Treesearch

Wilderness fire managers are often confronted with natural fire ignitions that start and/or burn near an adjoining agency’s wilderness area boundary. Management strategies for prescribed natural fires (PNF) are often developed using the adjoining agency’s wilderness boundary as the maximum allowable perimeter (control line) for the PNF. When this occurs, fire’s natural role in the wilderness ecosystem may be restricted. The difficulty of burning near another agency’s jurisdictional boundary can be overcome by strong planning, close communications, and timely coordination between the two...

Because many major population centers are located in wildland areas, many structures have been destroyed by increasingly more costly wildland fires. The structure and jurisdiction of the fire service in California are complex, and a uniform approach to fire prevention is lacking. A description of many of the fire issues in the wildland-urban intermix is provided. The relationship between State and local governments is at the heart of many of the issues. Cooperation between State and local governments coupled with public education and enforcement of current standards and regulations should...

A recent survey of people living in wildland-urban intermix neighborhoods in a portion of the Sierra-Cascade foothills identified perceptions of defensible space that block its rapid and widespread adoption. A companion survey described communication channels used by residents to acquire information about landscaping and identified opinion leadership characteristics. Neither lack of awareness of the wildfire threat, lack of basic knowledge of defensible space, nor skepticism about defensible space effectiveness were a barrier to adoption of wildfire defenses by property owners. Perceived...

Even though many legal, social, and organizational constraints affect prescribed fire programs, the ecological and social benefits of such programs encourage their continued existence (with or without modification). The form of these programs in the next 10 to 50 years is pure speculation; but we must speculate and project the programs, as well as associated benefits and costs, since the ecosystems we manage respond to fire on several time scales. A panel chaired by Dr. Ron Wakimoto of the University of Montana was convened to discuss projections about the role and form of prescribed...

Wildland fires have occurred for centuries in North America and other selected countries and can be segregated into three periods: prehistoric (presuppression) fires, suppression period fires, and fire management period fires. Prehistoric fires varied in size and damage but were probably viewed fatalistically. Suppression period fires were based on policy that excluded fire from many ecosystems where it played an important role; the view of fire as an undesirable wildland disturbance was fostered during this period. Recognition of fire’s roles led to a managed use of fire; however, large...

The increase of homes in wildlands indicates a significant change. The build-up of fuels around homes and in wildlands over time also indicates change. Resistance to change, however, remains the norm. Fires get worse, but plain water continues to be used for fire suppression and property protection. With Class A foam, the objectives of protection are to wet the exposure rapidly, creating a heat sink, and then leave or apply elsewhere while the foam remains behind. This foam can be generated in low-, medium-, and high-expansion forms. Class A foam can be applied from pump-and-roll monitors,...

Prescribed fire is used to treat roughly 5 percent (1,500,000 acres) of Florida’s wildland each year. Superimposed on this firemaintained landscape is one of the fastest growing populations in the United States. Much of this population increase is a result of immigration from northern states where ancestral ties with fire have been broken. Many immigrants want to settle along the urban/ wildland interface, exacerbating an already detrimental situation. These new arrivals generally view fire as a destructive force rather than as a biological necessity. They have little tolerance for the...

USDA Forest Service management practices have significantly changed. Past practices were predicated on a strong public expectation for commodity production and protection from the forces of nature that were perceived to threaten that goal. Fire suppression, selective logging, intensive grazing, constrained prescribed burning, and a general emphasis on wood fiber production have, in part or collectively, changed many forests. However wellmeaning at the time, in some ecosystems, these changes have adversely affected the health and resiliency of the resource to the point where sustainability...

Fire agencies throughout the San Francisco Bay Area formed a grassroots organization to influence a firesafe environment. The Bay Area Wildfire Forum (BAWF) was organized in 1992 to coordinate wildland fire training while promoting and encouraging further activities regarding wildland firefighting and fire prevention.

The traditional approach to planning for public fire protection has been based on independent actions by each fire department or district. The county fire chiefs’ associations, while providing interagency communication, were not adequate to deal with the regional nature of the wildland urban interface problem. The formation of the East Bay Fire Chiefs’ Consortium grew out of the need to provide regional solutions to these problems. This group is composed of representatives from all agencies that provide protection in Alameda and Contra Costa Counties in a common urban wildland interface...