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Arizona

Arizona

Programmatic Fire Plan Complete

2005

Endangered species staff from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service field office in Arizona, and staff from the Coronado National Forest have been working on a programmatic fire plan for the past four years. During that time the Service has allowed several individual prescribed burns in occupied and suitable habitat for the New Mexican ridge-nosed rattlesnake, a threatened species. Prescribed fire is anticipated to be reintroduced on a landscape level to this region of the southwest through the cooperative efforts of the Forest Service, the Rocky Mountain research station, and snake experts from Arizona State University and New Mexico Game and Fish and the Malpai Borderlands Group.

Working together, this group delineated and mapped suitable snake habitat and delineated, quantified and analyzed the effects of fire on that habitat. Then the group determined the amount of snake habitat that could be affected by the fire activities associated with this 10-year plan. The cooperative venture resulted a plan that conserves the snake and its habitat while allowing fire as a natural process back into the area in a safe way.

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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.