Building Forest and Community Resilience with Prescribed Fire in South-Central Washington
Reading time: 11 minutes |
Management goals: Use prescribed fire to reduce wildfire risk and improve forest resilience |
Audience: Private landowners, forest land managers, general public |
Project contact: Emery Cowan |
Project area: South-central Washington, Klickitat County and surrounding areas |
Funding: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service; Washington Department of Natural Resources |
Prescribed burn associations (PBAs) are a well-established model for increasing community accessibility to prescribed fire. Landscape changes from long periods of fire suppression (putting out all fires) and the exclusion of fire-dependent cultural practices (e.g., those of Indigenous peoples and ranchers) led communities to self-organize and bring beneficial fire back to local landscapes as early as the 1950s. The first official PBA was established in Nebraska in 1995. PBAs expanded west to California in 2018, and the Mt. Adams PBA in Washington was established in 2022. Today there are over 150 PBAs across the country focused on reducing barriers to prescribed burning by providing training opportunities and pooling resources.
In south-central Washington, the need for prescribed fire is evident. Forests in this region evolved with fire, although how often and how severely they burned depended on the forest type and location. Fire exclusion has resulted in denser forests and a buildup of fuel (flammable plant material) on the forest floor. As flammable material on the forest floor increases, so does the likelihood of wildfire. Climate change is also increasing wildfire frequency and severity. Higher temperatures, less summer precipitation, and earlier snowmelt can dry out and stress vegetation, thereby increasing susceptibility to wildfire and other disturbances. For more on the climate vulnerability of this region, check out the southwest Washington and Columbia River Gorge Forest Service climate change vulnerability assessments.
A Mt. Adams PBA volunteer using a drip torch to put fire on the ground in Klickitat County, Washington.
Prescribed fire and mechanical fuel treatments such as forest thinning (the selective removal of trees) are examples of forest management practices used to remove or rearrange vegetation that could fuel a wildfire. The term “prescribed” refers to the specific weather, environmental, and operational parameters under which experts decide that objectives can be met by burning a given area. In south-central Washington, prescribed burns are usually implemented in the spring and fall. Together, thinning and prescribed fire can decrease wildfire intensity and severity and increase climate resilience. Safe and effective times to burn in the spring and fall are relatively short, and these windows are shifting and shrinking because of longer periods of hot, dry conditions caused by climate change.
East of the Cascade Range, using prescribed fire in the right places at the right times is vital for keeping forests healthy and communities safe. By reducing accumulated fuels, prescribed fire can slow wildfire spread and protect nearby homes. Prescribed fire typically creates smaller, more manageable bursts of smoke and carbon, which give fire managers better control over when and how those emissions occur. Prescribed fire can also alter subsequent wildfire smoke emissions to have fewer harmful particulates.
Prescribed fire improves overall forest health and resilience to drought, insects, and disease by reducing competition for resources. Planned, low- to moderate-intensity burns can also help promote native plant growth and enhance wildlife habitat.
South-central Washington
South-central Washington, specifically the region south of Mt. Adams, east of the Cascade Crest and north of the Columbia River, is characterized by dry forests and grasslands. Low-elevation forests in this region, where fuel reduction treatments are most frequently used, are commonly referred to as “dry mixed conifer” and generally include ponderosa pine, Douglas-fir, and grand fir trees. Oak savannas and woodlands, where Oregon white oak is the primary canopy species, also occur in south-central Washington. The forests of this region historically experienced frequent, mixed-severity fires started by lightning and Indigenous peoples.
Smoke from the 2024 Williams Mine Fire at the base of Mt. Adams.
Forested land in south-central Washington is managed by a wide range of organizations and individuals, including the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service; Washington Department of Natural Resources (DNR); private industrial timber companies; the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation; nonprofit organizations; and private citizens. Parts of the region also fall within the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area. In Klickitat County, where the Mt. Adams PBA operates, many rural communities are situated in the wildland urban interface (WUI) and face high wildfire risk. Recent large wildfires, including the 2024 Williams Mine Fire (13,000 acres) and 2025 Burdoin Fire (11,000 acres), threatened several of these communities.
The Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation have used fire as part of their cultural practices in south-central Washington since time immemorial. Larger state and federal agencies, including Washington DNR and the Forest Service, have used prescribed fire in a limited capacity in the area for decades. Yet, challenges surrounding training, equipment, and regulations have made it difficult for the region's small, private forestland owners to do the same.
The Mt. Adams Prescribed Burn Association
Prescribed fire on a private landowner’s property in Glenwood, Washington.
The Mt. Adams PBA is a community coalition of neighbors helping neighbors to use prescribed fire on their land. The PBA was founded in 2022 by three nonprofit organizations: Mt. Adams Resource Stewards (MARS), Columbia Land Trust, and Sustainable Northwest. The mission of the PBA is “to collaboratively promote the responsible use of fire as a natural resource management tool in south-central Washington and the Columbia River Gorge.” The PBA is composed of landowners (including nonprofit organizations, such as Ekone Ranch), community members, and natural resource professionals, whose input and goals guide the PBA.
Staff from MARS provide dedicated technical support and coordination to the Mt. Adams PBA. MARS staff are part of a robust fire and fuels program that has spent years implementing prescribed fire and community wildfire risk-reduction projects on the landscape south of Mt. Adams. MARS staff organize PBA meetings and training, help landowners plan and prepare for burning, and implement day-of-burn operations. Dedicated funding for MARS to provide technical support and coordination has been crucial to the relatively quick startup of the Mt. Adams PBA and its continued growth. In the long term, MARS and PBA leadership hope to see the PBA continue to become more self-sufficient with enough expertise and capacity among members to safely implement burns.
Conducting a prescribed burn with the Mt. Adams PBA
The following steps focus on broadcast burning, a form of prescribed fire in which fire is typically applied across most or all of a defined area. The Mt. Adams PBA also occasionally conducts pile burning (gathering woody debris into piles and burning them), which is sometimes used to prepare an area for future broadcast burns.
- Private landowner interested in burning connects with the Mt. Adams PBA.
- PBA leadership and/or MARS prescribed fire staff conduct a site visit to determine suitability for prescribed fire and discuss land preparation needs.
- Landowner and PBA leadership and/or MARS prescribed fire staff work together to develop a burn plan.
- MARS staff help secure funding, when applicable.
- Landowner (with support from PBA leadership or MARS staff) obtains necessary permits from Washington DNR and Department of Ecology. Landowner works with PBA and MARS to prepare their property for prescribed fire. This may include creating fire breaks (areas without flammable material where flames will not carry) around the planned burn area. Landowners, PBA volunteers, and MARS employees may complete prep work.
- PBA leadership and burn manager assess weather conditions and work with the landowner to schedule the burn. PBA coordinator then notifies PBA members and partners of the potential burn and recruits PBA volunteers to help.
- Landowners works with the burn manager to notify neighbors, fire departments, and other relevant groups of the prescribed burn and invites them to observe or participate. A line of bare ground dig in the middle of a grassy hillside as a fire break.
Fire line dug with hand tools by PBA volunteers on private property in Lyle, Washington.
- Landowner and burn manager notify or renotify local agencies, Washington DNR, neighbors, and other relevant parties in accordance with burn permit requirements.
- Burn manager works with the landowner, MARS staff, and other partners (e.g., local volunteer fire departments) to ensure all equipment is at the burn site.
- Landowner and burn manager determine if weather conditions are appropriate and resource requirements are met (within the prescription in the burn plan).
- Burn manager briefs participants on burn objectives and safety protocols and assigns roles. Participants are generally either putting fire on the ground with drip torches (firing) or ensuring the fire stays within predetermined boundaries (holding).
- Burn participants perform a test fire to briefly monitor fire effects and smoke with current conditions.
- Burn participants use drip torches to light fire within the burn unit, employing firing patterns that match burn objectives. Teams continue to observe and adapt operations as needed based on fire behavior, smoke production, and weather conditions.
- After flames subside, burn participants “mop-up” or extinguish any remaining hot spots or burning material near the edges of a burn unit using water and hand tools.
Mt. Adams PBA prescribed burn, Klickitat County, Fall 2025.
- Burn participants gather (often with food and drink) to discuss if objectives were met and potential improvements.
- Burn manager and landowner make a plan to patrol the area over the upcoming days.
- Landowner and PBA community observe fire effects (sometimes monitoring with more official guidelines depending on the landowner).
- Landowner and PBA leadership discuss plan for burning again in the future.
Before, during, and after a prescribed burn in Klickitat County, Washington.
Mt. Adams PBA outcomes
The Mt. Adams PBA has successfully grown a budding community of prescribed fire advocates and practitioners, with over 70 members. Much of this success can be attributed to the experience and knowledge of MARS staff, dedicated funding, engaged landowners, and key partnerships with other local land stewardship nonprofit organizations.
Permits issued by Washington DNR for prescribed fire generally require substantial equipment and site preparation. State regulations, while intended to preserve the integrity and safety of prescribed fire, can be challenging to navigate. The Mt. Adams PBA has helped landowners address these challenges by providing equipment from its growing cache.
Additional outcomes include the ecological benefits produced by prescribed fire, greater public awareness about the practice, and opportunities for prescribed-fire training.
Increased access to prescribed fire
Since 2022, the Mt. Adams PBA has led 12 burns on private lands (a total of 163 acres), providing the equipment, personnel, and coordination for these events. Each burn is a learning opportunity. MARS fire and fuels staff, or other more experienced PBA members, lead volunteers, and burn leaders provide introductions to prescribed fire equipment and techniques.
The size of a burn does not represent its full impact. Smaller burns facilitate valuable learning for PBA members because they can participate in all aspects of the burn. Small prescribed burns can also help protect homes or other structures from wildfire. Regardless of the burn size, the opportunity for community members and landowners to actively participate in the management of their local landscape fosters a sense of shared responsibility.
The Mt. Adams PBA region, including the location of PBA burns from 2023 through 2025. The largest burn to date was 70 acres and multiple locations have had more than one burn (9 locations represented, 12 total burns).
Ecological benefits
Prescribed burns conducted by the Mt. Adams PBA reduce forest fuels and enhance ecological benefits by improving wildlife habitat and promoting native wildflowers. These benefits depend on the particular forest environment and weather conditions at the time of a burn. Prescribed burns often result in a mosaic, as different microclimates influence how fire interacts with the land. For example, a fully shaded understory may not burn as effectively as an open area dried by the sun.
Monitoring the effects of prescribed fire is an important tenet of PBA burns, providing a way to track ecological conditions and learn from each burn. The PBA also empowers landowners to conduct monitoring by using simple, replicable methods such as photo monitoring.
Increased public awareness and prescribed-fire training
The Mt. Adams PBA offers training and capacity-building opportunities for its members. To date, they have hosted three “Learn and Burn” events, along with burn-plan writing workshops, fire ecology seminars, a wildland firefighter training day, and community discussions on prescribed fire. Learn and Burn events provide introductory, hands-on experience during which participants explore key elements of prescribed fire and help conduct a burn under the guidance of experienced practitioners. Since the PBA inception, landowner interest in prescribed fire has grown, perhaps motivated by recent wildfires in the region.
The Mt. Adams PBA is also contributing to the growth and expansion of other prescribed burn associations around the Northwest. In September 2025, the Mt. Adams PBA co-hosted a learning exchange for coordinators and members of other PBAs in Oregon and Washington to gather, share resources, and learn from one another.
Challenges and opportunities
The Mt. Adams PBA is increasing access to prescribed fire in the area they serve, although building a prescribed fire community takes time. Most Mt. Adams PBA members begin with minimal prescribed fire experience and have day jobs that may prevent them from attending burns and training events. The PBA sometimes struggles to recruit enough volunteers for burns, particularly on weekdays, and burn operations may be slower and less efficient given the lack of expertise. Yet, learning and capacity building are central goals of the Mt. Adams PBA. Lack of previous experience provides an opportunity to build a cohesive group through training and mentorship.
Members of the Mt. Adams PBA prior to a prescribed burn.
Klickitat County, like many other counties with high wildfire risk, implements county-level burn bans to prevent outdoor burning during hot, dry conditions. The burn bans are primarily meant to address pile burns and campfires but also increasingly overlap with prescribed fire windows (in 2025, the burn ban ended on October 15). Staff from MARS worked with the county to allow an exemption while the burn ban was in place for prescribed burns permitted by state or federal agencies. Unlike residential pile burns and campfires, state and federal prescribed fire permits typically have strict requirements for water and personnel resources. This advocacy from MARS and other PBA members helped enable conditions for more broadcast burning locally.
Private landowners are often concerned about liability if the prescribed burn escapes the intended unit and their ownership. Although escape rates are very low, there is inherent risk when working with fire. Washington now has a Prescribed Fire Claims Fund that provides up to $2 million for structure damage, suppression, and other associated costs if a burn escapes. Although this may reduce hesitation, liability concerns remain a significant barrier to burning on private land.
Prescribed fire is a powerful tool for increasing forest and community resilience to larger wildfires and a changing climate. Increasing the use of prescribed fire on private land and training more people to use it safely are essential for expanding this practice. The Mt. Adams PBA is building on the region’s long history of caring for the land by helping private landowners bring “good fire” back to south‑central Washington.
Additional resources
State-wide PBAs provide a broader level of support for local PBAs. They secure and provide funding, develop training materials, and advocate for prescribed fire legislative reform.
Washington—https://wapba.org/wa-pbas/
Prescribed fire councils are collaborative networks of land managers, policymakers, and fire practitioners. Prescribe fire councils focus on education, policy advocacy, and resources to reduce the barriers to prescribed burning.
Washington—https://www.waprescribedfire.org/
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Center or Group
https://research.fs.usda.gov/pnw/centers/northwest