued the practice of using fire as a beneficial agent. Destructive wildfire was also prevented by burning under safer conditions with the necessary tools for control. An appropriately "controlled" burn would reduce fuels that fed dangerous fires and assure that the next fire season would not bring destructive, property damaging fire. But increased tree planting and an encroaching urban interface called attention the wildfire problem and led foresters to advocate the exclusion of all fire from the woods. This, in part, was due to the wood boom after WWII and the planting of millions of acres of susceptible trees that were vulnerable to fire in the first few years of establishment. This "exclusion of fire" was not always an acceptable option - and this dramatically learned in Yellowstone National Park after decades of excluding fire. As knowledge accumulated, the use of "prescribed" fire grew and foresters now include fire as an appropriate tool in managing the forest. Wildfire Fighting uncontrolled wildland fire is extremely complex and potentially very dangerous. The complexities of forest fire fighting exist on both a biological and political level. Understanding how fires are fought, how fires are managed and the usefulness of fire in the wild is critical to dealing with wildfire. Using Prescribed Fire "Prescribed" burning is defined as fire applied in a knowledgeable manner to fuels on a specific land area under selected weather conditions to accomplish predetermined, well-defined management objectives. Few alternative treatments can compete with fire from the standpoint of effectiveness and cost. Chemicals are expensive and have associated environmental risks. Mechanical treatments have the same problems. Prescribed fire is much more affordable with much less risk to the habitat and destruction of site and soil quality. Prescribed fire is a complex tool. Only a certified fire prescriptionist should be allowed to burn. Proper diagnosis and detailed planning is mandatory before every burn. An incomplete assessment of any factor in a plan can lead to serious loss of property and life with serious liability questions to both the landowner and the one responsible for the burn. A FEW DEFINITIONS (often used in fire work) Appropriate Management Response: Specific actions taken in response to a wildland fire to implement protection and fire use objectives. Confine: Strategy employed in appropriate management responses where a fire perimeter is managed by a combination of direct and indirect actions and use of natural topographic features, fuel, and weather factors. Decision Criteria Checklist (Initial Go/No- Go Decision): A set of standards evaluation criteria to determine if a fire meets criteria to be managed for resource benefits. The completion of these criteria will lead to a decision to “Go/No- Go” with management of the fire for resource benefits. Fire Complexity Analysis: The formal process to determine the full complexity rating for wildland and prescribed fires. It utilizes 12 variables having numerically weighted importance combined with user identified complexity values. Fire Management Plan: A strategic plan that defines a program to manage wildland and prescribed fires and documents the Fire Management Program in the approved land use plan. The plan is supplemented by operational plans such as preparedness plans, preplanned dispatch plans, prescribed fire plans and prevention plans. Fire Management Unit: Any land management area definable by objectives, topographic features, access, values- to- be- protected, political boundaries, fuel types, or major fire regimes, etc., that sets it apart from management characteristics of an adjacent unit. Units may have management objectives and pre-selected strategies to accomplish these objectives. Fire Use: The combination of wildland fire use and prescribed fire application to meet resource objectives. Holding Actions: Planned actions required to achieve wildland and prescribed fire management objectives. For prescribed fires, these actions are developed to restrict the fire inside the planned burn unit. For suppression actions, holding actions may be implemented to prohibit the fire from crossing containment boundaries. Initial Attack: An aggressive suppression action consistent with firefighter and public safety and values to be protected. Mitigation Actions: Mitigation actions are considered to be on- the- ground activities that will serve to increase defensibility; check, direct, or delay the spread of fire; and minimize threats to life, property, and resources. Mitigation actions may include mechanical and physical non- fire tasks, specific fire applications, and limited suppression actions. These actions will be used to construct firelines, reduce excessive fuel concentrations, reduce vertical fuel continuity, create fuel breaks or barriers around critical or sensitive sites or resources, create "blacklines" through controlled burnouts, and to limit fire spread and behavior. Prescribed Fire Plan: A plan required for each fire application ignited by managers. It must be prepared by qualified personnel and approved by the appropriate Agency Administrator prior to implementation. Prescription: Measurable criteria which define conditions under which a prescribed fire may be ignited, guide selection of appropriate management responses, and indicate other actions. Prescription criteria may include safety, economic, public health, environmental, geographic, administrative, social or legal considerations. Wildfire: An unwanted wildland fire. Wildland Fire: Any non- structure fire, other than prescribed fire, that occurs in the wildland. Wildland Fire Implementation Plan (WFIP): A progressively developed assessment and ops management plan that documents the analysis and selection of strategies and describes the appropriate management response for a wildland fire. Wildland Fire Management Program: The full range of activities and functions necessary for planning, preparedness, emergency suppression operations, and emergency rehabilitation of wildland fires, and prescribed fire operations, including non- activity fuels management to reduce risks to public safety and to restore and sustain ecosystem health. Wildland Fire Situation Analysis: A decision-making process that evaluates alternative management strategies against selected safety, environmental, social, economic, political, and resource management objectives. Wildland Fire Use: The management of naturally ignited wildland fires to accomplish specific prestated resource management objectives in pre- defined geographic areas outlined in Fire Management Plans. .