Firefighting: Less Action Requires More Thought
Incident: Grand Complex Prescribed Fire
Released: 7/17/2008
It makes sense to allow a few fires to spread.
- Fire is as integral to Colorado's ecosystem as rain. Depriving forests of fire has long-term consequences that can include catastrophic fire, loss of biodiversity, and degraded wildlife habitat.
- Fires are selected according to a strict set of policy and decision-making guidelines.
- They have to be started by lightning, not people.
- They have to be in an area that land managers have reviewed months or years ahead and decided is appropriate.
- Specific criteria are evaluated for each fire: short- and long-term weather patterns, homes and structures within several miles in every direction, the kind of vegetation burning and direction of potential spread, and more.
- The fire Incident Commander and the unit's Fire Management Officer advise the responsible manager, who decides whether to manage a fire for resource benefit.
- When there is a lot of wildfire activity in the central Rockies or nationwide, managers at those levels also must concur.
- Most fires will continue to be put out the same day they are discovered. In a 7-county area along the Colorado River from the Continental Divide to Utah, there have been 95 wildfires so far this year. Of 95 ignitions, two have been managed for resource benefit.
- Large fires that threaten homes and other key resources will continue to be fought hard.
A fire managed for resource benefit gets at least as much oversight as a similar-size traditional wildfire, and usually more.
- Resource benefit fires often last for weeks or months. Thinking through the long-range possibilities is a critical aspect of managing them well.
- Fires spreading naturally tend to ebb and flow. They may spread for days or weeks, then become almost invisible. They may go out in a mid-season rain or run out of nearby vegetation to burn, or they may spread for months.
Elaborate long-range projections are made for every resource benefit fire that grows to more than a few acres, or is likely to.
- Local resource specialists identify potential threats in detail.
- Private land is relatively easy to identify.
- Examples of structures on public land include historic cabins and fire towers, native American wooden shelters and rock art, wood bridges and trail signs.
- Fire can sometimes damage erosive soils, threatened or endangered plants or animals, and archaeological sites.
- Potential effects on recreationists and permittees are considered: cattle grazing, hiking, hunting, and many other activities.
- Protecting watersheds where fire-prone vegetation grows often means minimizing the chance that a lot of the watershed will burn intensively in one year.
- Smoke and air quality is taken into account as one of the trade-offs involved in living with fire-dependent ecosystems.
- People skilled in understanding and predicting fire behavior weigh both mathematical models and experience to provide advice. Since weather is uncertain, much of what they calculate is likelihood of spread in a particular direction.
As much firefighting as needed is used to manage fires for resource benefit.
- Plans for firefighting in specific locations are based on both short- and long-range projections, input from people with a variety of specialized experience, and judgment and experience.
- The same range of tactics and equipment are used as in full suppression. For example, crews build fireline, aircraft drop retardant or water, and unstaffed sprinkler systems protect facilities while fire passes by.
- Rarely is the entire edge around a resource benefit fire suppressed. Also rarely is a large resource benefit fire allowed to spread entirely unchecked.
- Firefighting actions are paced to stay safely ahead of the fire's spread.
