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Prescribed fire is an important tool for maintaining the resilience of fire-dependent ecosystems. Despite broad recognition of its value, however, prescribed fire application in the western US has not been applied at the necessary levels. Past…
Author(s): Northwest Fire Science Consortium
Year Published:

Natural resource managers of federal lands in the USA are often tasked with various forms of social and economic impact analysis. Federal agencies in the USA also have a mandate to analyze the potential environmental justice consequences of their…
Author(s): Mark D. Adams, Susan Charnley
Year Published:

In this paper, we argue that the statement ‘Whoever owns the fuel owns the fire’ implies a duty on landowners to manage fuel on their land to reduce the likelihood of bushfires, however started, from spreading to neighbouring properties. However,…
Author(s): Michael Eburn, Geoffrey J. Cary
Year Published:

In 1935, Elers Koch argued in a Journal of Forestry article that a minimum fire protection model should be implemented in the backcountry areas of national forests in Idaho, USA.  As a USDA Forest Service Supervisor and Assistant Regional Forester,…
Author(s): Elers Koch
Year Published:

This report examines recent wildfires in the United States, summarizing their frequency, trends, and costs. It documents the increase in large wildfires and shows their concentration in western states. Cost and budget issues linked to wildfires are…
Author(s): Vera Brusentsev, Wayne Vroman
Year Published:

Wildland fire management has reached a crossroads. Current perspectives are not capable of answering interdisciplinary adaptation and mitigation challenges posed by increases in wildfire risk to human populations and the need to reintegrate fire as…
Author(s): Alistair M. S. Smith, Crystal A. Kolden, Travis B. Paveglio, Mark A. Cochrane, David M. J. S. Bowman, Max A. Moritz, Andrew D. Kliskey, Lilian Alessa, Andrew T. Hudak, Chad M. Hoffman, James A. Lutz, Lloyd P. Queen, Scott J. Goetz, Philip E. Higuera, Luigi Boschetti, Michael D. Flannigan, Kara M. Yedinak, Adam C. Watts, Eva K. Strand, Jan W. van Wagtendonk, John Anderson, Brian J. Stocks, John T. Abatzoglou
Year Published:

The concept of resilience has permeated the discourse of many land use and environmental agencies in an attempt to articulate how to develop and implement policies concerned with the social and ecological dimensions of natural disturbances. Several…
Author(s): Cassandra Moseley, R. Patrick Bixler, Christopher Bone, Kirsten Vinyeta
Year Published:

Current U.S. forest fire policy emphasizes short-term outcomes versus long-term goals. This perspective drives managers to focus on the protection of high-valued resources, whether ecosystem-based or developed infrastructure, at the expense of…
Author(s): Scott L. Stephens, Brandon M. Collins, Eric Biber, Peter Z. Fule
Year Published:

Record blazes swept across parts of the US in 2015, burning more than 10 million acres. The four biggest fire seasons since 1960 have all occurred in the last 10 years, leading to fears of a ‘new normal’ for wildfire. Fire fighters and forest…
Author(s): Tania L. Schoennagel, Penelope Morgan, Jennifer Balch, Philip E. Dennison, Brian J. Harvey, Richard L. Hutto, Meg A. Krawchuk, Max A. Moritz, Ray Rasker, Cathy L. Whitlock
Year Published:

There is a widespread view among land managers and others that the protected status of many forestlands in the western United States corresponds with higher fire severity levels due to historical restrictions on logging that contribute to greater…
Author(s): Curtis M. Bradley, Chad T. Hanson, Dominick A. DellaSala
Year Published:

Wildland fire management faces unprecedented challenges in the 21st century: the increasingly apparent effects of climate change, more people and structures in the wildland-urban interface, growing costs associated with wildfire management, and the…
Author(s): Robert L. Olson, David N. Bengston, Leif A. DeVaney, Trevor A.C. Thompson
Year Published:

Large, intense wildland fires have become more frequent across the United States in recent decades. Risks to responders and citizens, property losses, response and recovery costs, and threats to communities and landscapes have increased…
Author(s): National Science and Technology Council
Year Published:

Over the last two decades wildfire activity, damage, and management cost within the US have increased substantially. These increases have been associated with a number of factors including climate change and fuel accumulation due to a century of…
Author(s): David E. Calkin, Matthew P. Thompson, Mark A. Finney
Year Published:

Keeping It Wild 2 is an interagency strategy to monitor trends in selected attributes of wilderness character based on lessons learned from 15 years of developing and implementing wilderness character monitoring across the National Wilderness…
Author(s): Peter Landres, Chris Barns, Steve Boutcher, Tim Devine, Peter Dratch, Adrienne Lindholm, Linda Merigliano, Nancy Roeper, Emily Simpson
Year Published:

This is a position paper on the true costs of wildfire, collectively published by the Association for Fire Ecology, the International Association of Wildland  Fire, and The Nature Conservancy. The goal was to raise awareness of the often unreported…
Author(s): Association for Fire Ecology, International Association of Wildland Fire, The Nature Conservancy
Year Published:

With just over 3 months remaining, it looks like 2015 could be a record-breaking year for wildfires in the United States. So far this year, more than 8.5 million acres have burned and severe fires often happen in October. For the first time, the U.S…
Author(s): Christopher Topik
Year Published:

Globally, wildfire size, severity, and frequency have been increasing, as have related fatalities and taxpayer-funded firefighting costs (1). In most accessible forests, wildfire response prioritizes suppression because fires are easier and cheaper…
Author(s): Malcolm P. North, Scott L. Stephens, Brandon M. Collins, James K. Agee, Gregory H. Aplet, Jerry F. Franklin, Peter Z. Fule
Year Published:

Federal fire management plans are essential implementation guides for the management of wildland fire on federal lands. Recent changes in federal fire policy implementation guidance and fire science information suggest the need for substantial…
Author(s): Marc D. Meyer, Susan L. Roberts, Robin Wills, Matthew L. Brooks, Eric M. Winford
Year Published:

Fire is an essential ecological process in many fire-dependent ecosystems. In large areas of the country, fire exclusion from these ecosystems has led to unhealthy forest, woodland and rangeland conditions. These areas are at risk of intense, severe…
Author(s): U.S. Department of Agriculture, U.S. Department of Interior
Year Published:

Recent policy changes in the USA direct agencies managing federal forests to analyze the potential effects of climate change on forest productivity, water resource protection, wildlife habitat, biodiversity, and other values. This paper describes…
Author(s): V. Alaric Sample, Jessica E. Halofsky, David L. Peterson
Year Published: