Planning on a larger geographic scale can allow for fires that start outside Wilderness to naturally spread into the Wilderness. At the same time, strategies to protect adjacent lands or structures can be implemented without interfering with Wilderness fires. Structures can be protected without total fire suppression. Techniques ranging from using fire-resistant wraps and foam to clearing away nearby ground fuels have proven very effective in saving cabins, bridges, fire towers, and similar structures. It isn t necessary to conduct prescribed burns or suppress natural fires to protect legitimate structures.
Private landowners bear the responsibility for protecting their land.
If a person chooses to build a cabin in the woods, it isn t the public s obligation to protect it. Similarly, it s inappropriate to engage in a prescribed fire plan that manipulates hundreds of acres of Wilderness in order to protect a private inholding. Creating buffer zones or fire breaks within Wilderness is inappropriate. Every acre of Wilderness needs to be treated as such, whether it lies ten miles or ten feet inside the boundary. Actions to control the effects of fire that spreads onto adjacent public or private land should focus on those lands, not the Wilderness.