Fuels Planning: Science Synthesis and

Integration

Economic Uses Fact Sheet: 8

Prescribed Fire Costs

United States

Department

of Agriculture

Forest Service

Rocky Mountain

Research Station

Research Note

RMRS-RN-20-8-WWW

December 2004

Economics Team Co-Leads:

Roger Fight

Jamie Barbour

USDA Forest Service

Pacific Northwest Research Station

620 SW Main Street, Suite 400

Portland, OR 97205

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

The information for this

fact sheet was provided

by Geof Donovan at the

Portland Forestry Sciences Laboratory, USDA.

How Much Will It Cost to Use Prescribed Fire?

Although the use of prescribed fire as a management tool is widespread, there is

great variability and uncertainty in the treatment costs. Given specific site variables and management objectives, how much will it cost to use prescribed fire?

Researchers at the University of Montana and the Pacific Northwest (PNW) Research Station, USDA Forest Service, have developed a tool for answering this

question.

The data for the analysis come from

the FASTRACS (Fuel Analysis,

Smoke Tracking, and Report Access

Computer System) program of the

Pacific Northwest Region of the

USDA Forest Service, drawing on

information from Oregon and Washington during 2000 to 2002, after

implementation of the National Fire

Plan. The FASTRACS database is

used primarily for planning, tracking,

and reporting fuel management related activities; and the data include

Implementing a prescribed burn. The FASTRACS program can assist with predicting the cost of a prescribed

burn based on local variables (photo credit: Tom Iraci).

information on physical site characteristics, weather, fuels descriptions, and managerial factors. As for all decisionmaking, the results should be viewed in context to

your particular management scenario. The more similar your situation is to cases

from the FASTRACS database, the more relevant the comparison will be.

Factors Affecting Prescribed Fire Cost

• Fuel type

• Treatment method

• Size of area to be treated

• Steepness of slopes

• Fire regime type

• Site elevation

• Management objectives

• Whether the site is a designated protection area (DPA)

• Whether the site is in the wildland-urban interface (WUI)

By taking into account the above variables, you can get an estimate of the per-acre

cost of prescribed fire using FASTRACS. Table 1 shows examples of four landscape scenarios and the estimated prescribed fire cost for each.
The Fuels Planning fact sheets are based on preliminary findings. Information from fact sheets will be synthesized in an upcoming publication.

Economics Team Fact Sheets

Look for fact sheet topics from the Economics Team including prescribed

fire costs, harvesting, log hauling, NEPA and other regulations, wood utilization, economic impacts on communities, markets for wood, and harvest equipment requirements.

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

Table 1óFour examples of prescribed fire cost estimates.

Variables Estimated cost per acre

500-acre area, brush/grass $31

1,000 feet elevation

5 percent slope

No WUI

Ecosystem restoration

Underburn

Natural fuels

2,000-acre area, ponderosa pine $86

2,500 feet elevation

25 percent slope

WUI

Forest health

Underburn

Natural fuels

200-acre area, mixed conifer $174

3,000 feet elevation

15 percent slope

DPA

No WUI

Fuel reduction

Broadcast burn

Whole tree removal

100-acre area, Douglas-fir $12

4,000 feet elevation

10 percent slope

No WUI

Fuel reduction

Burn machine piles

Max log 4x4

The PNW Research Station has developed an interactive,

computer-based calculator that can help with estimating

the costs of these and other types of fuel treatments.

The calculator, called My Fuel Treatment Planner

(MyFTP), is the basis for fact sheet RMRS RN-20-

4WWW.

References

Cleaves, D. A.; Brodie, J. D. 1990. Economic analysis of

prescribed burning. In: Walstad, J. D.; [and others], eds.

Natural and prescribed fire in Pacific Northwest forests.

Corvallis, OR: Oregon State University Press: 271ñ282.

Cleaves, D. A.; Haines, T. K.; Martinez, J. 1999. Prescribed

burning costs: trends and influences in the National Forest System. In: Proceedings of the symposium on fire

economics, planning and policy: bottom lines. Gen. Tech.

Rep. PSW-GTR-173. Albany, CA: U.S. Department of

Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Southwest Research

Station: 227.

Rideout, D. B.; Omi, P. N. 1995. Estimating the cost of

fuels treatment. Forest Science. 41(4): 664ñ674.

U.S. Department of Agriculture and U.S. Department

of the Interior. 1995. Federal wildland fire management policy and program review report. Washington,

DC: U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Department

of Agriculture. 41p.