Advances in Fire Practice Fact Sheets
Policy
Fire RegimeWildland fires differ in terms of frequency, size and spread pattern, season, intensity, and severity. Over time, we can begin to measure fire return intervals, and see differences in fire patterns among ecosystems and regions. These patterns are what constitute fire regimes.
Decision Support
Wildland Fire and the Forest Carbon Cycle
Land management agencies are now beginning to seriously explore new ideas for carbon management, and detailed carbon management strategies are certain to be a large part of forest management in the coming century.
Policy
Flame Act of 2009On October 30, 2009, President Obama signed The Flame Act of 2009 into law. The act was designed to deal with the dramatic increases in emergency costs of wildfire suppression and the ongoing problems of “fire borrowing”.
Carbon offsets are payments made by individuals, corporations, or organizations to support projects that reduce the level of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, usually represented by renewable energy programs such as wind farms and biomass energy, or reforestation or sustainable forestry projects.
Only 14% of forested western private land adjacent to public land is currently developed for residential use. Based on current growth trends, there is tremendous potential for future development on the remaining 86%.
The mountain pine beetle has killed 1.5 million acres of lodgepole pine in Colorado alone since 1996, and in 2007 the beetles killed an estimated 3.9 million acres of lodgepole pine across the Rocky Mountain region. The extent of beetle kill has raised concerns that the risk of catastrophic fires is spreading along with the outbreak.
The ‘Prepare, Stay and defend or leave early’ program is controversial, but it is one of the most innovative and comprehensive community fire outreach programs in the world. The program asks residents to take a hard look at their position on the landscape and to determine a decisive course of action to prepare for an eventual fire and for their response when the fire occurs.
There are a variety of new powerful applications available for modeling fire behavior, planning fuel treatments, and supporting fire management decision-making. Included are brief descriptions of a few of the major programs or systems.
Fact Sheet Links - A collection of fact sheets produced by researchers around the country.