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Arizona

Burn Successful on Arizona Refuge

June 25, 2008

Firefighters safely completed a 12,000-acre prescribed burn on the 118,000-acre Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge in Sasabe, Arizona. The burn was conducted in steps between June 11 and June 18.

The refuge uses periodic planned burns to cost-effectively regenerate natural areas and help wildlife flourish. In recent years, Mesquite trees on the refuge began to dominate native vegetation, choking out the open semi-desert grassland. Fire is an essential tool used throughout the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to reduce accumulated brush and other overgrown vegetation. Unchecked, the accumulation quickly becomes hazardous fuel for dangerous wildfires that threaten communities and natural areas.

In addition to land within the refuge boundaries, adjacent private land was also treated during the prescribed burn. Firefighters from the National Park Service, the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service assisted with the project. This is the first burn to be implemented under a new interagency fire management plan for the local area.

The refuge provides grassland and wetland habitat for threatened and endangered plants, animals and birds including the Masked Bobwhite Quail. It is also home to wildlife such as mule deer, white-tailed deer, pronghorn, javelina and mountain lions.

For more information about the refuge, visit http://www.fws.gov/southwest/refuges/arizona/buenosaires/index.html

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The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service manages public land in every U.S. state and territory, including 547 national wildlife refuges and 69 national fish hatcheries.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service manages 75 million burnable acres, including 24 million acres of forest/brushland and 4 million acres of grassland.

More than 50% of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service lands in the continental U.S. (and more than 90% in Alaska) include fire-adapted ecosystems with vegetation dependent on periodic fire.

An average of 500 wildfires burn 260,000 acres each year on U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service lands. The Service also burns about 300,000 acres a year using prescribed fire.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service annual fire program budget is approximately $80 million.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service employs more than 530 permanent fire professionals, along with 270 seasonal and temporary fire employees during fire season.

More than 3,000 U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service employees are qualified to assist with wildland fire management on an interagency basis.

The U.S. Fish and Wildland Service Fire Management Program protects more than 700 communities and wildland-urban interface areas.

Historically, an acre was the amount of land tillable by one man behind an ox in one day. This measures 90% of a football field. There are 640 acres in a square mile.

More than 90% of the hazardous fuels reduction by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is completed using prescribed fire.