tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/prescribed-fire-62406/articlesPrescribed fire – The Conversation2023-07-31T04:21:28Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2100662023-07-31T04:21:28Z2023-07-31T04:21:28ZFire in northern Australia’s tropical savanna is a threat to endangered fairy-wrens<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/538943/original/file-20230724-29-6y7d1c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=209%2C383%2C2977%2C1685&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Niki Teunissen/AWC</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Wildfire threatens the survival of endangered <a href="https://ebird.org/species/pucfai2?siteLanguage=en_AU">purple-crowned fairy-wrens</a> living along the rivers and creeks of northern Australia, our new research has found.</p>
<p>For <a href="https://www.australianwildlife.org/15-years-of-research-reveals-secrets-of-rare-purple-crowned-fairywrens/">almost two decades</a>, we studied the fairy-wrens at a <a href="https://www.australianwildlife.org/where-we-work/mornington-marion-downs/">wildlife sanctuary</a> in the far north of Western Australia. </p>
<p>Over this time, one low-intensity fire and one high-intensity fire burnt through our study site. Both occurred late in the wet season, when fires generally burn at lower intensity. But drought and weather conditions meant the second fire unexpectedly burnt at high intensity instead. </p>
<p>We wanted to find out what happened to the birds before, during and after each fire. We found even low-intensity burns reduced population density. As this species is a <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1442-9993.2011.02331.x">biological indicator</a> of ecosystem health, our <a href="https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1365-2664.14463">new research</a>
can help fine-tune fire management practices, to reduce the extent and intensity of fires along waterways. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/540082/original/file-20230731-234595-iw5lzt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A male purple-crowned fairy-wren with food in his beak, among plants on the river bank." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/540082/original/file-20230731-234595-iw5lzt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/540082/original/file-20230731-234595-iw5lzt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540082/original/file-20230731-234595-iw5lzt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540082/original/file-20230731-234595-iw5lzt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540082/original/file-20230731-234595-iw5lzt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540082/original/file-20230731-234595-iw5lzt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540082/original/file-20230731-234595-iw5lzt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Purple-crowned fairy-wrens indicate habitat health.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Niki Teunissen/AWC</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
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<p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/savanna-burning-carbon-pays-for-conservation-in-northern-australia-12185">Savanna burning: carbon pays for conservation in northern Australia</a>
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<h2>Fire in the tropics</h2>
<p>Fire is particularly <a href="https://fireecology.springeropen.com/articles/10.4996/fireecology.0301048">common</a> in tropical monsoonal savanna. The vegetation thrives during the wet season, then dries out over the dry season. This creates plenty of fuel late in the dry season, leading to frequent fires. </p>
<p>Deliberately introducing fire in the early dry season, when fires generally burn at low intensity, can reduce large intense wildfires later in the year. So fire management is often used for <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/ddi.13198">conservation</a> and <a href="https://www.icin.org.au/">carbon farming</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/538944/original/file-20230724-29-yla81f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A creek with plants growing on the bank" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/538944/original/file-20230724-29-yla81f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/538944/original/file-20230724-29-yla81f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538944/original/file-20230724-29-yla81f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538944/original/file-20230724-29-yla81f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538944/original/file-20230724-29-yla81f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538944/original/file-20230724-29-yla81f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538944/original/file-20230724-29-yla81f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Riparian zones provide vital habitat and support a range of species.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Niki Teunissen/AWC</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But approaches to fire management that best protect “riparian” communities are relatively poorly understood. Riparian zones are the strips of vegetation along creeks and rivers. They play an important role in tropical savanna landscapes. They support a highly <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1046/j.1365-2699.2000.00439.x">diverse range of species</a>, provide corridors for animals to move through the landscape, and form a <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0205156">cool refuge</a> from heat and drought. </p>
<p>Unfortunately they are also particularly <a href="https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1365-2664.13794">sensitive to fire</a>, making it ever more urgent to better protect these key places. </p>
<p>Understanding how riparian fire affects the species that depend on waterway vegetation for their entire life cycle is a good place to start. </p>
<h2>Fairy-wrens and fire</h2>
<p>We study a population of 200-300 <a href="http://www.environment.gov.au/cgi-bin/sprat/public/publicspecies.pl?taxon_id=64442">purple-crowned fairy-wrens</a> (<em>Malurus coronatus coronatus</em>) along 15km of waterways. </p>
<p>Each bird in this population has been tagged with a unique small coloured leg band. This enables us to recognise individuals and follow them throughout their life. </p>
<p>We gather detailed information on bird survival, movement and reproduction. This is key to quantifying how – and to what extent – fire impacts populations.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/538969/original/file-20230724-29-2q5eep.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Landscape after fire" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/538969/original/file-20230724-29-2q5eep.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/538969/original/file-20230724-29-2q5eep.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538969/original/file-20230724-29-2q5eep.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538969/original/file-20230724-29-2q5eep.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538969/original/file-20230724-29-2q5eep.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538969/original/file-20230724-29-2q5eep.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538969/original/file-20230724-29-2q5eep.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">High-intensity fire greatly reduced the quality of riparian habitat.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Michael Roast/AWC</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In our study we found both low-intensity and high-intensity fire reduced the number of fairy-wrens in the burnt areas for at least two and a half years. The effect of high-intensity fire was much stronger, reducing the number of fairy-wrens by half.</p>
<p>Next, we investigated what mechanism caused these declines. We showed birds did not move out of burnt habitat, probably because they live in such well-defined territories year-round. </p>
<p>Instead, we found the low-intensity fire reduced breeding success by 80% during and shortly after the fire. </p>
<p>The high-intensity fire caused a decline in wrens through a different mechanism. We found birds in the fire-affected area were no more likely to die during the fire itself than birds in adjacent unburnt areas. Yet, they were 30% more likely to die over the next two to eight months after the fire. </p>
<p>This is probably because the quality of the riparian habitat was greatly reduced by this fire, which may have made it harder for the birds to find food, cover from predators, or find protection from the heat in subsequent months. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/538999/original/file-20230724-19-yf2s2a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A purple-crowned fairy-wren and nest among plants on the river bank." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/538999/original/file-20230724-19-yf2s2a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/538999/original/file-20230724-19-yf2s2a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538999/original/file-20230724-19-yf2s2a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538999/original/file-20230724-19-yf2s2a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538999/original/file-20230724-19-yf2s2a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538999/original/file-20230724-19-yf2s2a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538999/original/file-20230724-19-yf2s2a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Low-intensity fire reduces breeding success of purple-crowned fairy-wrens.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Niki Teunissen/AWC</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Protecting riparian zones from fire</h2>
<p>Wildfires are becoming more <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2590332221001299">frequent and severe</a> as climate change worsens. These changes are <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abb0355">transforming natural systems</a> and threatening the diversity of life on Earth. We saw this in Australia in 2019-20, when the <a href="https://theconversation.com/200-experts-dissected-the-black-summer-bushfires-in-unprecedented-detail-here-are-6-lessons-to-heed-198989">Black Summer fires</a> pushed many species closer to extinction.</p>
<p>More frequent and severe fire is forecast for riparian zones, for various reasons. For example, extended droughts as well as large flood events (which deposit woody debris as fuel for fire), <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10021-007-9048-5">increase the risk</a> of severe riparian fires. Additionally, riparian strips can become a corridor for fire under certain conditions.</p>
<p>The challenge for land managers is to minimise the impact of fire when it eventually enters the riparian zone. We suggest fire management can be used to reduce the extent and intensity of riparian fires. In particular, we recommend introducing low-intensity burns parallel and perpendicular to riparian zones so they have minimal impact yet create breaks along these riparian corridors, to prevent large sections burning at once.</p>
<p>Our study indicates the high sensitivity of riparian zones to fire, even when fire occurs during the wet season and burns at low intensity. Our findings call for more consideration by fire managers of the effects of fire on riparian habitat, and for further research to enhance our understanding of savanna riparian fire biology.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/538945/original/file-20230724-17-2n8a26.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A male purple-crowned fairy-wren, among plants on the river bank." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/538945/original/file-20230724-17-2n8a26.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/538945/original/file-20230724-17-2n8a26.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538945/original/file-20230724-17-2n8a26.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538945/original/file-20230724-17-2n8a26.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538945/original/file-20230724-17-2n8a26.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538945/original/file-20230724-17-2n8a26.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538945/original/file-20230724-17-2n8a26.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Individual birds in this study can be recognised by their coloured leg bands.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Niki Teunissen/AWC</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-worlds-best-fire-management-system-is-in-northern-australia-and-its-led-by-indigenous-land-managers-133071">The world's best fire management system is in northern Australia, and it's led by Indigenous land managers</a>
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</em>
</p>
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<p><em>Our research was conducted in collaboration with scientists and land managers from Charles Darwin University and the Australian Wildlife Conservancy.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/210066/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Niki Teunissen received funding from Monash University and the Australian Research Council, and holds an Adjunct Research Associate position at Monash University.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anne Peters receives funding and support from Australian Research Council, Monash University and Australian Wildlife Conservancy.</span></em></p>A study of purple-crowned fairy-wrens offers lessons for fire management along waterways in tropical savanna ecosystems.Niki Teunissen, Postdoctoral researcher, Wageningen UniversityAnne Peters, Professor, Monash UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1898572023-06-08T21:46:07Z2023-06-08T21:46:07ZThe ‘good fire’: Prescribed burning can prevent catastrophic wildfires in the future<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/531026/original/file-20230608-19-tdh1r3.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=143%2C413%2C5847%2C3574&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Fire, in its proper place, is a renewing force — one that can reduce the probability of catastrophic fire.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Angie Li)</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Roaring flames, burned-out houses and cars, hazy air and orange skies are all around us. Already this year, millions of hectares have been torched by more than <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/9751667/canada-wildfires-outlook/">2,200 wildfires</a> in Canada. </p>
<p>In the midst of another unprecedented fire season, it is easy to see fire as a destructive force to be controlled at all costs. </p>
<p>Through more than <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/weve-been-fighting-forest-fires-wrong-for-100-years-2013-1">100 years of aggressive fire suppression</a>, we have been conditioned to fear and demonize fire. From an ecological point of view, however, fire is a normal and often beneficial process. </p>
<p>Today, small but active groups of ecologists and land managers on the Canadian Prairies are <a href="https://news.usask.ca/articles/colleges/2022/usask-research-protecting-endangered-species-and-habitats.php">using fire to renew and rejuvenate grassland ecosystems</a>, enhance biological diversity and even to prevent catastrophic wildfire. </p>
<h2>Good fires</h2>
<p>The blackened ground following a grass fire may look devastating, but looks can be deceiving. In a <a href="https://doi.org/10.2307/2257990">healthy grassland, much of the plant tissue is below ground</a>, well-protected from the heat of the fire. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Prairie crocus flowers with singed petals" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530952/original/file-20230608-19-cd27ad.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530952/original/file-20230608-19-cd27ad.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530952/original/file-20230608-19-cd27ad.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530952/original/file-20230608-19-cd27ad.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530952/original/file-20230608-19-cd27ad.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530952/original/file-20230608-19-cd27ad.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530952/original/file-20230608-19-cd27ad.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Prairie crocus flowers with petals singed by a prescribed fire the day before.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Eric Lamb)</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Plants quickly resprout from these underground stems, taking advantage of the newly opened space and nutrients from the ash. For some plant species, chemical signals in the smoke and ash can even be a trigger to germinate.</p>
<p>Grazers such as <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.12">cattle and bison will seek out burned areas</a> to take advantage of the high-quality forage that grows back. Plant diversity is often higher post-fire, and burned areas offer important habitat for many wildlife species. </p>
<p>Finally, fire removes litter, dead plant material from past seasons. Most grass fires spread through dry litter; removing this accumulated fuel can form a <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/firebreak">firebreak</a>, protecting the land against future catastrophic wildfire. </p>
<h2>Fire suppression is not always good</h2>
<p>Indigenous Peoples, ecologists and conservationists have long recognized the importance of fire within grassland ecosystems, but <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-15961-y">decades of active suppression have left most of Canada in a fire deficit</a>.</p>
<p>The reasons for fire suppression are complex and include concerns for public safety, protection of infrastructure and a view that it is a “waste” to burn grass that could otherwise be fed to cattle. </p>
<p>We must recognize that the history of fire suppression stems from real concerns. <a href="https://www.producer.com/news/several-hundred-head-of-livestock-killed-by-wildfires/">The consequences of uncontrolled wildfire can be devastating</a>, and ranchers who depend on rangelands — grasslands, shrublands, woodlands, wetlands and deserts that are grazed by domestic livestock or wild animals — to feed their livestock generally face a decline in productivity for one to three years post-fire.</p>
<p>But at the same time, we need to replace the fear of fire with respect for fire and the respectful use of fire as a tool. </p>
<h2>Renewing ecosystems with fire</h2>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/how-indigenous-burning-practices-can-help-curb-the-biodiversity-crisis-165422">Indigenous Peoples have long used cultural burning for a wide variety of purposes, including controlling their landscape and improving the abundance of preferred plant species</a>. From a western science perspective, we call this “prescribed fire,” or the carefully planned use of fire under controlled and safe conditions to achieve a particular ecosystem management goal. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/jUQFUUXckWo?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Indigenous Peoples have long used cultural burning for improving the abundance of local plant species.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The goals of prescribed fire can range from the simple ones like reducing wildfire risk through fuel reduction to complex goals that include the removal of an invasive species. In all cases the goal is a healthier ecosystem. </p>
<p>Prescribed fire is extensively used <a href="https://www.ksre.k-state.edu/news/stories/2021/03/patch-burning-offsets-carbon-emissions.html">in the United States, particularly in tallgrass prairie</a>. In Canada, outside of large government organizations such as Parks Canada, prescribed fire is more rarely used.</p>
<h2>Training and collaboration guide prescribed fires</h2>
<p>The barriers to more extensive use of prescribed fire in Canada include the lack of trained personnel and equipment, insurance and liability concerns and inter-organizational challenges such as differing training standards. </p>
<p>In 2018 and 2019, multiple organizations, including the Meewasin Valley Authority and University of Saskatchewan, came together to assist the Nature Conservancy of Canada to conduct <a href="https://www.natureconservancy.ca/en/blog/archive/burning-for-change.html">four small prescribed fires at their Old Man on His Back Prairie and Heritage Conservation Area in Saskatchewan.</a> </p>
<p>The fires were a part of a research project led by my <a href="https://research-groups.usask.ca/saskatchewan-plant-community-ecology-lab/">University of Saskatchewan research group</a> examining how plants, bison and cattle would respond to small burned patches in mixed-grass prairie.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1133583864549584896"}"></div></p>
<p>Despite the challenging logistics, we found that formalizing how our organizations worked together would help make collaborative fires easier, allowing new groups with less experience to begin using fire. The success of this project led to establishment of <a href="http://www.grasslandfire.ca/">the Canadian Prairies Prescribed Fire Exchange (CPPFE)</a>. </p>
<p>The CPPFE is an organization based on the American “<a href="https://www.conservationgateway.org/CONSERVATIONPRACTICES/FIRELANDSCAPES/HABITATPROTECTIONANDRESTORATION/TRAINING/TRAININGEXCHANGES/Pages/fire-training-exchanges.aspx">training exchange” model</a> where small organizations collaborate to improve training and practice. It aims to be a hub for grassland-prescribed fire knowledge in Western Canada. </p>
<h2>The future of fire</h2>
<p>It can be hard to maintain the perspective of “good fire” when our <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/2223757891835">news is filled with images of devastation</a>. </p>
<p>In the aftermath of a bad wildfire season, prescribed fire practitioners often get pushback when proposing fires. This comes externally from the public and internally from risk-adverse management. </p>
<p>Building a culture where fire is respected rather than feared is essential to maintain resilient landscapes. We must remember that fire, in its proper place, is a renewing force — one that can reduce the probability of catastrophic fire.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/189857/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Eric Lamb receives funding from the National Science and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), Mitacs, and the Nature Conservancy of Canada for research on this topic. He is affiliated with the Canadian Prairies Prescribed Fire Exchange. </span></em></p>Building a culture where fire is respected rather than feared is essential to maintain resilient landscapes.Eric Lamb, Professor, Department of Plant Science, University of SaskatchewanLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1790022022-03-21T12:13:32Z2022-03-21T12:13:32Z6 wildfire terms to understand, from red flag warning to 100% containment<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/451454/original/file-20220310-13-f017p7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C70%2C4267%2C2938&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Forest floors are often laden with fuel for fires.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/burnout-at-b-b-complex-royalty-free-image/134438141">Stockzilla via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>A wildfire fueled by dry, windy conditions forced <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/20/us/arizona-tunnel-fire-wednesday/index.html">hundreds of people to evacuate homes in Arizona</a> in mid-April, following fires that <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/04/16/1093194355/wildfires-new-mexico-ruidoso-mcbride-fire">destroyed more than 200 homes in New Mexico</a> and <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/wildfire-southwest-boulder-forces-1200-evacuations-83693090">threatened</a> <a href="https://www.nbcdfw.com/weather/weather-connection/wildfires-force-evacuation-orders-for-three-north-texas-counties/2919734/">communities</a> <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-a-hurricane-fueled-wildfires-in-the-florida-panhandle-178999">in several other states</a> over the previous weeks. It was another reminder to be prepared for what U.S. forecasters warned <a href="https://www.noaa.gov/news/spring-outlook-drought-to-expand-amid-warmer-conditions">would be a risky spring</a> for wildfires.</p>
<p>I’m a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=Wx4oSuoAAAAJ&hl=en">fire ecologist</a> and director of the <a href="https://southernfireexchange.org/">Southern Fire Exchange</a> for the University of Florida. Here are six terms you’ll often hear when people talk about wildfires that are useful to understand, both for <a href="https://wildfirerisk.org/">preparing</a> for fire season and gauging the risk when fires start.</p>
<h2>Percent contained</h2>
<p>Imagine looking down at a wildfire from an airplane. Firefighters want to build a perimeter around that fire with control lines, or firebreaks – areas cleared of vegetation – that they hope will prevent the fire from spreading. </p>
<p>Getting <a href="https://www.doi.gov/wildlandfire/suppression">100% containment is the goal</a>, but it takes some time to get there, and a wildfire is a moving target.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Firefighters with hand tools to clear a path about four feet wide among the trees." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/451462/original/file-20220310-19-1bacoa0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/451462/original/file-20220310-19-1bacoa0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451462/original/file-20220310-19-1bacoa0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451462/original/file-20220310-19-1bacoa0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451462/original/file-20220310-19-1bacoa0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451462/original/file-20220310-19-1bacoa0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451462/original/file-20220310-19-1bacoa0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Fire crews clear a containment line, removing any potential fuel, to try to keep a fire from spreading. Bulldozers are often used to create firebreaks in grasslands.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/YellowstoneWildfires/2dbf00f01a234f1398f016354c7fc030/photo">Derek Wittenberg/National Forest Service via AP</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Having 100% containment doesn’t mean the fire is out. It just means the fire agency has containment lines around it. There can still be burning, smoldering and active flames. When conditions are hot, dry and windy, embers can blow across the fire lines and cause <a href="https://www.nwcg.gov/publications/pms437/crown-fire/spotting-fire-behavior">spotting</a> – fires started by those blowing embers. </p>
<p>In the end, it’s Mother Nature that typically puts large fires out for good, and it may be weeks or months before they are officially declared out.</p>
<h2>Red flag warning</h2>
<p>A <a href="https://www.weather.gov/media/lmk/pdf/what_is_a_red_flag_warning.pdf">red flag warning</a> means weather conditions are expected that would raise the risk of dangerous wildfires spreading.</p>
<p>You’ll hear the phrase red flag warning <a href="https://www.fire.ca.gov/programs/communications/red-flag-warnings-fire-weather-watches/">used across the country</a>, but the criteria actually vary by geographic location. <a href="https://www.fdacs.gov/Forest-Wildfire/Wildland-Fire/Fire-Weather/Links-and-Information/Red-Flags-for-Fire-Weather-Conditions-in-Florida">For north Florida</a>, for example, a red flag warning is triggered when relative humidity is at or below 28%, winds are 15 miles per hour or above, and the fire has met a threshold in the Forest Service’s risk calculations known as <a href="https://www.fdacs.gov/Forest-Wildfire/Wildland-Fire/Fire-Weather/Links-and-Information/Wildland-Fire-Danger-Index-FDI/Wildland-Fire-Danger-Index-FDI-FAQ/What-is-the-Energy-Release-Component-ERC">energy release component, or ERC</a>. In the Boulder, Colorado, area, the National Weather Service’s <a href="https://www.weather.gov/bou/RFW_Definitions">criteria for a red flag warning</a> include frequent wind gusts of at least 25 mph and 15% relative humidity or less. </p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/9EprnWrMNpw?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The Weather Channel explains how wildfire risk is increasing.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It’s really important that people <a href="https://wildfirerisk.org/">understand and respond to fire weather warnings appropriately</a>. Most wildfires are <a href="https://theconversation.com/humans-ignite-almost-every-wildfire-that-threatens-homes-145997">caused by people</a>. When red flag conditions are forecast, that’s really not the time to be burning leaves in the backyard or building a campfire.</p>
<h2>Fuel</h2>
<p>Fuel refers to all the <a href="https://www.doi.gov/wildlandfire/fuels">vegetative material</a> that’s available to burn. It can be everything from leaves, twigs, grasses and sticks to bushes and shrubs and heavy logs on the ground.</p>
<p>It can be dead fuel or <a href="https://www.nwcg.gov/publications/pms437/fuel-moisture/live-fuel-moisture-content">live fuel</a>. The threat posed by live fuels also varies by region. In the Western U.S., grasses are typically available to burn only once they go dormant and dry out. In the Southeast, however, live fuels like palmetto and grasses will still burn quite readily because of their volatile oils. </p>
<h2>Backfires</h2>
<p>During a wildfire, you’ll hear fire managers and firefighters talking about “burnouts” or “backfires.” Those are fires that are <a href="https://ctif.org/news/prevention-control-using-back-fire-combat-wildfire">intentionally lit</a> and allowed to spread toward the wildfire. </p>
<p>By burning off vegetation ahead of the wildfire, firefighters leave the wildfire with less fuel to burn in hopes of either stopping it or reducing its intensity.</p>
<h2>Prescribed burns</h2>
<p>Prescribed fires are similar to backfires, but they’re used well before a wildfire can start. <a href="https://www.nps.gov/articles/what-is-a-prescribed-fire.htm">Prescribed fires</a> are intentionally lit under conditions considered safe, such as when winds are low and it’s not too dry. Like backfires, they are used to clear away excess fuel. </p>
<p>A prescribed burn has a prescription – a written plan that specifies the ranges of weather conditions that fire managers anticipate will be acceptable for using and then extinguishing the fires, as well as the resources needed to accomplish it successfully and the intended outcomes and objectives of the burn. In some areas, it can take years to write a plan and execute it. </p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/E542gY7uR0s?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The U.S. Forest Service shows how prescribed burns work.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Prescribed burns have <a href="https://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/sierra/landmanagement/?cid=stelprdb5442511">additional benefits</a>. They allow forest managers to reduce fuels in a way that can also promote good wildlife habitats and healthy ecosystems. Prescribed fires apply the positive aspects of fire in the safest way possible.</p>
<h2>Complex fires</h2>
<p>The term “complex” when talking about wildfires is purely about management. When you have a number of fires in a geographic area, instead of having an incident management team at each fire, for simplicity they’ll call it a <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/06/us/gigafire-california-august-complex-trnd/index.html">complex</a> and have one incident management team responsible for all of it. </p>
<p>In the Florida Panhandle fires in March 2022, for example, three fires were burning in a relatively close area, but the same fire teams were involved, so they <a href="https://www.fdacs.gov/News-Events/Press-Releases/2022-Press-Releases/Chipola-Complex-Morning-Update-Monday-March-7">opted to manage it as a complex</a>. Similarly, a group of Texas fires later that month were named the <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/texas-eastland-complex-fire-balloons-4-7-blazes-burning-nearly-55000-a-rcna20827">Eastland Complex</a>.</p>
<p>Are you looking for other <a href="https://www.fs.fed.us/nwacfire/home/terminology.html#F">wildfire terms</a>? The National Wildfire Coordinating Group is the <a href="https://www.nwcg.gov/glossary/a-z">master resource</a>.</p>
<p>[<em>Over 150,000 readers rely on The Conversation’s newsletters to understand the world. <a href="https://memberservices.theconversation.com/newsletters/?source=inline-150ksignup">Sign up today</a></em>.]</p>
<p><em>This article was updated April 20, 2022, with the fire in Arizona.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/179002/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David R. Godwin works for the University of Florida Institute for Food and Agricultural Sciences School of Forest, Fisheries, and Geomatic Sciences. He receives funding from the US Joint Fire Science Program in agreement with the USDA Forest Service Southern Research Station and the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture. He is affiliated with the North Florida Prescribed Fire Council and the Southeast Regional Working Group of the National Cohesive Wildland Fire Management Strategy. </span></em></p>Dry, windy conditions have fueled destructive wildfires in Texas, Florida and other states in 2022. Understanding these terms can help people in fire-risk areas prepare.David Godwin, Director of the Southern Fire Exchange, University of FloridaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1294292020-01-20T16:01:07Z2020-01-20T16:01:07ZNative people did not use fire to shape New England’s landscape<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/310034/original/file-20200114-93792-1vahvzb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=1%2C0%2C613%2C409&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Old-growth forests prevailed in New England for thousands of years.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">David Foster</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>An interpretive sign stands at the edge of the Montague Plains Wildlife Management Area, a 1,500-acre state conservation property in central Massachusetts. It explains the site’s open land vegetation has been shaped by “millennia of fire” – and that the recent exclusion of fire has led to declines in this habitat and the species that call it home. It goes on to explain that fire is being reintroduced to the site through controlled burns “to reinvigorate fire-adapted species.”</p>
<p>The prescribed burning at Montague Plains and dozens of other conservation areas across New England is based on the belief that, for thousands of years, Native Americans <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10549811.2014.973608">cleared forests and used fire</a> to improve habitat for the plants and animals they relied upon. The use of fire as a management tool is just one example of a broader shift in how ecologists and conservationists have come to think about the impacts of ancient humans. Increasingly, researchers believe <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/107178/1491-second-edition-by-charles-c-mann/">Native people controlled ecosystems across much of the globe</a>, from boreal regions to the Amazon, including many areas formerly deemed pristine.</p>
<p>Our new research, published in the journal Nature Sustainability, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-019-0466-0">tests this human-centric view of the past</a> using interdisciplinary, retrospective science. The data we collected suggest, in New England, this assumption is erroneous.</p>
<h2>Sediment tells the story</h2>
<p>In the field of paleo-ecology, researchers take advantage of the fact that, over time, the bottoms of lakes and ponds fill up with mud. Using a hand-driven device, scientists can collect a cylindrical core of the sediment and then use <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-is-radiocarbon-dating-and-how-does-it-work-9690">radiocarbon dating</a> to determine the age of the mud at different depths. Over the last century, scientists have collected sediment cores from hundreds of lakes around the world, enabling them to reconstruct past environments and ecosystems. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/310031/original/file-20200114-151867-p5gnl9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/310031/original/file-20200114-151867-p5gnl9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/310031/original/file-20200114-151867-p5gnl9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/310031/original/file-20200114-151867-p5gnl9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/310031/original/file-20200114-151867-p5gnl9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/310031/original/file-20200114-151867-p5gnl9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/310031/original/file-20200114-151867-p5gnl9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/310031/original/file-20200114-151867-p5gnl9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Paleo-ecologist Bryan Shuman collecting a sediment core from Green Pond, central Massachusetts.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wyatt Oswald</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Our team of paleo-ecologists and archaeologists collected sediment cores from 23 ponds across southern New England. We analyzed ancient pollen grains, fragments of charcoal and clues about past water depth, all preserved in the mud, allowing us to create a record of vegetation, fire and climate over thousands of years. </p>
<p>We then compared this ecological and environmental history with data from more than 1,800 archaeological sites along the coast from Cape Cod to Long Island, including the islands of Martha’s Vineyard, Nantucket and the Elizabeth Islands. These areas historically <a href="https://pqdtopen.proquest.com/doc/304891312.html?FMT=ABS">supported the greatest densities of Native people in New England</a> and today are home to the <a href="http://sandplaingrassland.net/management/management-overview/">highest concentrations of endangered species and rare open land habitats</a> in the region.</p>
<p>Our study contradicts the theory that people had significant ecological impacts in southern New England before European arrival. Instead, it reveals that old forests, shaped by climate change and natural processes, prevailed across the region for thousands of years.</p>
<p>Native populations in southern New England <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1005764107">peaked at two times during the last several millennia</a>: 5,000-3,000 years ago, during what archaeologists call the Late Archaic Period, and 1,500-500 years ago, a period known as the Middle-Late Woodland. During those times when Native populations were relatively high, we found no evidence for forest clearance, elevated use of fire, or widespread agriculture. Interestingly, fire activity was high only 10,000-8,000 years ago, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2016.03.009">a period that was substantially drier than today</a>, with low human populations.</p>
<p>Of course, the indigenous people of New England utilized and relied on a wide variety of natural resources: they hunted, fished, foraged, and cultivated some edible plants. <a href="https://uofupress.lib.utah.edu/ancient-complexities/">Pre-Colonial societies were complex, widespread and large</a>, with populations in the tens of thousands. But the evidence suggests they didn’t use fire to open large swaths of the landscape for agriculture. Rather, over more than 10,000 years, these highly adaptable people <a href="https://pqdtopen.proquest.com/doc/304891312.html?FMT=ABS">shifted activities seasonally across the landscape</a>, taking advantage of a wide range of resources and exerting limited, and most likely very localized, ecological impacts overall. </p>
<h2>From dense forests to more open land</h2>
<p>So, if Native Americans didn’t clear forests and create open lands across southern New England, how and when did the grasslands, shrub lands and open forests in existence today originate?</p>
<p>When we analyzed the mud in our study ponds, we found the obvious signature of forest clearance by 17th-century European colonists. Pollen from forest species declined, while pollen from agricultural and weedy species, like ragweed, increased abruptly. This evidence clearly shows New England’s open land habitats owe their existence to Colonial European deforestation and agriculture, especially sheep and cattle grazing, hay production, and orchard and vegetable cultivation in the 18th and 19th centuries.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/310055/original/file-20200114-151834-meewgo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/310055/original/file-20200114-151834-meewgo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/310055/original/file-20200114-151834-meewgo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=728&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/310055/original/file-20200114-151834-meewgo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=728&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/310055/original/file-20200114-151834-meewgo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=728&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/310055/original/file-20200114-151834-meewgo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=914&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/310055/original/file-20200114-151834-meewgo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=914&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/310055/original/file-20200114-151834-meewgo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=914&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Sheep grazing on Martha’s Vineyard.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">David Foster</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This retrospective research should cause some conservationists to reconsider both their rationale and tools for land management. If the goal is to emulate the conditions that existed prior to the arrival of Europeans, land managers should allow New England forests to mature with minimal human disturbance. If the goal is also to maintain biodiverse open land habitats, like Montague Plains, within the largely forested landscape, managers should apply the Colonial-era agricultural approaches that created them nearly 400 years ago. Those tools would include mowing, grazing and cutting woody vegetation – but not burning.</p>
<p>[ <em>You’re smart and curious about the world. So are The Conversation’s authors and editors.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/weekly-highlights-61?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=weeklysmart">You can get our highlights each weekend</a>. ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/129429/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Wyatt Oswald has received funding from the US National Science Foundation. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>We previously received National Science Foundation support for the research discussed in this article. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>David R. Foster does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Evidence shows Native Americans in New England lived lightly on the land for thousands of years. It wasn’t until Europeans arrived that the landscape experienced major human impacts.Wyatt Oswald, Professor of Environmental Science, Emerson CollegeDavid R. Foster, Director, Harvard Forest, Harvard UniversityElizabeth Chilton, Dean of the Harpur College of Arts and Sciences and Professor of Anthropology, Binghamton University, State University of New YorkLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1259722019-11-01T13:02:55Z2019-11-01T13:02:55ZCalifornia wildfires signal the arrival of a planetary fire age<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/299690/original/file-20191031-187898-1si5e64.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=26%2C0%2C3000%2C1997&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Wind whips embers from a tree burned by a wildfire in Riverside, Calif. Oct. 31, 2019.
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/California-Wildfires/54d0f5f1c1f04013a3525faffa56e2e4/41/0">AP Photo/Ringo H.W. Chiu</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Another autumn, more fires, more refugees and incinerated homes. For California, flames have become the colors of fall. </p>
<p>Free-burning fire is the proximate provocation for the havoc, since its ember storms are engulfing landscapes. But in the hands of humans, combustion is also the deeper cause. Modern societies are burning lithic landscapes - once-living biomass now fossilized into coal, gas and oil - which is aggravating the burning of living landscapes. </p>
<p>The influence doesn’t come only through <a href="https://www.firescience.gov/Digest/FSdigest1.pdf">climate change</a>, although that is <a href="https://theconversation.com/climate-change-and-wildfires-how-do-we-know-if-there-is-a-link-101304">clearly a factor</a>. The transition to a fossil fuel civilization also affects how people in industrial societies live on the land and what kind of fire practices they adopt. </p>
<p>Even without climate change, a serious fire problem would exist. U.S. land agencies reformed policies to <a href="https://theconversation.com/recreating-forests-of-the-past-isnt-enough-to-fix-our-wildfire-problems-59364">reinstate good fire</a> 40 to 50 years ago, but outside a few locales, it has not been achievable at scale.</p>
<p>What were lithic landscapes have been exhumed and no longer only underlie living ones. In effect, once released, the lithic overlies the living and the two different kinds of burning interact in ways that sometimes compete and sometimes collude. Like the power lines that have sparked so many wildfires, the two fires are crossing, with lethal consequences. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/roLRvN4W2XI?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">As of Sept. 9, 24 wildfires were burning in California, none of them contained.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Fire as framework</h2>
<p>As a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=4&v=LPC7UQyQQhQ">historian of fire</a>, I know that no single factor drives it. Flames synthesize their surroundings. Fire is a driverless car that barrels down the road integrating whatever is around it. </p>
<p>Sometimes it confronts a sharp curve called climate change. Sometimes it’s a tricky intersection where townscape and countryside meet. Sometimes it’s road hazards left from past accidents, like <a href="https://www.canr.msu.edu/news/logging_slash">logging slash</a>, invasive grasses or postburn environments.</p>
<p>Climate change acts as a performance enhancer, and understandably, it claims most of the attention because it’s global and its reach extends beyond flames to oceans, mass extinctions and other knock-on effects. But climate change is not enough by itself to account for the plague of megafires. Climate integrates many factors, and so does fire. Their interplay makes attribution tricky.</p>
<p>Instead, consider fire in all its manifestations as <a href="http://aeon.co/magazine/science/how-our-pact-with-fire-made-us-what-we-are/">the informing narrative</a>. The critical inflection in modern times occurred when humans began to burn fossilized rather than living biomass. That set into motion a “<a href="https://uwapress.uw.edu/book/9780295746180/fire/">pyric transition</a>” that resembles the demographic transition which accompanies industrialization as human populations first expand, then recede. Something similar happens with the population of fires, as new ignition sources and fuels become available while old ones persist. </p>
<p>In the U.S., the transition sparked a <a href="https://uwapress.uw.edu/book/9780295975924/fire-in-america/">wave of monster fires</a> that rode the rails of settlement – fires an order of magnitude larger and more lethal than those of recent decades. Land clearing and logging slash fed serial conflagrations, which blew up in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the waning decades of the <a href="https://www.eh-resources.org/little-ice-age/">Little Ice Age</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/299692/original/file-20191031-187912-1t09ct4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/299692/original/file-20191031-187912-1t09ct4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/299692/original/file-20191031-187912-1t09ct4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=490&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/299692/original/file-20191031-187912-1t09ct4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=490&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/299692/original/file-20191031-187912-1t09ct4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=490&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/299692/original/file-20191031-187912-1t09ct4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=616&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/299692/original/file-20191031-187912-1t09ct4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=616&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/299692/original/file-20191031-187912-1t09ct4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=616&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Great Fire of 1910, which killed 78 firefighters in Idaho (shown) and Montana, led to a half-century of forest management focused on fire suppression.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Fire_of_1910#/media/File:St_Joe_Idaho_Fire_1910.jpg">Library of Congress/Wikipedia</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It was a period of flame-catalyzed havoc that inspired state-sponsored conservation and a determination to eliminate free-burning flame. Led by foresters, the belief spread that fire on landscapes could be caged, as it was in furnaces and dynamos. </p>
<p>Eventually, as technological substitution (think of replacing candles with lightbulbs) and active suppression reduced the presence of open flame, the population of fires fell to the point where fire could no longer do the ecological work required. Meanwhile, society reorganized itself around fossil fuels, adapting to the combustion of lithic landscapes and ignoring the fire latent in living ones. </p>
<p>Now the sources overload the sinks: Too much fossil biomass is burned to be absorbed within ancient ecological bounds. Fuels in the living landscape pile up and rearrange themselves. The climate is unhinged. When flame returns, as it must, it comes as wildfire.</p>
<h2>Welcome to the Pyrocene</h2>
<p>Widen the aperture a bit, and we can envision Earth entering a fire age comparable to the ice ages of the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/Pleistocene-Epoch">Pleistocene</a>, complete with the pyric equivalent of ice sheets, <a href="https://www.lakeshoresup.com/2015/04/15/great-basin-pluvial-lakes-gifts-of-the-ice-age/">pluvial lakes</a>, periglacial <a href="https://www.nps.gov/articles/outwashplainsandeskers.htm">outwash plains</a>, mass extinctions, and sea level changes. It’s an epoch in which fire is both prime mover and principal expression. </p>
<p>Even climate history has become a subset of fire history. Humanity’s firepower <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-irony-of-the-anthropocene-people-dominate-a-planet-beyond-our-control-64948">underwrites the Anthropocene</a>, which is the outcome not just of human meddling but of a particular kind of meddling through humanity’s species monopoly over fire. </p>
<p>The interaction of these two realms of fire has not been much studied. It’s been a stretch to fully include human fire practices within traditional ecology. But industrial fire, unlike landscape fires, is solely a product of human finagling, and so has stood outside the bounds of ecological science. It’s as though the intellectual sink for understanding can no more hold the new realm of burning than nature can its emissions. </p>
<p>Yet in humanity – the keystone species for fire on Earth – those two arenas of earthly burning, like smoke from separate fires drawn into a single convective column, are merging. Their give and take is reshaping the planet. </p>
<p>[ <em>Like what you’ve read? Want more?</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=likethis">Sign up for The Conversation’s daily newsletter</a>. ] </p>
<p>In the developed world, industrial combustion arranges agriculture, built environments, peri-urban settings and reserves for wildlands – all the stuff available for landscape fire. Societies even fight landscape fire with the counterforce of industrial fire in the form of pumps, engines, aircraft and vehicles to haul crews. The interaction of the two realms of fire determines not only what gets burned, but also what needs to be burned and isn’t. It changes the road fire drives down. </p>
<p>Add up all the effects, direct and indirect – the areas burning, the areas needing to be burned, the off-site impacts with <a href="https://www.firescience.gov/projects/98-S-01/project/Soil_and_Water.pdf">damaged watersheds</a> and <a href="https://www.firescience.gov/projects/98-S-01/project/Air.pdf">airsheds</a>, the <a href="https://theconversation.com/heres-how-forests-rebounded-from-yellowstones-epic-1988-fires-and-why-that-could-be-harder-in-the-future-101495">unraveling of biotas</a>, the pervasive power of climate change, rising sea levels, a mass extinction, the disruption of human life and habitats – and you have a pyrogeography that looks eerily like an ice age for fire. You have a Pyrocene. The contours of such an epoch are already becoming visible through the smoke.</p>
<p>If you doubt it, just ask California.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/125972/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stephen Pyne has received funding from the U.S. Forest Service, Department of the Interior, Joint Fire Science Program, National Science Foundation, and National Humanities Center. This particular project has not received direct funding. Its ideas have come indirectly by working on other projects, some funded.
I'm registered as a political independent. I belong to the Nature Conservancy, Grand Canyon Conservancy, Association for Fire Ecology, International Association for Wildland Fire, and American Society for Environmental History. </span></em></p>The Earth may be entering an era in which natural and human-generated fire together are reshaping the planet.Stephen Pyne, Emeritus Professor, School of Life Sciences, Arizona State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1008062019-04-25T10:44:07Z2019-04-25T10:44:07ZPlanned burns can reduce wildfire risks, but expanding use of ‘good fire’ isn’t easy<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/245408/original/file-20181113-194485-tjr22.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A U.S. Forest Service employee using a drop torch during a planned burn in Arizona's Coconino National Forest.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://flic.kr/p/6XzbhU">USFS/Ian Horvath</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>As spring settles in across the United States, western states are already preparing for summer and wildfire season. And although it may seem counter-intuitive, some of the most urgent conversations are about getting more fire onto the landscape.</p>
<p>Winter and spring, before conditions become too hot and dry, are common times for conducting planned and controlled burns designed to reduce wildfire hazard. Fire managers intentionally ignite fires within a predetermined area to burn brush, smaller trees and other plant matter. </p>
<p>Prescribed burns can decrease the potential for some of the large, severe fires that have <a href="https://theconversation.com/wildfires-are-inevitable-increasing-home-losses-fatalities-and-costs-are-not-101295">affected western states</a> in recent years. As scholars of <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=a6koi4EAAAAJ&hl=en">U.S. forest policy</a>, <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=ofIGXmcAAAAJ&hl=en">collaborative environmental management</a> and <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=2EUZAecAAAAJ&hl=en">social-ecological systems</a>, we see them as a management tool that deserves much wider attention.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/E542gY7uR0s?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Fire managers conduct prescribed burns to improve forest conditions and reduce the threat of future wildfires.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Forests need ‘good fire’</h2>
<p>Forests across much of North America need fire to maintain healthy structures and watershed conditions and support biodiversity. For centuries, Native Americans <a href="https://doi.org/10.1890/120329">deliberately set fires</a> to facilitate hunting, protect communities and foster plants needed for food and fiber. </p>
<p>But starting around the turn of the 20th century, European Americans began trying to suppress most fires and stopped prescribed burning. The exception was the Southeast, where forest managers and private landowners have consistently used prescribed burns to <a href="https://www.srs.fs.usda.gov/pubs/su/su_srs054.pdf">clear underbrush and improve wildlife habitat</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://foresthistory.org/research-explore/us-forest-service-history/policy-and-law/fire-u-s-forest-service/u-s-forest-service-fire-suppression/">Suppressing wildfires</a> allows dead and living plant matter to accumulate. This harms forests by reducing nutrient recycling and overall plant diversity. It also creates <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.1584">more uniform landscapes with higher fuel loads</a>, making forests prone to larger and more severe fires. </p>
<p>Today many forested landscapes in western states have a “<a href="https://wildfiretoday.com/2012/02/15/our-fire-deficit/">fire debt</a>.” Humans have prevented normal levels of fire from occurring, and the bill has come due. Increasingly severe weather conditions and longer fire seasons <a href="https://theconversation.com/climate-change-is-driving-wildfires-and-not-just-in-california-107240">due to climate change</a> are making fire management problems more pressing today than they were just a few decades ago. And the problem <a href="https://www.outsideonline.com/2289216/20-years-wildfires-will-be-six-times-larger">will only get worse</a>. </p>
<p>Fire science researchers have made a clear case for more burning, particularly in lower elevations and drier forests where fuels have built up. Studies show that reintroducing fire to the landscape, sometimes after thinning (removing some trees), often reduces fire risks <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.foreco.2016.05.021">more effectively than thinning alone</a>. It also can be the most cost-effective way to <a href="https://doi.org/10.5849/jof.12-021">maintain desired conditions over time</a>.</p>
<p>This winter in Colorado, for example, the Arapaho-Roosevelt National Forest <a href="https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/5676/">conducted a prescribed burn</a> while snow still covered much of the ground. This was part of a broader strategy to increase prescribed fire use and create areas of burned ground that will make future wildland fires less extreme and more feasible to manage.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270845/original/file-20190424-121245-1k8ks5i.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270845/original/file-20190424-121245-1k8ks5i.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270845/original/file-20190424-121245-1k8ks5i.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270845/original/file-20190424-121245-1k8ks5i.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270845/original/file-20190424-121245-1k8ks5i.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270845/original/file-20190424-121245-1k8ks5i.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270845/original/file-20190424-121245-1k8ks5i.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270845/original/file-20190424-121245-1k8ks5i.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A prescribed burn in the Arapahoe and Roosevelt National Forests, February 2019.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/photos/COARF/2018-01-19-1135-Bighorn-Sheep-Prescribed-Burn/picts/2019_03_05-09.47.43.541-CST.jpeg">USFS</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>State and local action heats up</h2>
<p>From Oregon’s municipal watersheds to the Ponderosa pine forests of the Southwest, community-based partners and state and local agencies have been working with the federal government to remove accumulated fuel and <a href="https://www.fs.fed.us/sites/default/files/accelerating-restoration-update-2015-508-compliant.pdf">reintroduce fire</a> on interconnected public and private forest lands. </p>
<p>California’s legislature has approved using money raised through the <a href="http://resources.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/California-Forest-Carbon-Plan-Final-Draft-for-Public-Release-May-2018.pdf">California carbon market</a> to fund prescribed fire efforts. New Mexico is using the <a href="http://riograndewaterfund.org/">Rio Grande Water Fund</a> – a public/private initiative that supports forest restoration to protect water supplies – to pay for <a href="https://www.abqjournal.com/1258092/state-should-emulate-forest-protection-fund.html">thinning and prescribed burning</a>, and is analyzing ways to <a href="https://www.nmlegis.gov/Sessions/19%20Regular/memorials/house/HM042.pdf">expand use of prescribed fire</a> for <a href="https://www.nature.org/en-us/explore/newsroom/new-mexico-legislation-protects-water-and-quality-of-life/">forest management</a>.</p>
<p>Oregon is in its first spring burning season with a newly revised <a href="https://www.oregon.gov/odf/fire/pages/burn.aspx">smoke management plan</a> designed to provide more flexibility for prescribed burning. In Washington, the legislature passed a bill in 2016 creating a <a href="http://www.putfiretowork.org/2928">Forest Resiliency Burning Pilot Project</a>, which just published a <a href="https://www.dnr.wa.gov/publications/rp_2018_forestry_resiliency_burning_pilot_program_report.pdf">report</a> identifying ways to expand or continue use of prescribed fire. </p>
<p>At the community level, <a href="http://www.prescribedfire.net/">prescribed fire councils</a> are becoming common across the country, and a <a href="https://fireadaptednetwork.org/">network</a> of <a href="https://www.fs.fed.us/managing-land/fire/fac">fire-adapted communities</a> is growing. Nongovernmental organizations are building burn teams to <a href="https://facnm.org/our-projects/all-hands-all-lands-burn-team">address fire backlogs on public and private lands</a>, and <a href="https://www.conservationgateway.org/ConservationPractices/FireLandscapes/HabitatProtectionandRestoration/Training/TrainingExchanges/Pages/fire-training-exchanges.aspx">training people to conduct planned burns</a>. This work is all in an effort to <a href="https://fireadaptednetwork.org/stop-focusing-on-ignitions-and-start-investing-in-a-prescribed-fire-workforce/">build a bigger and more diverse prescribed fire workforce</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270486/original/file-20190423-175548-xdp713.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270486/original/file-20190423-175548-xdp713.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270486/original/file-20190423-175548-xdp713.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270486/original/file-20190423-175548-xdp713.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270486/original/file-20190423-175548-xdp713.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270486/original/file-20190423-175548-xdp713.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270486/original/file-20190423-175548-xdp713.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270486/original/file-20190423-175548-xdp713.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Briefing before a prescribed fire training exercise for women in northern California.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">USFS/Sarah McCaffrey</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Barriers to conducting prescribed fire</h2>
<p>In our research on <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/f9090512">forest restoration efforts</a>, we have found that some national policies are supporting larger-scale restoration planning and project work, such as tree thinning. But even where federal land managers and community partners are getting thinning accomplished and agree that burning is a priority, it has been hard to <a href="https://ewp.uoregon.edu/sites/ewp.uoregon.edu/files/WP_81.pdf">get more “good fire” on the ground</a>.</p>
<p>To be sure, prescribed fire has limitations and risks. It will not stop wildfires under the most extreme conditions and is not appropriate in all locations. And on <a href="https://doi.org/10.1890/120329">rare occasions</a>, planned burns can escape controls, <a href="https://www.denverpost.com/2013/01/04/lower-north-fork-fire-panel-releases-final-report/">threatening lives and property</a>. But there is broad agreement that they are an important tool for <a href="https://theconversation.com/better-forest-management-wont-end-wildfires-but-it-can-reduce-the-risks-heres-how-107245">supporting forest restoration and fuel mitigation</a>.</p>
<p>The conventional wisdom is that air quality regulations, other environmental policies and <a href="https://www.fs.usda.gov/treesearch/pubs/41832">public resistance</a> are the main barriers to prescribed fire. But when we interviewed some 60 experts, including land managers, air regulators, state agency partners and representatives from non-government organizations, we found that other factors were <a href="https://ewp.uoregon.edu/sites/ewp.uoregon.edu/files/WP_86.pdf">more significant obstacles</a>. </p>
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<p>As one land manager told us, “The law doesn’t necessarily impede prescribed burning so much as some of the more practical realities on the ground. You don’t have enough money, you don’t have enough people, or there’s too much fire danger” to pull off the burning.</p>
<p>In particular, fire managers said they needed adequate funding, strong government leadership and more people with expertise to conduct these operations. A major challenge is that qualified personnel are increasingly in demand for longer and more severe fire seasons, making them unavailable to help with planned burns when opportunities arise. Going forward, it will be particularly important to provide support for locations where partners and land managers have built agreement about the need for prescribed fire. </p>
<p>Humans have inextricably altered U.S. forests over the last century through fire exclusion, land use change, and now climate change. We cannot undo what has been done or suppress all fires - they are part of the landscape. The question now is where to invest in restoring forest conditions and promoting more resilient landscapes, while reducing risks to communities, ecosystems, wildlife, water and other precious resources. As part of a broader community of scientists and practitioners working on forest and fire management, we see prescribed fire as a valuable tool in that effort.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/100806/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Courtney Schultz received funding from the US Forest Service and Joint Fire Science Program to conduct research on forest restoration and prescribed fire. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Cassandra Moseley receives funding from the U.S. Forest Service and the U.S. Department of Interior Joint Fire Science Program. She is a former member of the USDA Forest Research Advisory Council. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Heidi Huber-Stearns receives funding from the U.S. Forest Service, and the U.S. Department of Interior Joint Fire Science Program. </span></em></p>Decades of wildfire suppression have allowed flammable fuels to pile up in US forests. Scientists and managers say careful use of planned fires can reduce risks of large, out-of-control burns.Courtney Schultz, Associate Professor of Forest and Natural Resource Policy, Colorado State UniversityCassandra Moseley, Sr. Associate Vice President for Research and Research Professor, University of OregonHeidi Huber-Stearns, Assistant Research Professor and Director, Institute for a Sustainable Environment, University of OregonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.