Prescribed Fire Management
WHAT IS PRESCRIBED FIRE?
Prescribed Fire, also known as a planned fire, refers to the planned application of fire by a team of fire experts under specified weather conditions that help restore health to fire-adapted environments. By safely reducing excessive amounts of brush, shrubs, and trees, encouraging the new growth of native vegetation, and maintaining the many plant and animal species whose habitats depend on periodic fire, prescribed burning helps reduce the catastrophic damage of wildfire on our lands and surrounding communities. Prescribed fire is one of the most effective tools we have in preventing the outbreak and spread of wildfires. But because prescribed fire is fire, fire management experts are extremely careful in planning and executing a prescribed fire.
DFPC's Role in Prescribed Fire
- DFPC is the lead state agency by statute
- Technical assistance in project design, planning
- Assist state and other agencies with implementation of Rx fire
- DFPC resources and staff assist state and other agencies with the implementation of prescribed fire
Prescribed Fires are Good Fires.
As one of the most important natural agents of change, fire plays a vital role in maintaining certain ecosystems. Prescribed fire reintroduces the beneficial effects of fire into an ecosystem, producing the kinds of vegetation and landscapes we want, and reducing the hazard of catastrophic wildfire caused by excessive fuel buildup.
DID YOU KNOW FIRE CAN BE GOOD FOR PEOPLE AND THE LAND?
After many years of fire exclusion, an ecosystem that needs periodic fire becomes unhealthy.
Trees are stressed by overcrowding;
fire-dependent species disappear;
and flammable fuels build up and become hazardous.
The right fire at the right place at the right time:
Reduces hazardous fuels,
protecting human communities from extreme fires;
Minimizes the spread of pest insects and disease;
Removes unwanted species that threaten species native to an ecosystem;
Provides forage for game;
Improves habitat for threatened and endangered species;
Recycles nutrients back to the soil;
and Promotes the growth of trees, wildflowers, and other plants.
Classes Coming Soon.