Fuels Planning: Science Synthesis and

Integration

Environmental Consequences Fact Sheet: 6

Wildland Fire Use: The ìOtherî

Treatment Option

United States

Department

of Agriculture

Forest Service

Rocky Mountain

Research Station

Research Note

RMRS-RN-23-6-WWW

December 2004

Fuels planning: Science synthesis and integration, an interagency research/management

partnership to support the Ten-Year Fire Plan,

led by Russell T. Graham, RMRS, and Sarah M.

McCaffrey, NCRS.

Synthesizing

Scientific Information

for Fire and Fuels

Project Managers

Pacific Northwest

Research Station

Environmental Consequences

Team Leader

Elaine Kennedy Sutherland

USDA Forest Service

Rocky Mountain Research Station

Missoula, MT

Anne Black

USDA Forest Service

Rocky Mountain Research Station

Aldo Leopold Wilderness

Research Institute

Missoula, MT

Stunned by a series of natural disasters at the turn of the century,

the United States embarked on a

policy to put out all natural fires.

The policy has been wildly successful; 97 percent of all ignitions

were suppressed at Initial Attack

during 2003. Fire suppression has

reduced acres burned to an average of 2 million acres a year. An

unfortunate result of this has been

the accumulation of even more

above-normal fuel loads in many

areasóan accumulation that began several decades ago.

The Important Ecological Role of Fire

Fires can regenerate forests and rangeland systems, recycle limited nutrients,

remove accumulations of dead and living understory vegetation, and create habitat

mosaics that can help maintain high species diversity. Of particular interest are

the low elevation forests typified by ponderosa pine and its associates. Historically, these forests burned at least once every 5 to 35 years; few have experienced even a single fire over the past 75 years. Continuing aggressive fire suppression essentially manages these landscapes under an atypical high-intensity/

high-severity fire regime, because those are generally the only fires that escape

initial attack. Ironically, aggressive fire suppression can place such ecosystems

ìat riskî of uncharacteristically severe fire. Add in risks to private property in a

growing wildland-urban interface, and fuels treatment becomes a high priority.

Using Fire as a Fuels Treatment

Successful fuels treatment is challenging, in part because of the sheer number of

acres involved. Restoration to a more ìnaturalî ecological condition with more

ìnormalî fuel levels requires treatment of 5 million to 11.8 million acres per

year. Once an acre has been restored it must be maintained by frequent fire into

perpetuity.

One option to help decrease the workload is to use fire to fight fire by maximizing opportunities to allow natural ignitions to restore and maintain ecosystem

ìhealthî and reduce fuel accumulations. United States Federal fire policy establishes three strategies of fire stewardship: (1) suppression, (2) wildland fire use

(WFU), which uses naturally ignited fires, and (3) prescribed fire (Rx), which

uses management-ignited fires. The ability to use either Rx or WFU rests on the

identification of acceptable conditions and areas in both land/resource management

Prior to European settlement, approximately 145 million

acres in the Unites States were affected by fire each

year (photo credit: Tom Iraci).
The Fuels Planning fact sheets are based on preliminary findings. Information from fact sheets will be synthesized in an upcoming publication.

Environmental Consequences Fact

Sheets

Look for fact sheet topics from the Environmental Consequences

Team including information about the effects of fire behavior and

alternative treatment strategies, Wildlife Response Model, weed responses, riparian systems, soil erosion, restoration objectives, treated

spaces, the Fire Effects Information System (FEIS), and the First

Order Fire Effects Model (FOFEM).

Fuels Planning: Synthesis and Integration

This fact sheet is one in a series being produced as part of a larger

project supported by the USDA Forest Service to synthesize new

knowledge and information relevant to fire and fuels management.

Fact sheets address topics related to stand structure, environmental

impacts, economics, and human responses to these factors. Information in the fact sheets is targeted for the dry forests of the Inland

West, but is often applicable across broad regions of the country.

For more information, please visit our Web site at:

www.fs.fed.us/fire/tech_transfer/synthesis/synthesis_index

plans and fire management plans. Both Rx and WFU

tactics can and do include active fire management where

necessary, but WFU tactics are intended to be lighthanded and allow fire to play its natural role as much as

possible.

Benefits and Risks of Fire

In terms of fuel reduction methods, one advantage of

fire use (both Rx and WFU) is cost. Of the major fuels

treatment classesómechanical thinning, Rx, WFUóthe

latter two are the cheapest and most widely used. Nearly

77 percent of the 2 million acres treated under the National Fire Plan in fiscal year 2003 (October 1, 2002ñ

September 30, 2003) were done with prescribed fire.

Wildland fire use acres contributed an additional 331,000

acres in 2003 (up from a previous 5-year average of

67,000 acres annually). Costs are inverse; average fire

use costs are an order of magnitude cheaper than either

suppression or mechanical thinning. Between 1990 and

2002, average suppression costs for the nation calculated from total annual acres and total annual costs ran

$500 per acre. By comparison, Rx and WFU costs averaged around $40 to $50 per acre. While there is high

variability in costs of fire use and suppressionólargely

a function of values at riskósuppression is nearly always the most expensive option.

Another advantage is fireís ability to help managers meet

land management goals and objectives. Using natural

and management ignitions to our collective advantage

requires a clear understanding of both the benefits and

the risks of fire before the onset of the fire season. Benefits include the potential to move toward land management objectives as well as to accomplish fuels reduction and increase firefighter safety. Risks include both

risks from a fire to human life and property, as well as

risks from not applying fire, such as continued fuels accumulation, increased risk of future catastrophic wildfire, and the impact these may have on the ability to

reach land management objectives.

How can benefits and risks be assessed? One way is to

map predicted behavior under typical fire weather conditions (such as 80, 90, 99 percentile Energy Release

Component), identify how fire is likely to affect target

resources, then compare the predicted outcome to land

management targets. Taking full advantage of natural

ignitions, where benefits are expected, can assist in meeting ecological and fiscal goals. Alternatively, Rx can assist where benefits exist but where natural ignitions are

not feasible due to unacceptable consequences to values at risk in the area. More information on this process

may be found at http://leopold.wilderness.net/research/fprojects/F001.htm.

References

National Interagency Coordination Center. [n.d.]. 2001,

2002, and 2003 summary statistics. Available: http://

www.nifc.gov/news/nicc.html. [December 01, 2004].

Schmidt K. M.; Menakis, J. P.; Hardy, C. C.; Hann, W. J.;

Bunnell, D. L. 2002. Development of coarse-scale spatial data for wildland fire and fuel management. Gen.

Tech. Rep. GTR-RMRS-87. Fort Collins, CO: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky MounRx and WSFU fires are both managed to achieve predetermined goals tain Research Station. 41 p.

(photo credit: Tom Iraci).