prescribed fire

prescribed fire, form of land management in which fire is intentionally applied to vegetation. Prescribed fires are conducted under desired conditions to meet specific objectives, such as to restore fire regimes in adapted ecosystems or to limit the amount of dry brush in an area prone to wildfires. Two primary types of prescribed fire are used: broadcast burning, in which fire is applied across an area that can range in size from less than one hectare (2.5 acres) to tens of thousands of hectares, and pile burning, in which discrete piles of fuels are burned with limited or no spread between the piles. For either type, managers usually compose a detailed prescribed burn plan that clearly defines the suitable weather and fuel conditions, the desired fire behavior, and the effects needed to meet predetermined objectives.

Indigenous uses of prescribed fire

The use of prescribed fire by humans predates modern civilization in many areas worldwide. Indigenous peoples have long used prescribed fire as an essential tool to manage wildlands for particular resources, such as desired plants and game species. Indeed, a number of Indigenous peoples, including various North American Native peoples and Australian Aborigines, use fire to create favorable conditions for a variety of plants used for food, basketry materials, and clothing. Prescribed fire has also been used to decrease the presence and abundance of pest species that can degrade the quality and quantity of desirable plants, as well as to clear land for village sites and to improve access and travel.

Modern uses of prescribed fire

In modern use as a land management tool, prescribed fires are commonly used to reduce vegetation, thereby minimizing the risk of wildfires. In these instances, prescribed fire serves to decrease fuel loading (i.e., the mass of fuel in a given area) and limit fire behavior in areas that might otherwise burn hotter during dry weather conditions that often accompany wildfires.

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Prescribed fire can also improve ecosystem health in forests, woodlands, shrublands, and grasslands by reducing competition, decreasing diseases and pests, and decreasing the fire intensity during wildfires. In many regions that historically experienced wildfires, such as the tallgrass prairies of the Midwestern United States and the fynbos of South Africa, years of fire exclusion and suppression in the 19th and 20th centuries allowed fuels to accumulate, altering the vegetation communities present. Prescribed fire can be used to restore those ecosystems and promote the historical conditions present prior to the removal of wildfire. Additionally, many ecosystems are specifically fire-adapted—the species of plants and animals native to the ecosystems are enhanced by or dependent on the occurrence of fire to persist and reproduce. The use of prescribed fire in those systems can improve ecological conditions, especially in areas that have been fire-suppressed by humans, and often serves to promote the conservation and preservation of those lands.

(Read Britannica’s list “Playing with Wildfire: 5 Amazing Adaptations of Pyrophytic Plants.”)

Prescribed fire is also commonly used for range management. The periodic burning of rangelands can increase the productivity and quality of forage plants for livestock such as cattle, elk, and bison.

While generally beneficial to fire-prone areas, prescribed fires can have negative impacts on natural resources or pose some risks to local communities. For instance, if prescribed fires are implemented early in the growing season, ground-nesting birds may suffer a loss of nests or eggs. Additionally, implementing prescribed burns has a small risk of escape that could result in property damage.

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Considerations for conducting prescribed burns

Prescribed fire practitioners must consider multiple factors in order to successfully implement burns. One of the main considerations is the desired fire behavior—how the fire should burn to achieve the desired outcome—which generally is influenced by fuel type, weather conditions, and topography. Areas differ in the amount, type, arrangement, and combustibility of the fuels present, depending on factors such as the type of ecosystem, the season, and the amount of time since the last burn. Weather conditions, such as precipitation, temperature, relative humidity, and wind, have a strong influence on prescribed fire behavior, with dry, hot, windy conditions being the least conducive to safe burns. The primary topographic consideration for prescribed fire behavior is the slope of the terrain; fire spreads up or down a hill very differently than across flat ground. The direction and speed of a fire can be controlled based on the application of fire with respect to the direction of the wind or slope. Fires that burn with the prevailing wind or slope are called head fires and have the highest intensity and rate of spread, whereas fires that burn against the wind or slope are called backing fires and have the lowest intensity and rate of spread. Fires moving perpendicular to the wind or slope are called flanking fires and have intermediate intensity and rate of spread.

Managers can also control the resultant fire behavior with variation in the ignition pattern. Ignition devices come in many forms, such as drip torches or fusees (ignition devices similar to emergency flares), and are used to apply fire to an area, generally in patterns of strips or spots, or in a ring around the entire boundary. Selection of ignition pattern depends on the terrain, desired fire behavior, and management objectives. Strip ignition is the application of fire in linear strips within a given area that can vary in number and spacing, depending on the desired fire behavior. Spot ignition refers to the application of fire in an area through a series of small spots. Strip fires are most commonly employed because the fire can be controlled by varying the number of strips ignited and the distance between strips.

Other major considerations of prescribed fire are immediate and long-term changes that result from the fire, known as the fire effects. Typically, the fire effects most important to managers are the amount and pattern of the fuels burned, the amount and composition of the smoke produced, and the vegetation response. Smoke composition is important to managers because its constituents, such as particulate matter, carbon dioxide, and ammonium, have different impacts on air quality and human health. Plant responses to fire vary widely depending on the plant ecology and the fire behavior; the ways in which plants respond can result in changes in both the species present and their relative abundance.

Since the effectiveness of a prescribed fire decreases with time owing to fuel buildup and vegetation regrowth, practitioners must determine when to reburn the area to maintain desired conditions. Typically, the number of years between prescribed fires is determined by the amount of fuel that accumulates per year or the historic fire return interval of a given area. Intervals between fires vary widely and can range from 1 to 50 years, depending on the vegetation type, climate, and topography.