More than 100 years of excluding fire, combined with past land-use practices, have altered the landscape. Because of these conditions, today's fires tend to be larger, burn hotter, and spread farther and faster, making them more severe, more dangerous, and more costly in human, economic, and ecological terms. The goal of the fire policy is to restore the natural balance by adopting land management practices that integrate fire into ecosystems as an essential natural process. Fire can be used to reduce the buildup of dead and downed trees and curb insect and disease infestations, while releasing and recycling nutrients essential for the growth and reproduction of many plant species. Land managers must balance wildland fire suppression with the use of fire for resource benefit.
Prescribed fires are preplanned ignitions, with predetermined boundaries.
Land managers must obtain approval of prescribed fire plans from applicable federal or state agencies before conducting planned burns. The effects of fire can retard or accelerate the natural development of plant communities, alter species diversity, change nutrient flows, and interact with other physical, chemical, and biological systems. Thus, for most North American ecosystems, fire sustains functional ecosystems. Other areas will be selected for a variety of land management purposes, including forest and ecosystem health. Besides wildland fire, fuel treatment may be accomplished by mechanical, chemical, biological, and manual means.