Wildland Fire and Fuels 

Research and Development 

Strategic Plan: 

Meeting the Needs of the 

Present, Anticipating the 

Needs of the Future

United States 

Department 

of Agriculture

Forest Service

Research and

Development

FS-854

June 2006
Large photo on front cover: Prescribed crown fires are being tested for stand replacement of Table 

Mountain pine communities in the southern Appalachian Mountains. This fire was on the Tallulah 

Ranger District, northeastern Georgia, in the late winter of 2003. Photo by Tom Waldrop, USDA 

Forest Service.

Left small photo: Research personnel clean out a sediment trap after a summer thunderstorm. 

These sediment traps are used to compare postfire treatment effectiveness after the Hayman Fire, 

Colorado, 2004. Photo by Pete Robichaud, USDA Forest Service.

Middle small photo: Crew inventories down and dead woody fuels for a natural fuels photo series 

site located on the Wallowa/Whitman National Forest. Photo by Roger Ottmar, USDA Forest 

Service.

Right small photo: Rapid Response Team researchers brief the incident command team on the 

Dragon Fire, a wildland use fire on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon in summer 2005. Photo 

courtesy Colin Hardy, USDA Forest Service.

Image on back cover: Old Fire, 25 October 2003, as viewed by the airborne FireMapper thermalimaging radiometer developed and flown by the Pacific Southwest Research Station. The thermal 

image is color-coded by temperature (green/gray/red/orange/yellow) and shown on a post-fire 

image (with ash shown in blue). Image courtesy Phil Riggan, USDA Forest Service.
Wildland Fire and Fuels 

Research and Development 

Strategic Plan: 

Meeting the Needs of the 

Present, Anticipating the 

Needs of the Future

United States 

Department 

of Agriculture

Forest Service

Research and

Development

FS-854

June 2006
U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Forest Service. 2006. Wildland Fire and Fuels 

Research and Development Strategic Plan: Meeting the Needs of the Present, Anticipating 

the Needs of the Future. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, 

Research and Development. 50 p.

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Wildland Fire and Fuels Research and Development Strategic Plan: Meeting the Needs of the Present, Anticipating the Needs of the Future

Mission Statement

U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Forest Service wildland fire and fuels research and development (R&D) provides the knowledge and tools that managers use 

to reduce negative impacts and enhance beneficial effects of fire and fire management 

on society and the environment. 

Vision for the Future

Science, technology, and policy support management activities to protect life, 

property, infrastructure, and resources from the adverse effects of wildland fire, to 

protect the range of other values at risk, and to enhance the positive role fire plays in 

resource management.

The historic and ongoing role of wildland fire as a disturbance and the range of 

effects of fire and fuels management in various ecosystems are understood by the 

public, land managers, and policymakers. Land management practices and planning 

reflect the long- and short-term roles of fire at regional to global scales.

Through better understanding and awareness of fire processes and socioeconomic 

values, individuals and communities recognize their options regarding fire safety and 

living in fire-affected1 ecosystems.

Fire management and suppression organizations, resource managers, communities, 

and policymakers are using knowledge, decision-support and predictive models, and 

other tools that incorporate state-of-the-art technology and science from fire R&D to 

achieve their goals.

Acknowledgments

We thank the many reviewers, including researchers, stakeholders, and other partners 

within and outside the USDA Forest Service who provided comments on earlier drafts 

of this document. This strategic plan has been greatly improved thanks to their input.

1 Although the terms fire-adapted or fire-dependent ecosystems are often used, they are less inclusive than fireaffected ecosystems. Fire-affected ecosystems include those resilient to fire, although not specifically adapted to or 

dependent on it, as well as those that may be affected by fire but are not resilient to it or are adapted to it and therefore 

sustain damage that may require active restoration. We have chosen to use the term fire-affected ecosystems as 

inclusive of the range of ecosystems in which fire management is a concern.

Preface
ii Wildland Fire and Fuels Research and Development Strategic Plan: Meeting the Needs of the Present, Anticipating the Needs of the Future
Wildland Fire and Fuels Research and Development Strategic Plan: Meeting the Needs of the Present, Anticipating the Needs of the Future iii

Contents

Preface........................................................................................................................... i

Executive Summary ..................................................................................................... v

Introduction.................................................................................................................. 1

Background.................................................................................................................. 3

Wildland Fire and Fuels Research and Development Program Goals....................... 11

Strategic Goal 1.......................................................................................................... 13

Strategic Goal 2.......................................................................................................... 25

Strategic Goal 3.......................................................................................................... 33

Appendix A. Abbreviations and Acronyms................................................................ 41

Appendix B. Participants in the Wildland Fire Research and Development Logic 

Model Process ..................................................................................................... 43

Appendix C. Bibliography ......................................................................................... 47
iv Wildland Fire and Fuels Research and Development Strategic Plan: Meeting the Needs of the Present, Anticipating the Needs of the Future
Wildland Fire and Fuels Research and Development Strategic Plan: Meeting the Needs of the Present, Anticipating the Needs of the Future

Executive Summary

This document presents the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Forest Service 

Wildland Fire and Fuels Research and Development (R&D) Strategic Plan for the 

next 10 years (through 2015). The plan provides a framework to implement a national 

program of research and science application that aligns with and anticipates the 

needs of land managers and other clients and stakeholders. It recognizes the need to 

coordinate research activities with partners in other organizations and responds to fire 

and fuels management and research priorities identified in numerous reports. This 

plan takes an integrated and nationally coordinated approach to focus on the most 

important research needs by identifying priorities in three major strategic goal areas. 

Strategic Goal 1. Advance the biological, physical, social, economic, and 

ecological sciences.

Research under this goal will improve the understanding of fire processes and 

interactions and deliver the basic scientific knowledge and understanding for 

developing the next generation of decision-support and predictive tools for fire and 

fuels management. 

A.	 Core fire science. Improved understanding of combustion processes, fuels, fire 

weather, fire behavior, and transitions.

B.	 Ecological and environmental fire science. Interactions among fire, other 

natural disturbance processes, and the physical and biological components of 

ecosystems and the environment. 

C.	 Social fire science. Social and economic dimensions of fire and fuels 

management.

D.	 Integrated fire and fuels management research. Landscape analysis and 

integrated interdisciplinary research to quantify the interacting effects of 

management strategies on ecology, environment, and society. 

Strategic Goal 2. Develop and deliver knowledge and tools to policymakers, 

wildland fire managers, and communities. 

Activities under this goal will ensure that knowledge generated by the USDA Forest 

Service and its cooperators is translated into a form that is useable by managers and 

the public and that is transferred to and adopted by the user community.

E1.	Synthesis and tool development. Accelerate and coordinate the development 

of science syntheses and decision-support and predictive tools that build on 

Strategic Goal 1 research.
vi Wildland Fire and Fuels Research and Development Strategic Plan: Meeting the Needs of the Present, Anticipating the Needs of the Future

E2.	Science application strategy. Develop and implement a comprehensive strategy 

for moving science into application, supporting and maintaining tools and 

models resulting from wildland fire and fuels R&D, and for evaluating success.

Strategic Goal 3. Provide Federal leadership for collaborative, coordinated, 

responsive, and forward-looking wildland fire-related R&D for all ownerships, 

now and in the future.

A new leadership structure and process for funding allocation in wildland fire 

and fuels R&D will support the development and implementation of a nationally 

coordinated program of USDA Forest Service wildland fire and fuels R&D to address 

the priorities identified in Strategic Goals 1 and 2. USDA Forest Service R&D will 

strengthen collaborations with other agencies and partners to ensure that Federal 

wildland fire and fuels R&D programs support the Nation’s short-term priorities and 

long-term needs to reduce the negative economic, social, and environmental impacts 

of wildland fire while improving the health of our ecosystems, our environment, and 

our communities.

The priorities described above will guide the allocation of effort and resources for 

fire research, tool development, and delivering science-based knowledge and tools to 

managers and policymakers.
Wildland Fire and Fuels Research and Development Strategic Plan: Meeting the Needs of the Present, Anticipating the Needs of the Future 

Introduction

This document presents the Wildland Fire and Fuels Research and Development 

(R&D)2 Strategic Plan for the next 10 years (through 2015). The plan provides a 

framework for implementing a national program of fire-related R&D that aligns with 

and anticipates the needs of land managers and other clients and stakeholders. 

The strategy described here for wildland fire R&D supports U.S. Department 

of Agriculture (USDA) Forest Service national priorities described in the USDA 

Forest Service Strategic Plan for fiscal years 2004–08 (USDA Forest Service 2004b). 

Wildland fire R&D primarily supports USDA Forest Service Strategic Plan’s Goal

1. Reduce the risk from catastrophic wildland fire. Restore the health of the 

Nation’s forests and grasslands to increase resilience to the effects of wildland fire. 

In support of this goal, the Wildland Fire and Fuels R&D Strategic Plan addresses 

specific needs in the four key point areas identified by the fire and fuels management 

communities in the interagency National Fire Plan (NFP), as outlined in “Managing 

the Impact of Wildfires on Communities and the Environment” (USDA and DOI 

2000), “A Collaborative Approach for Reducing Wildland Fire Risks to Communities 

and the Environment: 10-Year Comprehensive Strategy” (USDA and DOI 2001), the 

implementation plan for the Comprehensive Strategy (USDA and DOI 2002), and 

“Protecting People and Natural Resources: A Cohesive Fuels Treatment Strategy” 

(DOI and USDA 2006). These documents identify four key needs for managing 

wildland fire and its impacts: (1) improve prevention and suppression, (2) reduce 

hazardous fuels, (3) restore fire-adapted ecosystems, and (4) promote community 

assistance. We anticipate that integrated approaches to wildland fire management will 

continue to be a high priority for the USDA Forest Service in future strategic plans.

Because fire is a natural process that interacts with other disturbances and land 

management activities and affects essentially all wildland ecosystems and their uses, 

research in other goal areas also often supports wildland fire R&D priorities, and 

wildland fire R&D also contributes to the other strategic plan goals: 

Goal 2. Reduce the impacts from invasive species. Restore the health of the 

Nation’s forests and grasslands to be resilient to the effects of invasive insects, 

pathogens, plants, and pests. 

Goal 3. Provide outdoor recreational opportunities. Provide high-quality outdoor 

recreational opportunities on forests and grasslands, while sustaining natural 

resources, to meet the Nation’s recreational demands. 

2

 For explanation of the acronyms and abbreviations used in this document, please refer to appendix A.
 Wildland Fire and Fuels Research and Development Strategic Plan: Meeting the Needs of the Present, Anticipating the Needs of the Future

Goal 4. Help meet energy resource needs. Contribute to meeting the Nation’s need 

for energy. 

Goal 5. Improve watershed condition. Increase the number of forest and grassland 

watersheds that are in fully functional hydrologic condition. 

Implementation of the Wildland Fire and Fuels R&D Strategic Plan will focus 

research activities to provide the necessary science-based information and tools 

to support Federal, State, and local agencies, communities, and the broader user 

communities in achieving the overall societal and resource outcomes identified in the 

USDA Forest Service and U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) proposed Wildland 

Fire Management Performance Logic Model (WFMPLM) (USDA Forest Service 

2003) and the draft interagency Quadrennial Fire and Fuels Review (QFFR) (USDA 

Forest Service and DOI 2005): 

•	 Reduce the losses to society (lives, property, infrastructure, resources) from 

wildland fire (WFMPLM). Promote fire-adapted communities (QFFR).

•	 Improve and maintain the resilience and sustainability of wildland ecosystems 

(WFMPLM). Ensure fire management’s role in ecosystem sustainability (QFFR).

This strategic plan builds on the WFMPLM, which was used as input in 

stakeholder workshops to develop the Fire Research Logic Model (FRLM) (2004a). 

The FRLM outlines the research needed to support outcomes and goals of the the 

WFMPLM and provided a foundation for this strategic plan.

This strategic plan also responds to recognized national and international needs 

for research and technology to reduce the impacts of natural hazards, as outlined 

in two recent reports published by the Committee on Environment and Natural 

Resources (CENR) of the President’s National Science and Technology Council. 

Both reports—Reducing Disaster Vulnerability through Science and Technology

(CENR 2003) and the more recent strategy document Grand Challenges for Disaster 

Reduction: Framing a Vision for the Future (CENR 2005)—identify fire as one of 

the major hazards that needs to be addressed in reducing the impacts of disasters 

on U.S. and global societies, economies, and natural resources. These reports stress 

the need for better science-based knowledge, tools, and technologies for prediction, 

prevention, warning, mitigation, and recovery. 
Wildland Fire and Fuels Research and Development Strategic Plan: Meeting the Needs of the Present, Anticipating the Needs of the Future 

Background

The combined effects of land use changes, landscape fragmentation, management 

practices, vegetation succession, climate, and spread of invasive species since the beginning of Euro-American settlement have led to widespread changes in fire regimes 

across the United States. Effects have ranged from increased fire frequency, and 

sometimes vegetation conversion, (e.g., in southern California coastal sage) to greatly 

decreased frequency and near fire exclusion (e.g., in dry forests of the interior West). 

In many areas where fire frequency has been greatly reduced and fuels have accumulated, the increase in the size and severity of wildfires has been sometimes dramatic, 

impacting lives, property, and natural resources. There is a growing recognition that 

aggressive fire suppression is only part of the solution and that wildland fire must 

be managed to protect values and resources while recognizing the essential role that 

fire plays in many natural ecosystem processes. The severity of the 2000 fire season 

brought these factors to the fore, and the implementation of the NFP, starting in 

2001, ushered in a new era of fire management. The clear need for new approaches to 

managing fire and fuels, restoring and maintaining ecosystems that are adapted to or 

otherwise affected by wildland fire (fire-affected ecosystems), and working with the 

communities affected by wildland fire has greatly intensified the need for Federal land 

management agencies, tribes, States, and private constituents to apply science-based 

knowledge and decision tools to fire and fuels management. To meet this increased 

demand for new knowledge and products from wildland fire R&D, the USDA Forest 

Service has accelerated development of new tools and production of critical science 

and technology products for fighting fire, managing fuels, using prescribed fire, and 

restoring fire-affected and fire-adapted forests and rangelands. 

In response to demand from agency managers, who are increasingly challenged 

by complex problems during fire and fuels planning and postfire restoration 

processes, wildland fire R&D has expanded programs on managing fire and fuels, 

predicting effects of fire, and understanding social and community processes while 

continuing research to support fire suppression or other appropriate management 

response to wildfires and address the global impacts of wildland fire. 

Recent tools and products developed in response to these challenges include the 

following:

1. Fire growth simulators for assessing wildfire growth potential and fuel treatment 

priorities (FARSITE and FlamMap).

2. Modification of the USDA Forest Service stand growth simulator to incorporate 

effects of fire and fuel treatments (Fire and Fuels Extensions of the Forest 

Vegetation Simulator).
 Wildland Fire and Fuels Research and Development Strategic Plan: Meeting the Needs of the Present, Anticipating the Needs of the Future

3. A new software package for fire behavior modeling that includes crown fire and 

other new models and greatly improved outputs and user interfaces (BehavePlus).

4. A modeling framework to predict cumulative smoke impacts from forest, 

rangeland, and agricultural fires (BlueSkyRAINS), which was piloted across 

the Western United States by the USDA Forest Service, DOI, and U.S. 

Environmental Protection Agency in FY 2005.

5. A multipartner, interdisciplinary effort to produce geospatial data on vegetation 

conditions, fire, fuels, risks, and ecosystem status at the national, regional, and 

local scales (LANDFIRE) that is being deployed operationally by USDA Forest 

Service, DOI, and The Nature Conservancy.

Both Congress (in USDA Forest Service R&D authorizing legislation) and the 

Department of State (in its environmental diplomacy goals) recognize that it is in the 

best interests of the United States to develop and maintain international collaboration 

in a broad range of research areas pertaining to natural resources and the environment. 

Fire is increasingly recognized as a process whose effects on air quality, atmospheric 

chemistry, carbon storage, and other factors can have international and global environmental and policy implications. The USDA Forest Service has a long, fruitful 

history of international collaboration in fire research, which has often led to direct 

benefits to United States and international fire management. USDA Forest Service 

wildland fire R&D must continue to respond to the challenges of increasing our 

understanding and modeling capabilities through research in the United States and in 

collaboration with colleagues around the world.

The purpose of this document is to articulate a USDA Forest Service wildland 

fire and fuels R&D strategy that will improve our ability to plan and implement a 

national program of federally supported fire-related research that is aligned with 

short-term priorities and long-term management and public needs. Activities taken 

under this plan must be integrated with both R&D and management activities of 

other Federal, State, and private entities. The strategic plan addresses current needs 

of managers and policymakers and anticipates future needs and opportunities in a 

world of changing fire regimes, climate, environment, land use, and social needs 

and priorities. It promotes the development of information and tools to support local 

and national decisionmaking and to apply on public and private lands at regional, 

national, and international scales.
Wildland Fire and Fuels Research and Development Strategic Plan: Meeting the Needs of the Present, Anticipating the Needs of the Future 

A Brief History

USDA Forest Service wildland fire R&D has played a vital role in the agency’s fire 

and fuels management program since the early 1900s and continues to do so today. 

USDA Forest Service research has collaborated with the management community to 

develop products that have guided the fire suppression and fire management activities 

of Federal, State, and local agencies and their partners.

•	 The Incident Command System (ICS), developed under the FIRESCOPE 

Research, Development, and Application (RD&A) Program in the 1970s, 

provides the management structure that all Federal agencies and many of their 

partners use for fighting unwanted wildfires. ICS guidelines are widely used in 

wildland fire and other emergency incident response around the world, including 

events as diverse as those of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, response 

to earthquakes and hurricanes, and elimination of Newcastle disease epidemics in 

chicken populations.

•	 The National Fire Danger Rating System (Deeming et al. 1977) is a fundamental 

tool that fire managers still use today to assess seasonal progression of fire 

danger. It has been improved and added to over the years, but the basic concept 

of a consistent national system for monitoring seasonal changes in fire danger has 

not changed.

•	 The Behave system (Andrews 1986) has long been the standard model used in 

the United States for predicting fire behavior on wildfire incidents. This system 

has recently been improved substantially by incorporating new models, improved 

outputs, and more user-friendly interfaces into the BehavePlus fire modeling 

system. The Behave model has also served as the foundation for numerous other 

applications familiar to fire managers, such as the FARSITE landscape fire 

modeling system. 

These products, which represent a direct result of long-term investments in 

wildland fire R&D, have changed the way the USDA Forest Service, DOI, and other 

agencies organized for fighting fires and fought fire and are examples of how the 

wildland fire R&D program has efficiently responded to users’ needs. International 

collaborations have enhanced our understanding of fire processes and their regional 

and global environmental impacts, led to new approaches to fire behavior modeling, 

and informed fire management in the United States and in other countries. Tools 

developed by USDA Forest Service R&D (such as the ICS and fire behavior models) 

are used in the United States and other countries in many applications. Many of 

the products in use today were a direct result of strong agency support for wildland 

fire R&D during the 1970s. Support and staffing for wildland fire R&D declined 
 Wildland Fire and Fuels Research and Development Strategic Plan: Meeting the Needs of the Present, Anticipating the Needs of the Future

significantly in the 1980s. An increased awareness of the societal and resource 

impacts of increasingly large and severe fires starting in the late 1980s, along with 

implementation of the interagency Joint Fire Science Program in 1998 and the 

NFP in 2001, has led to the revitalization of wildland fire R&D within and outside 

the USDA Forest Service. Demand for new knowledge, services, and products to 

support wildland fire management continues to grow rapidly. Realizing the outcomes 

envisioned in this Wildland Fire and Fuels R&D Strategic Plan will require an 

ongoing investment in development and implementation of science-based knowledge 

and tools by the USDA Forest Service and our partners. 

The Current Need

A clear strategy for intra-agency leadership and interagency collaboration at the 

national level is needed to ensure that our wildland fire R&D programs are able 

to keep up with the rapidly expanding demand for science-based decision-support 

and predictive tools and products, and to maintain the appropriate balance between 

meeting national and regional needs. 

Managers and policymakers urgently need better information and tools to do 

their jobs more effectively. Our goal is to develop knowledge and tools responsive 

to current needs and to anticipated management and policy needs for wildland fire 

R&D over the next 10 years. The recently completed interagency QFFR report 

(USDA Forest Service and DOI 2005) identifies key mission strategies for fire and 

fuels management along with core capabilities needed to implement these strategies 

over the next several years. Capability of Federal and State agencies to implement 

two of these proposed strategies will benefit greatly from knowledge and products 

derived from wildland fire R&D. These mission strategies and their associated core 

capabilities include the following:

• Ensuring fire management’s role in ecosystem sustainability.

• Integrating planning.

• Enhancing decisionmaking.

• Ensuring seamless and integrated fuel programs.

• Establishing monitoring.

• Broadening the ability to respond.

• Promoting fire-adapted communities.

• Strengthening community relationships.

• Expanding community education.
Wildland Fire and Fuels Research and Development Strategic Plan: Meeting the Needs of the Present, Anticipating the Needs of the Future 

Key Areas

We have identified four key areas in which managers most need improved 

knowledge and tools from R&D. These key areas support the needs identified in the 

WFMPLM and the QFFR and the broader land management community’s needs 

concerning management of fire-affected ecosystems and communities. The key areas 

include the following:

• Programmatic fire planning.

• Fire decision support for appropriate management response to wildland fire.

• Fuel management and ecosystem restoration3

.

• Rehabilitation and restoration of severely burned landscapes.

A number of very important issues cut across several of these areas, including 

predicting fire behavior; understanding and predicting the environmental and 

ecosystem effects of fire; interactions between fire, weather, and climate; and 

effective use of social science information in fire management planning and program 

implementation. In all cases research can contribute to the ability of fire managers 

and land managers to adapt their approaches as new information, technology, and 

analysis capabilities emerge.

Programmatic Fire Planning

•	 Better R&D support for enhancing programmatic planning tools, including 

improved decision support, recordkeeping, and analysis tools that integrate 

economics, noneconomic values, suppression, and improved systems for fire 

hazard prediction and mapping.

•	 National monitoring systems for burned areas, fire severity, emissions, watershed 

impacts, property loss, and other factors that will support adaptive approaches 

to management as better data become available on the effects of management 

activities.

•	 A comprehensive analysis system for evaluating alternative mixes of wildland fire 

use, fuel management, and suppression—basing the system on economics, social 

impacts, ecological integrity, and environmental quality.

•	 Information and analysis capabilities that go beyond hazard assessment 

to incorporate actual risks of events occurring and risks to society and the 

environment if events do occur. Capabilities needed include fire severity, property 

damage, erosion potential, potential damage and benefits to resources or local 

economies, and health and safety. 

3 Restoration as used in this strategy means restoration to a desired healthy condition of the ecosystem; this may differ 

from the “historic” condition, which, for many sites, will be neither desirable nor sustainable.
 Wildland Fire and Fuels Research and Development Strategic Plan: Meeting the Needs of the Present, Anticipating the Needs of the Future

•	 The development, testing, and implementation of improved landscape fire 

modeling systems (or one system) that can be used to reliably predict sitespecific outcomes of prescribed fire, wildfire, and fuel or other vegetation 

treatments on ecosystem properties and fire behavior. 

•	 An implemented national air quality prediction system that incorporates 

emissions from wildland fires on all lands and fine-scale meteorological, terrain, 

and fuel data to make national, regional, and local predictions of smoke patterns 

for assessing environmental and human health impacts from wildland fires and 

alternative fire and fuel management strategies.

Fire Decision Support for Appropriate Management Response

•	 A real-time fire behavior monitoring and prediction system that accurately 

identifies fire location and intensity and reliably predicts fire growth; extreme 

fire behavior transitions; and potential effects and consequences for resources, 

infrastructure, and safety. 

•	 Information and tools that provide incident command teams with good estimates 

of costs, benefits, and resource (natural and infrastructure) effects of alternative 

fire suppression and fire management strategies.

Fuel Management and Ecosystem Restoration

•	 Information and tools to plan effective and cost-efficient fuel management 

and forest and rangeland health restoration treatments that are integrated into 

comprehensive landscape management, meet societal and economic goals, and 

contribute to community sustainability.

•	 Landscape-level planning that considers the relative effects of community action, 

zoning, building materials, landscape design, and fuel management on damage to 

communities and infrastructure from wildland-urban interface (WUI) fires. 

•	 Information and decision-support and predictive tools for restoring health and 

sustainability in ecosystems impacted by fire exclusion, land use change, invasive 

species, conifer encroachment, insect and disease, and other disturbances that 

can increase the severity of and the extent of ecosystem damage from wildfires.

Rehabilitation and Restoration of Severely Burned Landscapes 

•	 Improved data and predictive models of the effects of fire patterns, fire severity, 

and postfire rehabilitation treatments on vegetation, ecological recovery, site 

productivity, wildlife, erosion, and water quality to support decisionmaking for 

emergency rehabilitation of severely burned areas.
Wildland Fire and Fuels Research and Development Strategic Plan: Meeting the Needs of the Present, Anticipating the Needs of the Future 

Progress in these areas will require enhancing current interactions with the fire 

and resource management community to identify changing needs and priorities. 

Progress will require a better understanding of social and economic systems and 

ecological responses to management. Meeting these needs will require a mix of basic 

research to develop new knowledge, synthesis of information from past research, 

improved models and decision-support and predictive tools, a national strategy for 

moving these tools into application, and rapid communication of new information to 

our stakeholders.
10 Wildland Fire and Fuels Research and Development Strategic Plan: Meeting the Needs of the Present, Anticipating the Needs of the Future
Wildland Fire and Fuels Research and Development Strategic Plan: Meeting the Needs of the Present, Anticipating the Needs of the Future 11

Wildland Fire and Fuels Research and Development 

Program Goals

This Wildland Fire and Fuels Research and Development Strategic Plan has three 

general strategic goals, which were identified in the fall of 2004 while developing 

the Fire R&D Logic Model (USDA Forest Service 2004a). The logic model process 

used regional meetings of stakeholders from the Eastern and Western United States 

to help develop recommended priorities for USDA Forest Service wildland fire and 

fuels research (see appendix B for stakeholder organizations that participated). The 

strategic plan also responds to priorities identified while developing logic models on 

invasive species, air and water research, and research program delivery. Many of the 

specific research and science application priorities articulated on the following pages 

have been identified by researchers and research stakeholders through numerous 

publications and workshops over the past several years. (See appendix C for a partial 

list of publications.) 

Strategic Goal 1. Advance the biological, physical, social, economic, and 

ecological sciences.

Research under this goal will seek to improve the understanding of fire processes 

and interactions and deliver the basic scientific knowledge and understanding for 

developing the next generation of decision-support and predictive tools for fire and 

fuels management. 

A.	 Core fire science. Improved understanding of combustion processes, fuels, fire 

weather, fire behavior, and transitions.

B.	 Ecological and environmental fire science. Interactions among fire, other 

natural disturbance processes, and the physical and biological components of 

ecosystems and the environment. 

C.	 Social fire science. Social and economic dimensions of fire and fuels management.

D.	 Integrated fire and fuels management research. Landscape analysis and 

integrated interdisciplinary research to quantify the interacting effects of 

management strategies on ecology, environment, and society. 

Strategic Goal 2. Develop and deliver knowledge and tools to policymakers, 

wildland fire managers, and communities.

Activities under this goal will ensure that knowledge generated by the USDA Forest 

Service and its cooperators is translated into a useable form for managers and the 

public, and that is transferred to and adopted by the user community. 
12 Wildland Fire and Fuels Research and Development Strategic Plan: Meeting the Needs of the Present, Anticipating the Needs of the Future

E1.	Synthesis and tool development. Accelerate and coordinate the development 

of science syntheses and decision-support and predictive tools that build on 

Strategic Goal 1 research.

E2.	Science application strategy. Develop and implement a comprehensive strategy 

for moving science into application, supporting and maintaining tools and 

models resulting from wildland fire and fuels R&D, and for evaluating success.

Strategic Goal 3. Provide Federal leadership for collaborative, coordinated, 

responsive, and forward-looking wildland fire-related R&D for all ownerships, 

now and in the future.

A new leadership structure and process for funding allocation in wildland fire 

R&D will support the development and implementation of a nationally coordinated 

program of USDA Forest Service wildland fire R&D to address the priorities 

identified in Strategic Goals 1 and 2. USDA Forest Service R&D will strengthen 

collaborations with other agencies and partners to ensure that Federal wildland 

fire-related R&D programs support the Nation’s short-term priorities and longterm needs to reduce the negative economic, social, and environmental impacts of 

wildland fire while improving the health of our ecosystems, our environment, and our 

communities.
Wildland Fire and Fuels Research and Development Strategic Plan: Meeting the Needs of the Present, Anticipating the Needs of the Future 13

Strategic Goal 1

Advance the biological, physical, social, economic, and ecological 

sciences

The knowledge and tools needed for landscape and national planning, 

implementation, and assessment require understanding and models that operate at a 

range of spatial and temporal scales and incorporate the complexity of the natural and 

human environment as it affects fire processes on the landscape. New computing and 

modeling tools, remote sensing and in situ observation capabilities, and databases 

have increased the capability for complex process and pattern analysis and modeling. 

Recognition of the need for multiownership, multidimensional, landscape-scale 

and national-scale planning and assessments has increased the demand for the 

understanding and tools to support more spatially and temporally refined predictions 

and analyses. Activities listed under Strategic Goal 1 will seek to build on a strong 

foundation of more than 75 years of past research on fire behavior, fire effects, fire 

and environment interactions, and socioeconomic aspects of fire management to 

meet these needs. Current knowledge and models are insufficient to predict complex 

fire processes and interactions and the effects of fire and management treatments 

across diverse landscapes and spatial and temporal scales. The basic scientific 

knowledge, principles, and process models developed under this plan will form the 

basis for the next generation of decision-support and predictive tools for fire and fuels 

management. 

Research carried out under this goal will develop the information and knowledge 

needed to support improved fire and fuel management and planning and effective 

use of fire and fuel management treatments by the USDA Forest Service and its 

partners and clients to restore and maintain healthy, resilient, fire-adapted ecosystems. 

This research will produce a strong foundation of peer-reviewed science to support 

management activities and on which other research will build to further advance the 

science. Such information and knowledge are vital in predicting the environmental, 

ecological, and socioeconomic effects of fire and fuel treatments at stand, landscape, 

and broader levels; assessing the effectiveness of varying treatment strategies for 

restoring and maintaining fire-adapted ecosystems; supporting fire suppression 

decisionmaking; and understanding how to work more effectively with communities 

and collaborators.
14 Wildland Fire and Fuels Research and Development Strategic Plan: Meeting the Needs of the Present, Anticipating the Needs of the Future

Research priorities are identified for four broad topic areas that will be managed 

using a portfolio approach. Within each portfolio, we will strive to balance our 

program to address national needs and local managers’ needs for site-specific 

information. This strategic plan identifies four research portfolio areas (A through D), 

as well as a science application portfolio described under Strategic Goal 2. 

A.	 Core fire science. Improved understanding of combustion processes, fuels, fire 

weather, fire behavior, and transitions.

B.	 Ecological and environmental fire science. Interactions among fire, other 

natural disturbance processes, and the physical and biological components of 

ecosystems and the environment. 

C.	 Social fire science. Social and economic dimensions of fire and fuels management.

D.	 Integrated fire and fuels management research. Landscape analysis and 

integrated interdisciplinary research to quantify the interacting effects of 

management strategies on ecology, environment, and society. 

Major Fire Research and Development Needs

Portfolio A. Core Fire Science

Improved understanding of combustion processes, fuels, fire weather, fire behavior, 

and transitions.

Physical fire science is at the core of fire research. It advances the fundamental 

understanding of fire behavior, fire danger, and fire emissions in all fuels and fuel 

complexes. This understanding is critical for (1) developing timely, accurate, and 

complete predictions of fire behavior and effects; (2) improving assessments of 

fire hazards and risks; (3) designing and comparing fuel treatments and outcomes; 

and (4) prioritizing fuel treatment and response options. Current operational fire 

behavior models do not accurately reflect the complexity of combustion processes, 

the temporally and spatially variable physical environment in which they occur, or 

fire and atmosphere interactions. As a result, predictions are sometimes incomplete or 

inaccurate in ways that negatively affect fire planning and response. Improved basic 

understanding of physical and chemical fire processes and interactions is critical 

for developing the next generation of decision-support and predictive tools for fire 

and fuel management. Also critical is the ability to integrate this understanding 

into accurate spatial and temporal predictions of fire processes. This research will 

provide the foundation for incorporating improved understanding of fire behavior, 

combustion, fire weather, and emissions into tools to improve the efficiency and 

effectiveness of fire and fuel management decisions and will lead to enhancements in 

public safety, ecosystem integrity and sustainability, and environmental quality. 
Wildland Fire and Fuels Research and Development Strategic Plan: Meeting the Needs of the Present, Anticipating the Needs of the Future 15

Three national priority program elements for core fire science research are 

described in the following paragraphs. This research will build on recent advances 

in fire behavior, atmosphere and and fire weather theory modeling capabilities, and 

monitoring to raise our understanding of physical processes governing fire hazard, fire 

behavior, combustion, and emissions at multiple scales, and will lead to substantial 

improvements in the capability to make accurate predictions needed for improved 

planning, decisionmaking, and firefighter safety. 

Key Research Needs in Core Fire Science (Portfolio A)

1. Physical fire processes (Element A1). Improve our understanding of the 

fundamental, multiscale, physical processes that govern fire behavior, including 

combustion processes, heat and energy transfer processes, and fire-fuel-atmosphere 

interactions and dynamics in complex fuelbeds and environments. 

•	 Fire transitions. Determine the physical processes responsible for major 

transitions in fire behavior, including initiation and cessation of surface spread, 

fire ignition extinction, transition to and from crown fire, and structure ignition. 

•	 Heat transfer. Improve our ability to model and predict the level of heat transfer 

to and heat absorption by ground fuels, vegetation, the atmosphere, and the soil 

during all phases of combustion under varying fuel conditions. 

•	 Fire emissions. Improve our understanding of the physical and chemical 

processes associated with fire emissions, including formation of primary 

combustion products and pollutants, chemical transformations in the smoke 

plume, and plume characteristics and behavior.

•	 Complex fuels. Characterize complex fuelbeds and determine their impacts on 

fire characteristics, including the impacts of different horizontal and vertical 

vegetation fuel structures, different live and dead fuel compositions, and complex 

fuelbeds composed of vegetation and buildings.

2. Fire characteristics at multiple scales (Element A2). Assess how larger scale 

spatial and temporal processes and factors such as regional climate patterns and 

variability, terrain variability, landscape-level management strategies, and regional 

fuel variability influence fire behavior, fire severity, fire size, and burn patterns across 

landscapes.

3. Fire danger assessment (Element A3). Improve the scientific basis for new 

and improved fire danger assessments, including information on atmospheric 

conditions, fuel moisture interactions, physical and structural variability in fuels, fuel 

flammability and ignition probabilities, and critical atmospheric boundary layer and 

mesoscale processes associated with fire-weather development and evolution.
16 Wildland Fire and Fuels Research and Development Strategic Plan: Meeting the Needs of the Present, Anticipating the Needs of the Future

Portfolio B. Ecological and Environmental Fire Science

Research on interactions among fire, other disturbance processes, and the physical 

and biological components of ecosystems and the environment. 

Improved ability to predict the effects of fire will enable better management 

of wildland ecosystems for public benefit. Changes that have resulted from altered 

fire regimes, past management practices, and climate variability threaten ecosystem 

health and sustainability. We need to better understand the interaction of fire with 

individual ecosystem components, how these interactions lead to an ecosystem 

response, and how drivers and effects vary in time and space. We need to understand 

and be able to predict, assess, and monitor the interactions among fire, soil, water, 

vegetation, insects, disease, fish and wildlife species and habitat, air quality, climate 

variability and change, invasive species, and other disturbances. These activities 

require evaluating the potential for positive outcomes and the risk of negative effects. 

Enhanced understanding will provide a sound foundation for managing wildland 

fire, developing and evaluating management prescriptions, modeling outcomes, and 

assessing the risks and benefits of alternative management strategies. 

Existing research has shown that we can predict and quantify many types of 

individual changes in species or ecosystem components resulting from disturbance 

by fire. Future research needs to integrate this work across ecosystem components 

and processes, expand current knowledge into additional ecosystems and regions, 

and develop more comprehensive information on the effects of interactions between 

fire and other disturbances on key ecosystem processes and components. Improved 

understanding of basic processes and spatial and temporal variability is a prerequisite 

to developing predictive models for site-specific and landscape-scale fire and 

treatment effects. These models can support and improve almost all fire management 

decisions, including planning, incident management, and fuel treatment development 

and application. 

We have identified two national priority research program elements in ecological 

and environmental fire science that are important to wildland fire management. 

Research in these areas will provide a necessary foundation for predicting and 

understanding the effects of variations in fire regimes and natural disturbances, 

invasive species, management strategies, and changing weather and climate on 

ecosystems and the physical environment.

Key Research Needs in Ecological and Environmental Fire Science (Portfolio B)

1. Fire effects on ecosystem components (Element B1). Better understand the 

relationships among varying fire behavior characteristics (e.g., energy release, 

residence time, flame length, and depth of burn) and fire regimes (e.g., fire size 
Wildland Fire and Fuels Research and Development Strategic Plan: Meeting the Needs of the Present, Anticipating the Needs of the Future 17

distribution, severity, and return interval) and fire’s effects on vegetation, soils, 

watersheds, insects and disease, fish and wildlife, and carbon and nutrient cycling. 

•	 Biophysical processes. Describe and model the linkages between fire behavior 

and fire effects on flora, fauna, and soils. Whenever possible, use this basic 

knowledge as a means of understanding and predicting ecosystem responses to 

fire.

•	 Fire-vegetation interactions. Enhance basic knowledge of fire interaction with 

vegetation, including injury and mortality, recovery of vegetation and fuels, 

factors affecting postfire productivity and wildlife habitat, and the role of invasive 

species. 

•	 Watershed function. Evaluate the effects of changing fire regimes on short- and 

long-term watershed processes, including water yield, water quality, erosion, fish 

habitat, and site quality or productivity. 

•	 Insects and disease. Quantify the relationships between insects and disease 

and fire disturbance, including the effects of insect and disease damage on fire 

regimes and effects of fire on insect and disease levels. 

•	 Carbon balance. Predict changes in carbon sequestration, storage, and release in 

relationship to changing climate, management, and fire regimes. 

2. Fire and environment interactions (Element B2). Quantify the role of fire as an 

ecosystem process in a changing environment and the impacts of environmental 

change on fire regimes. 

•	 Weather and climate interactions. Quantify and model interactions among fire 

regime, weather and climate variability (including extreme weather and changes 

in hydrologic regimes), other disturbances, and vegetation dynamics. 

•	 Fire history and fire regimes. Determine the historic and present patterns of 

frequency, severity, and scale of wildland fires; their relationships with changing 

climate and human-induced disturbances; and their effects on vegetation 

structure, succession, and plant and animal species distribution and diversity, 

with an emphasis on ecosystems where such information is lacking.

•	 Effects of introduced species. Evaluate the interaction between introduced 

species, fire, and regeneration and dynamics of native vegetation. Evaluate 

potential effects of invasive species on future fire regimes. 

•	 Emissions and air quality. Develop information necessary to predict and 

model fire effects on air quality, including smoke transport, regional haze, and 

atmospheric chemistry. Evaluate tradeoffs among prescribed fire, wildland fire 

use, and wildfire. 
18 Wildland Fire and Fuels Research and Development Strategic Plan: Meeting the Needs of the Present, Anticipating the Needs of the Future

Portfolio C. Social Fire Science

Conduct research on social and economic dimensions of fire and fire and fuels 

management.

Society is positively and negatively affected by fire through effects on life, 

property, infrastructure, and the natural resources and ecosystems on which we 

depend. Federal, State, and local fire and land management organizations interact 

in a complex manner with communities to develop and implement responses to 

wildland fire, to manage fuel conditions near those communities, and to use fire to 

reduce potential losses and enhance social and ecological systems. These activities 

require balancing the monetary and nonmonetary costs and benefits in assessing 

tradeoffs of alternative actions. Our objectives are to emphasize research that leads 

to a broader understanding of the interactions between fire and fuel management and 

society; enhances understanding of costs and benefits of wildland fire; and provides 

guidelines and tools for improving safety, working with communities and other 

partners, and assessing, implementing, and achieving effective and efficient land 

management goals related to fire and fuel management. Social science research will 

be focused on decisionmaking practices to increase safety during incidents, improve 

collaboration with communities, build trust, and better inform and protect the public. 

We have identified three national priority research program elements related 

to improving interactions with the public, understanding the social and economic 

effects of fire and fuels management, and improving the ability of wildland fire 

organizations to do their work safely, efficiently, and effectively. 

Key Research Needs in Social Fire Science (Portfolio C)

1. Public interactions with fire and fuel management (Element C1). Understand 

how human attitudes, values, and beliefs influence fire and fuel management options 

and how individuals and communities respond to fire risks in the WUI and wildland 

ecosystem.

•	 Public trust. Develop and evaluate tools to assess and enhance public trust in 

land management agencies and the agencies’ ability to carry out fire and fuel 

management consistent with land management objectives. 

•	 Public perceptions. Improve understanding of public perceptions of fire and fuel 

management, including influencing factors and the way they affect management 

options. 

•	 Incentives. Analyze the effectiveness of incentives (such as building codes and 

fuel reduction cost-sharing) on individual and community actions to reduce 

wildland fire risk. 
Wildland Fire and Fuels Research and Development Strategic Plan: Meeting the Needs of the Present, Anticipating the Needs of the Future 19

•	 Cooperation and planning. Develop and evaluate processes to enhance 

communication, cooperation, and collaboration among local, State, and Federal 

fire organizations and communities.

•	 Education. Evaluate the effectiveness of alternative approaches for educating 

internal and external audiences (the public, collaborators, elected and appointed 

officials) on fire and fuel management.

2. Socioeconomic aspects of fire and fuel management (Element C2). Evaluate 

the social and economic impacts and risks of alternative fire and fuel management 

strategies. 

•	 Impacts of wildland fire. Develop a framework for assessing the social and 

economic impacts of wildland fire and fuel management on natural resources and 

infrastructure at national, regional, and community scales. 

•	 Values at risk. Improve estimates of values at risk from fire and develop tools to 

map and model these values to assist with decisionmaking for fire prevention, 

preparedness, suppression, restoration, and postfire rehabilitation, including 

decisionmaking for wildland fire use before, during, and after fire events. 

•	 Social and economic impacts of smoke. Improve understanding of the social and 

economic effects of smoke on firefighter and the public health, assess the benefits 

and costs of mitigation methods, and compare smoke impacts from wildfire 

versus wildland fire use and prescribed fire. 

3. Organizational effectiveness (Element C3). Develop knowledge, approaches, and 

tools to improve the organizational effectiveness of fire management programs.

•	 Optimal fire management programs. Develop models for forecasting and 

optimizing large fire costs and seasonal suppression costs and assessing initial 

attack priorities. Improve understanding of the interrelationships between fire 

management programs, including prevention, presuppression, suppression, and 

fuel management, and how changing allocations among programs affects fire 

management objectives.

•	 Human factors in fire management. Evaluate the role of individual psychology 

and group dynamics and identify effective tools and approaches to improve 

application of science, decisionmaking, and firefighter safety.

•	 Fire management decisionmaking. Evaluate incentives that fire managers face 

that influence safety, fire costs, and resource outcomes across the spectrum 

from wildland fire use to large suppression fires. Provide better tools for meeting 

national policy goals and determining appropriate management response on initial 

attack and at later stages of fire incident management.
20 Wildland Fire and Fuels Research and Development Strategic Plan: Meeting the Needs of the Present, Anticipating the Needs of the Future

Portfolio D. Integrated Fire and Fuels Management Research

Conduct landscape analysis and integrated interdisciplinary research to quantify the 

interacting effects of management strategies on ecology, environment, and society. 

Providing a suite of approaches and techniques from which managers can 

select the most appropriate means for meeting their objectives requires integrated 

understanding and modeling, at landscape, regional, national, and international 

scales, of the following considerations:

•	 Effectiveness of treatments at achieving management goals. 

•	 Effects of these treatments and other natural and human-induced disturbances or 

changes on the biophysical environment. 

•	 Economics of alternative management strategies. 

•	 Social and policy context in which management decisions are made and 

implemented.

Meeting societal goals for sustaining ecosystems where fire has played a historic 

role requires active management and planning based on the best available biological, 

physical, and social science. The knowledge and models developed in Portfolios A, 

B, and C will provide an essential foundation for developing integrated approaches to 

considering the impacts of environmental and human-induced changes on ecosystem 

function, landscape patterns, and other factors. Ensuring that long-term ecosystem 

and productivity goals are realistic and achievable and are being met as intended requires ongoing evaluation of effects of management strategies and other disturbances, 

not just on individual sites, but across landscapes and regions. In addition, managing 

ecosystem and productivity goals requires integrating into management decisionmaking an understanding of the social and economic environment in which management is being carried out. To meet these needs, research must quantify and model 

the interacting effects of spatial and temporal distributions of natural disturbances, 

human-induced landscape changes, and the sociopolitical environment at landscape 

and broader scales. Research must quantify and model the effectiveness of mechanical 

treatments and prescribed fire and wildland fire use for restoring and maintaining 

healthy, resilient, fire-adapted ecosystems and evaluate the potentially changing roles 

of fire and climate over time. We must improve the economics and efficiency of using 

biomass harvested for fuel reduction by developing new uses and better processing 

methods. We also must evaluate the effects of burned area rehabilitation and other 

postfire treatments on various resource components, including causes for variable 

response and effects. Providing a foundation for ecologically sound, effective, and 

efficient management practices requires that we evaluate tradeoffs of alternative treatments on fire behavior and characteristics, fire effects, long-term ecosystem health 

and productivity, and social and economic factors. 
Wildland Fire and Fuels Research and Development Strategic Plan: Meeting the Needs of the Present, Anticipating the Needs of the Future 21

We have identified three national priority research program elements for 

improving basic understanding of interacting effects of treatments and other 

disturbances at landscape and larger scales. This research will provide an essential 

foundation for developing management-oriented models and decision-support 

and predictive tools that integrate socioeconomic and biophysical considerations 

to support integrated planning and implementation for fire and fuel management 

programs and policies. 

Key Research Needs in Integrated Fire and Fuels Management Research (Portfolio D)

1. Effects of landscape management strategies at multiple scales (Element D1). 

Assess the effects of spatial and temporal treatment strategies at multiple scales 

on attributes such as distribution of fire regimes, vegetation dynamics and health, 

vegetation structural and compositional diversity over time, effects of interacting 

disturbances, and socioeconomic effects and tradeoffs in space and time. 

•	 Treatment effects on fire and fuel characteristics. Assess and model the effects 

of various stand and landscape-scale strategies and patterns of fuel treatment 

and their interactions with other human or natural disturbances on wildland fire 

behavior, fire size, burn severity, fuel consumption, and smoke production. 

•	 Community protection. Assess the effectiveness of landscape and localized fuel 

treatments in meeting community wildfire protection objectives.

•	 Information integration. Develop methods to integrate geospatial and temporal 

information on the effects of alternative management strategies on ecosystems 

and on landscape-scale fire regimes, fire hazards, and site conditions with 

information on economic and social impacts and benefits of treatments.

•	 Treatment tradeoffs. Develop information and tools for analyzing the economic, 

social, and resource tradeoffs among fuel and forest health restoration treatments 

and effects of different spatial and temporal scales and patterns of treatments. 

Improve understanding of the relationship among the costs of treatments, the 

effects of those treatments on future fire behavior, future costs of fire suppression, 

and protecting values at risk over time. 

•	 Homeland security implications of fuels management. Assess the role and 

effectiveness of wildland fuels management as a means of enhancing homeland 

security by reducing potential human-caused disasters.

•	 Policy implications and impacts. Develop integrated approaches to evaluating 

the potential policy impacts of alternative fire and fuels management strategies. 

Consider issues such as the effects of fire management, changing fire regimes, or 

changing climate on carbon storage, vegetation structure and distribution, and the 

economics of biomass removal and use at a national or global level.
22 Wildland Fire and Fuels Research and Development Strategic Plan: Meeting the Needs of the Present, Anticipating the Needs of the Future

2. Effects of treatments and other human impacts on ecosystem components 

(Element D2). Determine the effects of human-induced disturbance and landmanagement treatments on key ecosystem components and their interactions, 

including vegetation, wildlife, insects, diseases, watershed characteristics, and air.

•	 Effects of fuel treatments. Evaluate and integrate the individual and cumulative 

effects of single and multiple fuels treatments, including biomass use and 

wildland fire use, on key ecosystem components (vegetation, wildlife, insects, 

diseases, soils, water, watersheds, and air) at stand and landscape scales.

•	 Effects of postfire treatments on ecosystem components. Evaluate the effects of 

burned area rehabilitation and other postfire treatments on soil properties, soil 

biota and site productivity, long-term watershed properties (including water yield 

and water quality, potential for erosion and landslides, terrestrial and aquatic 

wildlife habitat and connectivity), and future fire size and severity. 

•	 Invasive species. Evaluate the effects of site and landscape treatments on invasive 

species management or control and on susceptibility to invasion.

3. Biomass utilization, product development, and forest operations associated with 

fire and fuel management activities (Element D3). Develop new products, markets, 

and harvesting techniques for small-diameter materials. Evaluate the economics of 

use as a component of hazardous fuel reduction treatments. 

•	 Small-diameter product development. Develop new products and processes that 

make use of small-diameter material removed for fuel management, including 

uses for bioenergy.

•	 Harvesting techniques for mechanical fuel treatments. Develop systems to treat 

fuels in proximity to the WUI. 

•	 Economics and markets. Assess the economics of and potential markets for 

biomass use and the role of subsidies and other incentives in developing 

economically feasible alternatives for use of these materials. 

•	 Economic and social impacts. Evaluate the long-term and regional sustainability 

of alternative fuel treatment and biomass use strategies in terms of economic 

feasibility and impacts on the welfare of local communities.
Wildland Fire and Fuels Research and Development Strategic Plan: Meeting the Needs of the Present, Anticipating the Needs of the Future 23

Relationship of Priority Research Areas to Fire Management 

Needs

All the proposed research supports the needs of managers for improved tools or 

information in several of the four key fire management needs areas identified in the 

preceding pages. Table 1 summarizes these relationships.

Table 1. Relationship of research priority areas to fire management needs: summary.

Research portfolio

Fire management need

element

Programmatic	 Decision	 Fuel	 Severe fires—

fire planning	 support for	 management	 rehabilitation

	 appropriate	 and	 and	

	 management	 restoration	 restoration	

	 response	

Core fire science

A1. Physical processes X X X X

A2. Multiple scales X X X X

A3. Fire danger X X X

Ecological fire science 

B1. Ecosystem fire effects X X X X

B2. Fire/environment X X X X

Social fire science

C1. Public interactions X X X

C2. Socioeconomic aspects X X X X

C3. Organizational 

 effectiveness X X

Integrated management 

D1. Landscape strategies X X X X

D2. Treatment effects X X X X

D3. Biomass utilization X X
24 Wildland Fire and Fuels Research and Development Strategic Plan: Meeting the Needs of the Present, Anticipating the Needs of the Future
Wildland Fire and Fuels Research and Development Strategic Plan: Meeting the Needs of the Present, Anticipating the Needs of the Future 25

Strategic Goal 2

Develop and deliver knowledge and tools to policymakers, 

wildland fire managers, and communities

(Portfolio E)

Interaction with the community of users is critical at all stages of the research, 

development, and application cycle, from the identification of information gaps 

and users’ needs to the processes of science delivery and application. We must 

ensure that we are producing information and tools of value to the user community; 

that information is synthesized and translated into models, decision-support and 

predictive tools, or other forms that are useable by managers and the public; and 

that knowledge and tools are transferred to and adopted by the user community. It 

is important to evaluate to what extent the science-based knowledge and tools are 

applied or adopted, where they are in the adoption and diffusion process, whether 

the methods of transferring information were effective, and what the barriers are 

to adoption. Feedback between users and researchers can point to needs for future 

research and tool development. Figure 1 illustrates this complex cycle of RD&A. 

Note the many feedback paths to ensure an “adaptive management” approach to 

RD&A.

Figure 1. The fire research, development, and application cycle.

Fire Research, Development, and Application Cycle

User Needs

Knowledge Exchange

Support and

Maintenance

User Adoption

and Application

Applied

Research

and Tool

Development Fundamental

Research

Knowledge

Models

Science

Synthesis
26 Wildland Fire and Fuels Research and Development Strategic Plan: Meeting the Needs of the Present, Anticipating the Needs of the Future

We will develop improved mechanisms to ensure that models and decisionsupport and predictive tools developed under this strategy are integrated with 

existing products and with those still under development, and that their development 

is fully coordinated with external partners. A critical need in science application is 

development and implementation of mechanisms to accomplish the following:

•	 Determine when tools are ready to move from development into application. 

•	 Partner with management to determine which tools should be adopted for 

national/interagency (corporate) application and support.

•	 Recommend needed improvements and additions to the “toolkit.” 

•	 Provide adequate staff and financial resources to support training courses, 

tutorials, help desks, and other mechanisms for transferring and delivering 

knowledge and tools. 

•	 Partner with management to provide adequate infrastructure and funding for the 

maintenance, evaluation, and improvement of science-based decision-support 

systems and tools that are adopted.

•	 Proactively engage user communities in the development of science.

We have identified two major strategic research program elements that are 

necessary to ensure the application of science to meet the needs of managers and 

policymakers:

E1.	Synthesis and tool development. Accelerate and coordinate the development 

of science syntheses and decision-support and predictive tools that build on 

Strategic Goal 1 research (Element E1).

E2.	Science application strategy. Develop and implement a comprehensive strategy for 

moving science into application, supporting and maintaining tools and models 

resulting from wildland fire and fuels R&D, and for evaluating success (Element E2). 

Strategic Actions

Element E1. Synthesis and Tool Development

Accelerate and coordinate the development of science syntheses and decision-support 

and predictive tools that build on Strategic Goal 1 research. 

Develop a variety of improved science synthesis products, models, and decisionsupport and predictive tools and models that are coordinated to avoid unnecessary 

duplication, enhance functionality and target specific user needs. These products will 

be available to Federal, State, and local managers and to private landowners. We will 

inventory the current products to determine their adequacy, level of use, and range of 

applicability (scale and topical) so that plans for future products can avoid duplication. 
Wildland Fire and Fuels Research and Development Strategic Plan: Meeting the Needs of the Present, Anticipating the Needs of the Future 27

Future work will emphasize the development of decision-support and predictive tools 

that are national in scope, except where regional differences clearly warrant building 

products that are more specific. The intent of this approach is to build fewer tools, but 

ones that are better integrated across disciplines (e.g., incorporate biological, physical, 

and social science) and have broad geographic coverage.

a.	 Decision Support for Appropriate Management Response and Programmatic

Fire Planning

•	 Support implementation of improved and validated landscape modeling systems 

for fire behavior that fully use existing and expected capabilities for incorporating fuel structure and condition, surface winds and weather, fire and atmosphere 

interactions, and fire transitions in wildland and WUI settings to predict fire intensity and spread rate, fire severity, emissions and smoke dispersal, and ecosystem 

and community impacts.

•	 Facilitate application of improved decision-support systems for incident 

preparedness and management to support appropriate management response and 

assist in integrating potential resource effects of alternative incident management 

strategies into land management planning.

•	 Use increased knowledge of fire, weather, and climate interactions with fuels 

and other factors to develop new systems for risk assessment and tracking and 

predicting fire danger and fire severity.

•	 Support adoption of effective and affordable ground-based and remote sensing 

systems and analysis tools for monitoring and mapping fuels, burned areas, fire 

behavior, fire severity, emissions, and fire effects and for quantifying trends and 

effects of fire and fuel management treatments on landscape to national scales. 

b.	 Fuel Management, Postfire Rehabilitation, and Ecosystem Restoration

•	 Develop techniques and models for assessing fire risk, disturbance patterns, and 

effects of fuel treatment strategies at landscape and national scales.

•	 Develop models and tools based on the synthesis of existing science to increase 

the capability of predicting effects of prefire and postfire treatments on soils, 

watersheds, vegetation, wildlife habitat, fisheries, and cultural values.

•	 Create risk assessment systems (including necessary databases) to help determine 

fuel treatment priorities and make wildland fire management decisions, including 

fire behavior, effects on communities and natural values, and tradeoffs between 

suppression and future risks.

•	 Develop and improve models and tools that integrate geospatial and temporal 

information on effects of alternative management strategies on ecosystems and 

on landscape-scale fire regimes, fire hazards, and site conditions with information 

on economic and social impacts of treatments.
28 Wildland Fire and Fuels Research and Development Strategic Plan: Meeting the Needs of the Present, Anticipating the Needs of the Future

Element E2. Science Application Strategy 

Develop and implement a comprehensive national strategy for moving science into 

application, supporting and maintaining tools and models resulting from wildland 

fire and fuels R&D, and for evaluating success. 

a. 	 Implement a corporate, interagency decision process to evaluate and select

models and decision-support and predictive tools for further development and

recommend those tools that should be adopted for operational use

For decision-support and predictive tools (including modeling systems and 

databases) that are developed as outputs of Strategic Goal 1 research, the USDA 

Forest Service will develop an internal review process, coordinated with DOI and 

other relevant agencies, to supplement the current process used by the interagency 

National Wildfire Coordinating Group (NWCG)4. This process will ensure that new 

products are evaluated both at the prototype stage and as additional development is 

pursued. Such evaluations will lead to the development of tools that are more closely 

matched to end users’ needs and minimize the proliferation of multiple products to 

serve the same needs. 

This approval process must address information technology requirements and 

must build on existing processes used by USDA Forest Service Fire and Aviation 

Management, DOI Office of Wildland Fire Coordination, Information Technology 

organizations, and the NWCG. We strongly recommend that this process involve 

collaboration among all deputy areas, other Federal agencies, and State and local 

partners as appropriate. It is critical to ensure that research and land management 

organizations are full participants, because many of the applications and tools being 

developed are incorporated into integrated, multiresource modeling or planning 

systems in support of landscape-scale planning, National Environmental Policy 

Act development, and other activities. Planning for national implementation of 

R&D products should address where the decision-support or predictive tool will be 

housed organizationally and how it is to be funded and maintained once it becomes 

operational. It is also important to ensure that new and updated fire models and fire 

management tools are quickly integrated into training programs. To accomplish 

these goals, we believe that evaluation and decision processes must be coordinated 

among agencies and other partners and between R&D and management at a national 

level. We believe such coordination can be accomplished by modifying some 

existing processes. We recommend articulating more clearly the existing decision 

4

 The National Wildfire Coordinating Group is an operational group established to coordinate programs of the 

participating wildfire management agencies. Members include the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) National 

Park Service, DOI Bureau of Land Management, DOI Bureau of Indian Affairs, U.S. Department of Agriculture, 

Forest Service Fire & Avaiation Management and Research & Development, Intertribal Timber Council, National 

Association of State Foresters, the U.S. Fire Administration, and the National Fire Protection Association.
Wildland Fire and Fuels Research and Development Strategic Plan: Meeting the Needs of the Present, Anticipating the Needs of the Future 29

and analysis processes for moving tools and products into application, modifying 

these processes as necessary to ensure adequate involvement of R&D at the national 

level, and regularly and collaboratively evaluating models and tools that are proposed 

for potential national application to determine when products are ready for national 

adoption and to recommend appropriate processes for maintenance and training.

b. 	 Develop a corporate approach within the USDA Forest Service to ensure effective

application of research results to management problems

The two major components for addressing this problem are as follows: 

1. Define and implement a dedicated infrastructure for science application and 

technology transfer. We recommend that the USDA Forest Service component of 

this infrastructure be housed largely within USDA Forest Service R&D and designed 

explicitly to meet the needs of all three deputy areas and external stakeholders. An essential component of science application occurs at the level of individual researchers 

and research groups. A desirable structure will ensure that the USDA Forest Service 

has the necessary capacity and technical expertise for science delivery, technology 

transfer, and science application at local, regional and national levels to supplement 

existing capacity in individual research stations. This infrastructure should address 

the needs for long-term training on, and maintenance of, predictive models and decision-support tools, preferably through service centers such as the Forest Management 

Service Center and the National Interagency Fire Center Help Desk. USDA Forest 

Service R&D will engage with interdeputy partners to develop an improved nationally 

coordinated science application function. This effort will incorporate Washington 

Office oversight, the Forest Service Wildland Fire Research Development and Application unit in Boise, ID, and regional nodes of expertise that are linked to stations, to 

research and extension organizations in universities and other agencies, to the USDA 

Forest Service Technology and Development Centers (San Dimas, CA, and Missoula, 

MT), and to the wildland fire and land management communities. 

2. Develop a stable funding structure to ensure adequate staffing and longterm commitment. Moving science into application is a function that bridges the 

science and management communities. An effective science application program 

responds to the needs of the user communities for acquiring information and tools in 

a timely, understandable manner. It is a collaborative effort that interfaces between 

the delivery of information and tools from the science community (“push”) and the 

demands for new information and tools from the user communities (“pull”). One 

goal of this strategic plan is to recognize the importance of this concept of science 

application. This “pull” from the user community is as important a component 

of successful science application as the more traditional “push” from the science 
30 Wildland Fire and Fuels Research and Development Strategic Plan: Meeting the Needs of the Present, Anticipating the Needs of the Future

community (the outdated one-way “technology transfer” model of providing 

information to users). Recognizing that successful application of science is a mutual 

responsibility of the science community and the management/user community leads 

to a collaborative model of support for these activities. The science community and 

the user community both stand to benefit from a strong science application program. 

Commitment of agency resource managers and the interagency fire management 

community is necessary to ensure that science delivery and adoption take place in 

a reasonable time, that approved applications and tools are adequately supported, 

and that users and researchers provide each other adequate feedback to influence the 

direction of future work. 

c.	 Foster partnerships for science application and delivery

The previous section addresses a USDA Forest Service strategy for science 

application. We operate, however, in an interagency, collaborative, multistakeholder 

environment—both in our research and in our management activities. Many benefits 

and economies are to be gained by a collaborative approach to science application. 

Wherever possible we recommend joint planning with agency, university, and 

other partners outside the USDA Forest Service for science application. Existing 

networks of Federal and State agencies, universities, tribal governments, and 

nongovernmental organizations and new, nontraditional partnerships can contribute 

greatly to furthering the adoption of science by targeted users. Potential partners 

include organizations like the USDA Cooperative State Research, Education, and 

Extension Service; external partners, such as Tall Timbers Research Station, The 

Nature Conservancy, and other nongovernmental organizations and universities; 

other agencies such as the U.S. Geological Survey and the USDA Natural Resources 

Conservation Service; and the interagency Geographic Area Coordination Centers. 

The goal of this approach is to make sure that a cadre of experienced science 

communicators exists who have the strategic and technical skills to interact 

effectively with the science and management communities in moving science into 

application. 

d.	 Develop improved approaches for effective science delivery and application

Improving the effectiveness of science delivery requires us to identify and evaluate 

existing approaches to science delivery and learning within target audiences. We 

will use knowledge from communication studies, organizational research, decision 

science, social psychology, education, and other relevant sources to improve agency 

capacity to integrate science both at individual and organizational levels. 

•	 We will conduct periodic reviews of wildland fire R&D delivery and application 
Wildland Fire and Fuels Research and Development Strategic Plan: Meeting the Needs of the Present, Anticipating the Needs of the Future 31

efforts. In an effort to improve integration and efficiency in delivering science 

and technology products, review teams should examine the potential roles of 

the USDA Forest Service technology centers and other organizations within 

and outside the USDA Forest Service in developing and delivering fire research 

information. Reviews should include a multidisciplinary team of scientists, users, 

and communications and education professionals.

•	 In conjunction with activities under Portfolio C, we will evaluate the effectiveness 

of various delivery mechanisms (e.g., publications, training sessions, conferences, 

and online systems) for communicating information and achieving successful 

implementation of science-based knowledge and tools so that efforts can focus 

on those approaches most likely to succeed. This evaluation includes developing 

an understanding of different target audiences, the factors that influence their 

use of new knowledge and tools, and their preferred communication styles and 

networks. 

•	 In making plans for implementing tools and models for decision-support, we will 

weigh the advantages of electronic tools compared to hard-copy distribution or 

maintaining applications on agency computer systems. Appropriate marketing 

approaches need to be developed and implemented for all products to ensure use 

by the target audiences. 
32 Wildland Fire and Fuels Research and Development Strategic Plan: Meeting the Needs of the Present, Anticipating the Needs of the Future
Wildland Fire and Fuels Research and Development Strategic Plan: Meeting the Needs of the Present, Anticipating the Needs of the Future 33

Strategic Goal 3

Provide Federal leadership for collaborative, focused, coordinated, 

responsive, and forward-looking wildland fire-related R&D for all 

ownerships, now and in the future

Our overall goal is to have the USDA Forest Service contribute to and foster a 

national program of federally supported wildland fire-related R&D that is aligned 

with the Nation’s short-term priorities and long-term needs. This includes reducing 

the negative economic, social, and environmental impacts of wildland fire while 

improving the health of our ecosystems, environment, and communities. To 

accomplish this will involve addressing a wide range of issues at local, regional, 

national, and international levels. Success will depend on strengthened collaboration 

with R&D partners in other agencies and universities and with stakeholders in the 

management and policy communities, including States and other partners. We must 

foster an efficient and effective interagency approach to planning and conducting 

the needed research and support the development of a program and infrastructure 

adequate to meet users’ demands for fire management R&D knowledge and tools 

applicable to all ownerships. 

Program Planning and Coordination

Ensuring that the wildland fire R&D program does the best job possible of 

identifying, articulating, and meeting national and regional needs requires national 

mechanisms for interagency and intra-agency coordination, planning, and client 

interaction, along with a strategic approach to balancing regional and national needs 

in program and budget development. As one of the largest natural resource research 

programs in the country, USDA Forest Service R&D is prepared to take a leadership 

role in these activities in collaboration with our many partners in Federal agencies, 

universities, and other organizations. 

Other agencies provide critical funding or infrastructure support for wildland fire 

R&D (table 2), and they often have capabilities and perspectives that complement 

those of the USDA Forest Service. Much of the federally funded R&D is carried 

out by university partners, who play key roles in both the success of national 

wildland fire R&D programs and the training of our next generation of scientists and 

managers. Both interagency and USDA Forest Service teams are needed to support 

coordinated interagency and intra-agency program development, budget planning, 

and program oversight of wildland fire R&D. Coordinated strategic planning and 
34 Wildland Fire and Fuels Research and Development Strategic Plan: Meeting the Needs of the Present, Anticipating the Needs of the Future

efforts to align programs across agencies and within the USDA Forest Service with 

priorities at regional to national and international scales will improve the efficiency 

and effectiveness of U.S. wildland fire R&D. The result will be a more efficient and 

effective wildland fire R&D program that brings together the skills and capabilities 

of USDA Forest Service R&D and other agencies and collaborators to develop 

the necessary knowledge and tools to improve the science basis for fire and fuels 

management.

Table 2. Major current and anticipated areas of collaboration or financial support for wildland fire R&D in other Federal 

agencies and the university community. 

Core fire 	 Ecosystem	 Social/	 Integrated	 Science	

science	 effects	 economic	 management	 application	

Cooperative State Research,

Education, and Extension

Service/National

Research Initiative	 X X X

Department of Defense	 X X

Department of Energy	 X X

Environmental Protection

Agency	 X X

National Aeronautics and

Space Administration	 X X X X

Nongovernmental

Organizations

e.g.,The Nature Conservancy	 X X X X

National Institute of

Science and Technology	 X X

National Oceanic and

Atmospheric Administration	 X X X X

National Science Foundation	 X X X X

Universities X X X X X

U.S. Geological Survey	 X X X X
Wildland Fire and Fuels Research and Development Strategic Plan: Meeting the Needs of the Present, Anticipating the Needs of the Future 35

Information and Program-Level Reporting

NFP and Joint Fire Science Program R&D programs work together to prepare annual 

accomplishment reports that provide an overview of program activities and the application of results by management. No similar capability or product exists for firerelated R&D funded out of base appropriations. We will move toward reporting that 

addresses all USDA Forest Service-supported fire and fuels R&D programs. A new 

USDA Forest Service R&D program budget reporting process under development for 

FY 2007 will enable better articulation of program investments in wildland fire R&D. 

The USDA Forest Service R&D is developing performance measures for wildland fire 

R&D. As these measures are incorporated into reporting, they will provide a quantitative basis for synthetic accomplishment reporting of outputs and outcomes from 

wildland fire R&D that is tied to strategic goals and progress at meeting users’ needs.

International Leadership and Collaboration

USDA Forest Service R&D has a long history of collaboration and leadership through 

international fire-related R&D projects; information exchange at international conferences, workshops, exchanges, and study tours; and participation in key international 

policy processes related to wildland fire. International R&D collaborations have addressed topics such as fire behavior modeling, the role of fire in global carbon cycles 

and atmospheric chemistry, and fire effects in ecosystems similar to those in the 

United States. Tools developed by USDA Forest Service R&D (such as the Incident 

Command System and fire behavior models) are used nationally and internationally 

in many applications. The results of these collaborative efforts have enhanced our 

understanding of fire processes, led to new approaches to fire behavior modeling, and 

improved fire management in the United States and other countries. 

Wildland fire as a process crosses national boundaries (e.g., smoke movement 

between Mexico, Canada, the United States, and other countries; effects on global 

atmospheric chemistry and carbon storage; even the need for sharing firefighting 

resources during severe wildfire episodes). Solutions for addressing many issues can 

apply worldwide. Knowledge and understanding gained from other countries can 

improve the quality of wildland fire R&D and fire management in the United States. 

For example, high-quality fire behavior research is under way in Canada, Australia, 

Europe, and Brazil. International collaboration can help strengthen wildland fire 

R&D, inform fire management in the rest of the world, and help build consistent 

approaches to fire monitoring and to evaluating the impact of fire on key global 

processes. Research results can contribute to international policy discussions on the 

role and impacts of fire and fire management in forums such as the North American 
36 Wildland Fire and Fuels Research and Development Strategic Plan: Meeting the Needs of the Present, Anticipating the Needs of the Future

Forestry Commission Fire Management Working Group, the United Nations Forum 

on Forests, the International Union of Forest Research Organizations, and the Global 

Observation of Forest Cover and Land Disturbance program. Methods pioneered 

for the LANDFIRE project were used recently in a global assessment of changes 

in fire regimes by the The Nature Conservancy. As we develop future programs 

it is important to consider the benefits of ongoing investment in international 

collaboration on certain aspects of USDA Forest Service wildland fire and fuels 

R&D programs in the portfolio areas.

Balancing Regional and National Needs

Maintaining an appropriate balance among national, local, regional, and international 

research efforts will help ensure the maximum benefits from wildland fire R&D 

for managers and policymakers at all levels. We anticipate that NFP R&D funding 

will be focused primarily on meeting national needs within the portfolio areas, 

with some emphasis on addressing specific regional needs such as understanding 

fire or treatment effects in specific ecosystems. We also recognize and support the 

importance for the broader wildland fire and fuels R&D programs to address both 

regional needs and the global impacts of fire and fire management on factors such as 

carbon storage, atmospheric chemistry, biodiversity, sustainable management, and 

wood supply.

Strategic Actions 

A. Organize To Do the Job

Several levels of organization and collaboration are needed. (See figure 2.)

•	 Interagency. Coordinate among Federal and State agencies and other partners 

and recommend priorities for interagency collaboration on fire-related R&D. 

•	 USDA Forest Service national coordination and planning. Improve national 

coordination and mid- to long-range program planning of wildland fire R&D 

within the USDA Forest Service. 

•	 Topical (portfolio management). Improve coordination among USDA Forest 

Service research stations and research collaborators within the national R&D 

portfolio areas. 

• Science application. Improve the coordination and implementation of science 

application. 
Wildland Fire and Fuels Research and Development Strategic Plan: Meeting the Needs of the Present, Anticipating the Needs of the Future 37

1. Interagency Coordination

Develop an interagency Fire Research Working Group (FRWG) in 2006 to foster 

improved interagency coordination and communication on wildland fire R&D and to 

develop integrated budget initiatives consistent with agency and interagency strategic 

planning efforts relevant to wildland and WUI fire management. The FRWG would 

provide a forum for the USDA Forest Service and DOI to work with other agencies to 

assess current programs and expenditures on wildland fire-related R&D, expenditures 

on fire and fuel management, costs of community protection and coordination, and 

economic losses due to wildland fire. This information will provide a strong basis 

for coordination within and among agencies during program and budget planning 

and development. Evaluate the potential to formally charter the FRWG under the 

interagency Subcommittee on Disaster Reduction (SDR). The FRWG would support 

information needs of the SDR and the member agencies, including Wildland Fire 

Leadership Council (WFLC)5 agencies. Coordination with other agencies will help 

build interagency initiatives aligned with the priorities in the USDA Forest Service 

R&D strategy and those of Grand Challenges for Disaster Reduction R&D and other 

interagency strategy documents (CENR 2003, 2005). Interagency collaboration 

(between DOI and USDA Forest Service) will also continue in management of the 

Figure 2. Proposed structure and interactions for coordinated program planning.

Subcommittee on Disaster 

Reduction (CENR/SDR)

Wildland Fire Leadership 

Council Agencies (Interagency)

Fire Research Working Group 

(Interagency)

USDA Forest Service 

R&D Executive Team

USDA Forest Service Fire R&D 

Strategic Program Area Team 

Joint Fire Science Program 

(DOI/USDA Forest Service)

Science Portfolio 

Teams A-D

Science Application 

Portfolio Team E

Other USDA Forest Service and 

external inputs (e.g., NWCG)

5

 The Wildland Fire Leadership Council provides leadership and oversight to ensure policy coordination, 

accountability, and effective implementation of the National Fire Plan and the Federal Wildland Fire Management 

Policy. Membership includes the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI), 

USDA Forest Service, DOI Bureau of Land Management, DOI Bureau of Indian Affairs, DOI National Park Service, 

DOI Fish & Wildlife Service, National Governors Association, and Intertribal Timber Council.
38 Wildland Fire and Fuels Research and Development Strategic Plan: Meeting the Needs of the Present, Anticipating the Needs of the Future

JFSP. We will continue to ensure coordination of this program with other agency and 

interagency fire R&D through overlapping memberships with other committees and 

coordination groups. 

2. USDA Forest Service National Coordination and Planning

Formalize a USDA Forest Service Fire R&D Strategic Program Area Team (SPA 

Team). The main role of this team will be program planning and coordination relative 

to the USDA Forest Service NFP and base wildland fire R&D and recommending 

wildland fire R&D allocations to the Deputy Chiefs for Research and Development 

and State and Private Forestry (S&PF). Allocations will focus NFP R&D on the four 

R&D portfolios and the science application portfolio identified in this strategic plan. 

The SPA team will also be expected to coordinate with JFSP, and with DOI fire R&D. 

The SPA Team will focus on maintaining the appropriate balance between meeting 

national and regional needs, ensuring collaborative approaches to meeting key R&D 

needs, and recommending overall allocations and priorities among and within the 

portfolio areas. The SPA Team will report to the USDA Forest Service Research 

Executive Team (FSRET) through the FSRET co-leads for fire R&D. The Wildland 

Fire SPA Team will include representatives from WO R&D, S&PF, and potentially 

other WO program staffs, as well as research station representatives. The SPA Team 

will work closely with USDA Forest Service research stations (both directly and 

through Portfolio Teams) in determining where the best capacity is available to meet 

specific needs. Out-year budget proposals within the USDA Forest Service will 

emphasize ensuring that programs are better aligned to address priorities described 

in Strategic Goals 1 and 2 of this strategic plan and to balance risks with expected 

benefits of investments. 

3. Portfolio Management

We are building on the success of existing ad hoc teams such as the Core Fire 

Science Caucus, the Fire Economics Research Group, and the oversight group for 

the Fire Consortia for Advanced Modeling of Meteorology and Smoke to develop 

national, cross-station teams for each of the fire RD&A portfolio areas (Portfolio 

Teams). These cross-station teams, including station representatives and SPA Team 

liaisons, are assigned to plan and coordinate research in each of the four program 

areas following guidance from the Wildland Fire SPA Team. Each portfolio team 

will report periodically to the SPA Team on progress and recommendations for 

future activities in the research elements within their program areas. These teams 

may consult subject matter experts from collaborating Federal and State agencies, 

universities, and other key cooperators as needed to enhance planning. Benefits will 

include achieving critical mass on key research questions and better coordination 
Wildland Fire and Fuels Research and Development Strategic Plan: Meeting the Needs of the Present, Anticipating the Needs of the Future 39

of R&D activities across stations and agencies. These teams will be chartered in 

consultation with WO and station leadership. The Portfolio Teams will develop annual 

plans and 5-year plans for recommended R&D priorities in their portfolio areas. 

4. Science Application

In addition to the science area Portfolio Teams (Strategic Goal 1), a Portfolio Team 

will be established to coordinate and make recommendations to the SPA Team 

on priorities and improved coordination for science application (Strategic Goal 

2). This team will consult with fire science application and technology transfer 

specialists from other agencies and universities to increase interagency awareness 

and coordination of science application activities. The USDA Forest Service will 

also support analyses of science application activities and of future needs for science 

application in recognition of the critical need to move forward with improving 

delivery of new products from wildland fire and fuels R&D. These reports, which will 

be completed in FY 2006, will provide additional inputs and recommendations to 

the Science Application Portfolio Team. Similar efforts will be undertaken as needed 

in the future. The Science Application Portfolio Team will also coordinate with the 

USDA Forest Service R&D science applications group, which will be working to 

implement recommendations from the Science Application Logic Model.

B. Internal and External Communication

1. Develop Common Messages and Briefing Materials

Within both the USDA Forest Service and the interagency R&D community, it is 

important to develop consistent messages on the accomplishments and capacity of 

wildland fire and fuels R&D and on future program needs and priorities. Fire R&D 

will coordinate USDA Forest Service materials with other SPA Teams as appropriate, 

and will work with other agencies to improve coordination of accomplishment 

reporting and program descriptions.

2. Build Understanding and SupportWithin and Outside the USDA Forest Service

•	 We will develop a coordinated strategy within the agency to ensure that upper 

management (staff directors, associate deputy chiefs, deputy chiefs, regional 

leadership, and the chief) are well informed on these programs and to develop 

support for initiatives to enhance investments in wildland fire and fuels R&D to 

more closely meet the demand.

•	 We will work with collaborators to develop a coordinated interagency 

effort to ensure that our external clients (other Federal agencies, funding 
40 Wildland Fire and Fuels Research and Development Strategic Plan: Meeting the Needs of the Present, Anticipating the Needs of the Future

agencies, cooperator institutions, and States) are well informed on program 

accomplishments, capabilities, and priority needs; to solicit feedback from 

clients; and to help build USDA Forest Service and interagency initiatives in 

wildland fire R&D to better support our research and management partners.

C. Program and Capacity Development

We will work within the agency and with WFLC agencies to maintain and develop the 

capacity to meet the goals of this strategic plan. Budget and program development 

should include (1) maintaining and building the necessary human capital and 

infrastructure to meet the needs, and (2) supporting and strengthening university, 

interagency, and other external collaborations. The science application strategy 

should include recommendations for the level of support required to achieve agency 

and interagency objectives for effectively moving science into applications and 

maintaining essential tools and databases.
Wildland Fire and Fuels Research and Development Strategic Plan: Meeting the Needs of the Present, Anticipating the Needs of the Future 41

CENR Committee on Environment and Natural Resources (a committee of 

the President’s National Science and Technology Council)

DOI U.S. Department of the Interior

FSRET USDA Forest Service Research Executive Team

ICS Incident Command System

JFSP Joint Fire Science Program

NFP National Fire Plan

NWCG National Wildfire Coordinating Group

QFFR Quadrennial Fire and Fuels Review

R&D Research and Development (USDA Forest Service deputy area); also 

refers to research and development in general)

RD&A Research, Development, and Application

S&PF State and Private Forestry (USDA Forest Service)

SDR Subcommittee on Disaster Reduction (subcommittee of CENR)

SPA Team Strategic Program Area Team

USDA U.S. Department of Agriculture

WFLC Wildland Fire Leadership Council (interagency coordination group 

for wildland fire management; the chief of the USDA Forest Service 

is a member)

WFMPLM Wildland Fire Management Performance Logic Model

WUI Wildland-urban interface

Appendix A. Abbreviations and Acronyms
42 Wildland Fire and Fuels Research and Development Strategic Plan: Meeting the Needs of the Present, Anticipating the Needs of the Future
Wildland Fire and Fuels Research and Development Strategic Plan: Meeting the Needs of the Present, Anticipating the Needs of the Future 43

Appendix B. Participants in the Wildland Fire Research 

and Development Logic Model Process

Non-Federal Participants

American Forestry and Paper Association, Washington, DC

American Forests, Washington, DC

Beaudette Consulting Engineers Incorporated, Missoula, MT

Colorado Department of Health, Colorado Air Pollution Control Division, Denver, CO

Colorado State Forest Service, Fort Collins, CO

Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO

• Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics 

• Department of Forest, Rangeland, and Watershed Stewardship

• Department of Natural Resource Recreation and Tourism

Environmental Systems Research Institute, Broomfield, CO

Florida State University, Department of Meteorology, Tallahassee, FL

George Mason University, Center for Earth Observation, Fairfax, VA

Joseph W. Jones Ecological Center, Newton, GA

Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM

Michigan State University, Park, Recreation and Tourism Resources, East Lansing, MI

National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO

National Council Air and Stream Improvement, Naperville, IL

National Fire Protection Association, Quincy, MA

National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD

Northeast Forest Fire Protection Compact, China Village, ME

Ohio University, Department of Environmental and Plant Biology, Athens, OH

Risk Prediction Initiative, Garrett Park, MD

Rochester Institute of Technology, Center for Imaging Science, Rochester, NY

St. Johns Water Management District, Palatka, FL

State Farm Insurance, CO

The Watershed Research and Training Center, Hayfork, CA

University of California, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Riverside, CA

University of Florida, Wildlife, Ecology & Conservation, Gainesville, FL

University of Montana, College of Forestry & Conservation, Missoula, MT

Virginia Tech, Department of Forestry, Blacksburg, VA
44 Wildland Fire and Fuels Research and Development Strategic Plan: Meeting the Needs of the Present, Anticipating the Needs of the Future

Federal Agency Participants

USDA Forest Service 

• Fire and Aviation Management, Washington, DC

• Forest Management, Washington, DC

• Forest Products Laboratory, Madison, WI

• Intermountain Region, Ogden, UT

• Monongahela National Forest, Elkins, WV

• National Forests of Florida, Tallahassee, FL

• North Central Research Station, Evanston, IL

• Pacific Northwest Research Station, Portland, OR

• Pacific Southwest Research Station, Boise, ID

• Pacific Southwest Research Station, Portland, OR

• Pacific Southwest Research Station, Riverside, CA

• Resource Valuation and Use Research, Arlington, VA

• Rocky Mountain Region, Golden, CO

• Rocky Mountain Region, Lakewood, CO

• Rocky Mountain Research Station, Flagstaff, AZ

• Rocky Mountain Research Station, Ft. Collins, CO

• Rocky Mountain Research Station, Missoula, MT

• Southern Region, Tallahassee, FL

• Southern Research Station, Athens, GA

• Tallulah Ranger District, Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forest, Clayton, GA

• Umatilla National Forest, Pendleton, OR

• Vegetation Management and Protection Research, Arlington, VA

U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) Bureau of Indian Affairs, National Interagency 

Fire Center (NIFC), Boise, ID

DOI Bureau of Land Management

• Colorado State Office, CO 

• Fire Science Laboratory, Missoula, MT 

• Joint Fire Science Program, Boise, ID 

• National Science & Technology Center, Denver, CO 

• NIFC, Boise, ID

• Northwest Coordination Center, Portland, OR

• Planning & Resource Group, NIFC, Boise, ID 

• Salt Lake City, UT
Wildland Fire and Fuels Research and Development Strategic Plan: Meeting the Needs of the Present, Anticipating the Needs of the Future 45

DOI Fish and Wildlife Service

• National Wildlife Refuge System, Arlington, VA 

• NIFC, Boise, ID

DOI Geological Survey

• Biological Resources Division, Reston, VA 

• EROS Data Center, Sioux Falls, SD

DOI National Park Service, Fire Ecology Program, Lakewood, CO 

DOI Office of the Assistant Secretary, Land and Minerals Management, Washington, 

DC
46 Wildland Fire and Fuels Research and Development Strategic Plan: Meeting the Needs of the Present, Anticipating the Needs of the Future
Wildland Fire and Fuels Research and Development Strategic Plan: Meeting the Needs of the Present, Anticipating the Needs of the Future 47

Appendix C. Bibliography

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BURN subsystem, part 1. Gen. Tech. Rep. INT-194. Ogden, UT: U.S. Department of 

Agriculture, Forest Service, Intermountain Research Station. 130 p.

Committee on Environment and Natural Resources (CENR). 2003. Reducing 

disaster vulnerability through science and technology. Subcommittee on Disaster 

Reduction, Committee on Environment and Natural Resources, National 

Science and Technology Council, July 2003. http://www.sdr.gov/SDR_Report_

ReducingDisasterVulnerability2003.pdf. (28 January 2006).

CENR. 2005. Grand challenges for disaster reduction. Subcommittee on 

Disaster Reduction, Committee on Environment and Natural Resources, 

National Science and Technology Council, September 2005. http://www.sdr.gov/

SDRGrandChallengesforDisasterReduction.pdf. (28 January 2006).

Deeming, J.E.; Burgan, R.E.; Cohen, J.D. 1977. The national fire-danger rating 

system—1978. Gen. Tech. Rep. INT-39. Ogden, UT: U.S. Department of Agriculture, 

Forest Service, Intermountain Research Station. 63 p.

DOI and USDA. 2006. Protecting People and Natural Resources: A Cohesive Fuels 

Treatment Strategy. http://fireplan.gov/documents/cohesive_fuels_strategy03-03-

06.pdf. (6 June 2006).

U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI). 

2000. Managing the impact of wildfires on communities and the environment: a 

report to the president in response to the wildfires of 2000. http://www.fireplan.gov/

reports/8-20-en.pdf. (28 January 2006).

USDA and DOI. 2001. A collaborative approach for reducing wildland fire risks to 

communities and the environment: 10-year comprehensive strategy, August 2001. 

http://www.fireplan.gov/reports/7-19-en.pdf. (28 January 2006).

USDA and DOI. 2002. A collaborative approach for reducing wildland fire risks to 

communities and the environment: 10-year comprehensive strategy implementation 

plan. http://www.fireplan.gov/reports/11-23-en.pdf. (28 January 2006).
48 Wildland Fire and Fuels Research and Development Strategic Plan: Meeting the Needs of the Present, Anticipating the Needs of the Future

USDA Forest Service. 2003. Wildland Fire Management Logic Model. On file with: 

Fire and Aviation Management, USDA Forest Service, 1400 Independence Avenue, 

SW, Washington, DC 20250. 

USDA Forest Service. 2004a. Fire Research Logic Model. On file with: Research and 

Development, USDA Forest Service, 1400 Independence Avenue, SW, Washington, 

DC 20250.

USDA Forest Service. 2004b. USDA Forest Service strategic plan for fiscal years 

2004–08. FS-810. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service. 

32 p. http://www.fs.fed.us/publications/strategic/fs-sp-fy04-08.pdf. (28 January 2006).

USDA Forest Service. 2005. Water and Air Research Logic Model. On file with: 

Research and Development, USDA Forest Service, 1400 Independence Avenue, SW, 

Washington, DC 20250.

USDA Forest Service and DOI. 2005. Quadrennial fire and fuel review report. On 

file with: Fire and Aviation Management, USDA Forest Service, 1400 Independence 

Avenue, SW, Washington, DC 20250.

Additional Reading

Botti, S.; et al. 1998. Joint fire science plan. http://jfsp.nifc.gov/documents/JointFire.

html. (28 January 2006).

Coloff, S.; et al. 1998. Proceedings, USGS wildland fire workshop, 1997. Reston, 

VA: U.S. Geological Survey. http://www.usgs.gov/themes/firerept.pdf. (28 January 

2006).

Conard, S.; et al. 2000. Implementation plan for the Joint Fire Science Plan. http://

jfsp.nifc.gov/documents/ImplementationPlan.pdf. (28 January 2006).

Joint Fire Science Program (JFSP). 2002. Joint Fire Science Program 2002 business 

summary. http://jfsp.nifc.gov/documents/JointFire2002.pdf (28 January 2006).

JFSP. 2003. Joint Fire Science Program 2003 business summary. http://jfsp.nifc.

documents/2003business_summary.pdf. (28 January 2006).

JFSP. 2004. Joint Fire Science Program 2004 business summary. http://jfsp.nifc.

gov/documents/JFSP_Business_Sum04.pdf. (28 January 2006).
Wildland Fire and Fuels Research and Development Strategic Plan: Meeting the Needs of the Present, Anticipating the Needs of the Future 49

Machlis, G.E.; Kaplan, A.B.; Tuler, S.P.; Bagby, K.A.; McKendry, J.E. 2002. Burning 

questions: a social science research plan for Federal wildland fire management. 

Report to the National Wildfire Coordinating Group. Contribution Number 943. 

Moscow, ID: University of Idaho, College of Natural Resources, Idaho Forest, 

Wildlife and Range Experiment Station.

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Members of the Writing Team

Susan Conard, USDA Forest Service Washington Office (WO), Vegetation 

Management and Protection Research (Fire Ecology), Team Leader 

Mike Hilbruner, WO, Vegetation Management and Protection Research 

(Fire Systems)

Al Riebau, WO, Wildlife, Fish, Water, and Air Research (Air and Smoke)

Linda Langner, WO, Resource Valuation and Use Research (Social Science) 

Frank Burch, WO, Forest Management 

Mark Beighley, WO, Fire and Aviation Management

David Weise, Pacific Southwest Research Station 

David V. Sandberg, Pacific Northwest Research Station (PNW)

Carl Edminster, Rocky Mountain Research Station (RMRS)

Warren Heilman, North Central Research Station (NCRS)

Bruce Jewell, Southern Research Station

James Saveland, RMRS

Melanie Miller, Bureau of Land Management, National Office of Fire and Aviation 

David J. Parsons, RMRS 

Anne Hoover, WO, Resource Valuation and Use Research, Social Science Research

Roger D. Ottmar, PNW

Brian Potter, NCRS 

Linda C. Brett, WO, Policy Analysis 

The team was chartered by the Deputy Chief for Research.

Advisors

Jim Reaves, Staff Director, Vegetation Management and Protection Research

Tom Quigley, Station Director, Pacific Northwest Research Station

Dave Cleaves, Staff Director, Resource Valuation and Use Research

Marcia Patton-Mallory, Station Director, Rocky Mountain Research Station