Using Fire to Increase the Scale, Benefits, and Future Maintenance of Fuels Treatments

The USDA Forest Service is implementing a new planning rule and starting to revise forest plans for many of the 155 National Forests. In forests that historically had frequent fire regimes, the scale of current fuels reduction treatments has often been too limited to affect fire severity and the For...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of forestry Vol. 110; no. 7; pp. 392 - 401
Main Authors: North, Malcolm, Collins, Brandon M, Stephens, Scott
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Washington Society of American Foresters 01.10.2012
Springer Nature B.V
Subjects:
Air pollution
ecological economics
Economics
Emissions
Environmental protection
fire regime
fire severity
Fires
Forest & brush fires
Forestry
Forests
Fuels
fuels (fire ecology)
Maintenance
National forests
planning
Prescribed fire
Reduction
USDA Forest Service
Wildfires
Wildland-urban interface
ISSN:0022-1201, 1938-3746
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:The USDA Forest Service is implementing a new planning rule and starting to revise forest plans for many of the 155 National Forests. In forests that historically had frequent fire regimes, the scale of current fuels reduction treatments has often been too limited to affect fire severity and the Forest Service has predominantly focused on suppression. In addition to continued treatment of the wildland urban interface, increasing the scale of low- and moderate-severity fire would have substantial ecological and economics benefits if implemented soon. We suggest National Forests identify large contiguous areas to concentrate their fuels reduction efforts, and then turn treated firesheds over to prescribed and managed wildfire for future maintenance. A new round of forest planning provides an opportunity to identify and overcome some of the current cultural, regulatory, and institutional barriers to increased fire use that we discuss.
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ISSN:0022-1201
1938-3746
DOI:10.5849/jof.12-021