Wildland Fire Use:
Overview
What is Wildland Fire Use
Definitions
Objectives
Background
Fire Policy
Forest
Fire Use Map
Brochure (PDF)
Informational Packet (PDF)
Short Informational Training (PDF)
Overview:
Forest officials
are using fire from natural ignitions in a safe, carefully planned,
and cost effective manner to benefit, protect, maintain, and enhance
National Forest resources. Approximately 1.2 million acres of the
Caribou-Targhee National Forest is approved for Wildland Fire Use
and almost 1.7 million acres requires ALL fires (lightning as well
as human caused) be suppressed.
What
is Wildland Fire Use?
Wildland fire
use is the term used to describe the management of a lightning-caused
fire burning in an approved area to play its natural role in the
life cycle of the forest. It is not put out unless it poses unacceptable
risk.
Definitions:
Wildland
fire use: The application of the
appropriate management response to naturally ignited wildland fires
to accomplish specific resource management objectives in predefined
designated areas outlined in Fire Management Plans.
Wildland
fire: Any non-structure fire that occurs in the wildland.
There are three distinct types of wildland fires: wildfire, wildland
fire use and prescribed fire.
Objectives:
- To use fire
from natural ignitions in a safe, carefully planned, and cost
effective manner to benefit, protect, maintain, and enhance National
Forest System resources.
- Reduce future
wildland fire suppression costs.
- Reduce risk
of large scale catastrophic wildfires.
- Habitat
improvement/species regeneration.
- Natural
fuels are reduced to more natural conditions.
Background:
Wildland fire
use is widely accepted by scientists, policymakers, land managers,
and others as a valuable tool for helping to restore forest health
and reduce the risk of catastrophic fire. By carefully selecting
which fires to suppress and which to actively manage for resource
benefit, managers can begin to return forests to a more natural
resilient and healthy condition.
Wildland fire
use has historically been confined primarily to Wilderness areas
but now can be used outside of Wilderness with an approved Fire
Management Plan.
The Caribou-Targhee
National Forest has been actively managing wildland fire use in
Wilderness since 1997. In an effort to return larger areas to more
natural fuel conditions and reduce the risk of catastrophic fire,
the Forest has recently expanded the areas where wildland fire use
may be used.
Not all fires
started by lightning will be allowed to burn. Only carefully selected
fires in specific areas under certain conditions will be managed
as wildland fire use. If a fire poses undue risk or is in a non-fire
use area it will be immediately suppressed.
There are many
areas within the Forest, including wildland urban interface and
culturally sensitive areas that we must continue to put out all
fires regardless of conditions. Allowing fire use in these areas
simply poses an unacceptable level of risk. Within approved wildland
fire use areas only carefully selected fires under certain conditions
will be managed as wildland fire use. If a fire poses undue risk
it will be immediately suppressed.
Under current
fire policy managers can actively suppress specific areas of a fire
to protect values at risk while at the same time allowing the fire
to burn freely in other areas for benefit of the resource.
Wildland fire
use is a tool available to many Federal agencies including: USDA
Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service,
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and Bureau of Indian Affairs.
Fire
Policy:
Federal policy
outlining the implementation process for wildland fire use was published
in 1998 and has been revised in 2005.
Policy statements
from the Federal Wildland Fire Policy directly relevant to wildland
fire use (WFU) include:
Safety:
Firefighter and public safety is the first priority. All
Fire Management Plans and activities must reflect this commitment
Fire
Management and Ecosystem Sustainability: The full range
of fire management activities will be used to achieve ecosystem
sustainability including its interrelated ecological, economic,
and social components.
Response
to Wildland Fire: Fire, as a critical natural process,
will be integrated into land and resource management plans and activities
on a landscape scale, and across agency boundaries. Response to
wildand fires is based on ecological, social and legal consequences
of fire.
Use
of Wildland Fire: Wildland fire will be used to protect,
maintain, and enhance resources and, as nearly as possible, be allowed
to function in its natural ecological role. Use of fire will be
based on approved Fire Management Plans and will follow specific
prescriptions contained in operational plans
Science: Fire management plans and programs will be based on a foundation
of sound science. Research will support ongoing efforts to increase
our scientific knowledge of biological, physical, and sociological
factors. Information needed to support fire management will be developed
through an integrated interagency fire science program.
Interagency
Cooperation: Fire management planning, preparedness, prevention,
suppression, wildland fire use, restoration and rehabilitation,monitoring,
research, and education will be conducted on an interagency basis
with the involvement of cooperators and partners.
Communication
and Education: Agencies will enhance knowledge and understanding
of wildland fire management policies and practices through internal
and external communication and education programs.
Operational
clarification statements from the Federal Fire Policy directly relevant
to fire use include:
- “Only
one management objective will be applied to a wildland fire. Wildland
fires will either be managed for resource benefits or suppressed.
A wildland fire cannot be managed for both objectives concurrently.
If two wildland fires converge, they will be managed as a single
wildland fire.”
- “Human
caused wildland fires will be suppressed in every instance and
will not be managed for resource benefits.”
- “Once
a wildland fire has been managed for suppression objectives, it
may never be managed for resource benefit objectives.”
- “Wildland
fire use is the result of a natural event. The Land/Resource Management
Plan, or the Fire Management Plan, will identify areas where the
strategy of wildland fire use is suitable. The Wildland Fire Implementation
Plan (WFIP) is the tool that examines the available response strategies
to determine if a fire is being considered for wildland fire use.
- “When
a prescribed fire or a fire designated for wildland fire use is
no longer achieving the intended resource management objectives
and contingency or mitigation actions have failed, the fire will
be declared a wildfire. Once a wildfire, it cannot be returned
to a prescribed fire or wildland fire use status."
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