In the early 1990s Big Bend experienced several of the largest fires ever known for the area. Six decades of fire suppression created excessively high fuel levels which made it much more dangerous and expensive to put out new fires. All these factors caused the National Park Service to review and rewrite Big Bend's Fire Management Plan. The park now manages fire as a critically important natural process that is allowed to resume its original role in crafting and influencing the plant and wildlife communities of the national park. The task is to manage the natural process of fire in ways that avoid negative impacts on resources and do not threaten human life and property.
Any fire started by accident or by natural causes such as lightning is designated a wildland fire.
Big Bend averages ten unplanned fires during the prime fire season, March through July. Each wildland fire is intensively monitored by park staff members who decide on a daily basis whether the fire should be put out. A prescribed fire is any fire intentionally ignited by management to meet specific objectives such as reduction of flammable materials around developed areas. Each of these fires has a written prescription, a detailed plan on the type of weather, staffing, and other conditions which must be met before the fire can be set. If conditions change and the fire is no longer within prescription, it will be immediately extinguished.