Fire today ManagementVolume 61 • No. 4 • Fall 2001 FIRE POLICY UPDATE United States Department of Agriculture Forest Service Fire Management Today is published by the Forest Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Washington, DC. The Secretary of Agriculture has determined that the publication of this periodical is necessary in the transaction of the public business required by law of this Department. Fire Management Today is for sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office, at:Internet: bookstore.gpo.gov Phone: 202-512-1800 Fax: 202-512-2250 Mail: Stop SSOP, Washington, DC 20402-0001 Fire Management Today is available on the World Wide Web at <http://www.fs.fed.us/fire/planning/firenote.htm>. Ann Veneman, Secretary April J. Baily U.S. Department of Agriculture General Manager Dale Bosworth, Chief Robert H. “Hutch” Brown, Ph.D. Forest Service Managing Editor Jerry Williams, Director Madelyn Dillon Fire and Aviation Management Editor The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) prohibits discrimination in all its programs and activities on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, religion, age, disability, political beliefs, sexual orientation, or marital or family status. (Not all prohibited bases apply to all programs.) Persons with disabilities who require alternative means for communication of program information (Braille, large print, audiotape, etc.) should contact USDA’s TARGET Center at (202) 720-2600 (voice and TDD). To file a complaint of discrimination, write USDA, Director, Office of Civil Rights, Room 326-W, Whitten Building, 1400 Independence Avenue, SW, Washington, DC 20250-9410 or call (202) 720-5964 (voice and TDD). USDA is an equal opportunity provider and employer. Disclaimer: The use of trade, firm, or corporation names in this publication is for the information and convenience of the reader. Such use does not constitute an official endorsement of any product or service by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Individual authors are responsible for the technical accuracy of the material presented in Fire Management Today. 2 Fire Management Today Fire today Management Volume 61 • No. 4 • Fall 2001 On the Cover: CONTENTS Policy Initiatives in Wildland Fire Management ............ 4 Hutch Brown Review and Update of the 1995 Federal Wildland Fire Management Policy ........................................... 7 Executive Summary Tabular Crosswalk Between the 1995 and 2001 Federal Fire Policies .............................................. 11 A hand crew utilizes a rocky An Agency Strategy for Fire Management ................ 14 area for additional safety Executive Summary and fireline effectiveness. Protecting People and Sustaining Resources in Our first priority, recon- Fire-Adapted Ecosystems: A Cohesive Strategy ......... 16 firmed by the 2001 Federal Executive Summary Fire Policy (see the executive summary on page 7), is Reducing Fire Danger: Is Current Policy on Course? .. 18 firefighter and public safety. Hutch Brown Photo: Ravi Miro Fry, USDA Fires 2000: Fact vs. Fiction ................................... 26 Forest Service, Boise Na- Stephen W. Barrett tional Forest, Boise, ID. A Consistent Wildland Fire Risk Terminology Is Needed! ........................................................... 28 Andreas Bachmann and Britta Allgöwer Fighting the Pumpkin Fire—Indirect Attack and Aerial Ignition ................................................. 34 Allen Farnsworth Six National Fire Use Awards Presented for The FIRE 21 symbol (shown below and on the cover) stands for the safe and effective use of 1998 and 1999 ................................................... 39 wildland fire, now and throughout the 21st Dave Bunnell century. Its shape represents the fire triangle (oxygen, heat, and fuel). The three outer red triangles represent the basic functions of The 1910 Fires: A New Book by Stephen J. Pyne ..... 45 wildland fire organizations (planning, operations, Hutch Brown and aviation management), and the three critical aspects of wildland fire management (prevention, suppression, and prescription). The black interior First Annual Photo Contest (Correction) .................. 48 represents land affected by fire; the emerging green points symbolize the growth, restoration, and sustainability associated with fire-adapted ecosystems. The flame represents fire itself as an SHORT FEATURES ever-present force in nature. For more informa- tion on FIRE 21 and the science, research, and innovative thinking behind it, contact Mike Guidelines for Contributors..................................... 44 Apicello, National Interagency Fire Center, 208-387-5460. Websites on Fire................................................... 47 Before Helicopters: Blimps for Wildland Firefighting? ......................................................... 50 Hutch Brown Annual Photo Contest ............................................ 51 Firefighter and public safety is our first priority. Volume 61 • No. 4 • Fall 2001 3 POLICY INITIATIVES IN WILDLAND FIRE MANAGEMENT Hutch Brown ires in recent decades have grown in size and severity on Severe fire seasons and evolving insights F national forest lands. In 1987, into land and resource management have for only the first time since 1919, generated a series of recent initiatives fires burned more than a million acres (400,000 ha) on the National for wildland fire management. Forest System. More than a million acres burned again in 1988, 1994, tee of Scientists (COS 1999), the Agency Strategy for Fire Manage- and 1996. In 2000, more than 2 promulgated rule confirms the ment, a report addressing major million acres (800,000 ha) burned. principle of ecological, social, and long-term issues such as a Suppression costs have climbed economic sustainability.* Land and declining workforce and the grow- accordingly, reaching a record $1.6 resource management are to be ing number of large fires (S&PF billion across all ownerships in based on cooperatively developed 2000). The report recommends 2000 (ACPP 2000). landscape-level goals following restructuring the fire organization, Planning Revisions scientific regional assessments. partly for “improved integration of fire into ecosystem management, The trend toward larger fires and 2001 Federal Fire Policy. The planning, and decisions.” higher costs became clear in 1994, 2000 Cerro Grande Fire,** an generating a series of reports under escaped prescribed burn that spread the rubric FIRE 21 (see sidebar). to Los Alamos, NM, triggered a New research and insights have review of fire policy. The findings generated a second series of reports, strengthened the 1995 Federal Fire linked to the Forest Service’s Policy (NWCG 1995), replacing it in strategic direction for land and January 2001 with a new inter- resource management planning. agency policy for managing wild- land fire (NWCG 2001). The new Strategic Direction. The National policy calls for using “the full range Forest Management Act of 1976 of fire management activities … to requires the Forest Service to achieve ecosystem sustainability,” establish a rule to guide local including fire use. The policy managers in preparing land and stresses the need to complete or resource management plans for the revise fire management plans that National Forest System. The first are “more effectively and directly” planning rule, adopted in 1982, was integrated “with other natural due for revision by the 1990s. After resource goals.” more than 10 years of preparation, a new planning rule was proposed in Agency Strategy. In January 2000, October 1999 and promulgated in the Forest Service released An December 2000 after extensive public hearings. Based on a March The Rabbit Creek Fire, part of the Idaho 1999 report by the second Commit- City Complex on Idaho’s Boise National *Although the new rule was under review as this issue Forest in 1994. The fire was enormous, went to print, its implications for fire management are likely to remain about the same. burning 146,400 acres (59,250 ha) in 73 Hutch Brown is the managing editor of Fire days. Photo: Karen Wattenmaker, USDA ** For more on the Cerro Grande Fire, see Jim Paxon, Management Today, USDA Forest Service, “‘Remember Los Alamos’: The Cerro Grande Fire,” Fire Forest Service, Boise National Forest, Washington Office, Washington, DC. Management Today 60(4): 9–14. Boise, ID, 1994. 4 Fire Management Today Cohesive Strategy. In October The 2001 Federal Fire Policy calls for using 2000, the Forest Service released Protecting People and Sustaining “the full range of fire management activities … Resources in Fire-Adapted Ecosys- to achieve ecosystem sustainability.” tems: A Cohesive Strategy (F&AM 2000a) in response to a report to Congress by the General Account- ing Office (GAO 1999). Building on the Agency Strategy, the Cohesive FIRE 21 Strategy calls for “sustaining natural resources in short-interval, FIRE 21 was conceived by the The FIRE 21 symbol reflects the fire-adapted ecosystems” through USDA Forest Service to capture Forest Service’s ongoing commit- adaptive management. The report the synergy among the reports ment to the safe and prudent use recommends specific actions for that emerged following the 1994 of fire in managing natural restoring and maintaining fire- fire season.* In that year, 34 resources in the 21st century. It adapted ecosystems, including fire firefighters perished, by far the was developed in 1996 by Michael use. most in any single fire season G. Apicello and Rodney C. Kind- since 1990. In addition, some