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Wildland
fire has great potential to change park landscapes more
often than volcanoes, earthquakes or even floods. Such
forces of change are completely natural. Many plants
and animals cannot survive without the cycles of fire
or flooding to which they are adapted. If all fire is
suppressed, fuel builds up and makes bigger fires inevitable.
Under certain conditions, large, hot fires can threaten
public safety, devastate property, damage natural and
cultural resources, and be expensive and dangerous to
fight.
National Park Service policy stresses managing fire, not simply suppressing it. This means planning for the inevitable and promoting the use of fire as a land management tool. The goal is to restore fire's role as a dynamic and necessary natural process.
Prescribed fire is one of the most
important tools used to manage fire today. A scientific
prescription for the fire, prepared in advance, describes
its objectives, fuels, size and the ideal environmental
conditions for it to burn. If it moves outside the predetermined
area, the fire may be suppressed. The fire may be designed
to create a mosaic of diverse habitats for plants and
animals, to help an endangered species recover, or to
reduce fuels and thereby prevent a destructive fire.
Burning key areas in advance, thereby removing fuels
from the path of a future unwanted fire, can protect
specific buildings, cultural resources, critical natural
resources, and habitats. Fuel buildups sometimes must
be cut and removed by hand. By burning away accumulated
fuels and protecting specific sites, planned fires make
landscapes safer for future natural fires.
Prescribed fire also can be the most
cost-effective way to maintain such historic scenes
as the open grasslands of the Revolutionary War era
at Saratoga National Historical Park in New York, oak-prairie
savanna of the Civil War era at Wilson's Creek National
Battlefield in Missouri and vistas of the Nez Perce
War of 1877 at Big Hole National Battlefield in Montana.
To learn more about wildland fire, visit Understanding Fire under the Public and Media section of this website. |
