Effects of policy change on wildland fire management strategies: evidence for a paradigm shift in the western US?

Abstract

In 2009, new guidance for wildland fire management in the United States expanded the range of strategic options for managers working to reduce the threat of high-severity wildland fire, improve forest health and respond to a changing climate. Markedly, the new guidance provided greater flexibility to manage wildland fires to meet multiple resource objectives. We use Incident Status Summary reports to understand how wildland fire management strategies have differed across the western US in recent years and how management has changed since the 2009 Guidance for Implementation of Federal Wildland Fire Management Policy. When controlling for confounding variation, we found the 2009 Policy Guidance along with other concurrent advances in fire management motivated an estimated 27 to 73% increase in the number of fires managed with expanded strategic options, with only limited evidence of an increase in size or annual area burned. Fire weather captured a manager’s intent and allocation of fire management resources relative to burning conditions, where a manager’s desire and ability to suppress is either complemented by fire weather, at odds with fire weather, or put aside due to other priorities. We highlight opportunities to expand the use of strategic options in fire-adapted forests to improve fuel heterogeneity.

A Mixed Methods Literature Review and Framework for Decision Factors That May Influence the Utilization of Managed Wildfire on Federal Lands, USA

“…More recently, while examining how the 2009 policy update may have affected managed fire outcomes, [83] found evidence that the update provided opportunity for a greater number of managed fires to occur. However, they did not find a significant increase in the number of acres burned.…”

“…It could also be used in the development of coursework around managed fire, which several papers in this review found to be absent from the training catalogue. The decision-making tools currently in use, such as the Wildland Fire Decision Support System [83] and Potential Wildfire Operations Delineations [84], and future decision support tools could also incorporate attributes of the framework [85].…”

Adaptation Strategies and Approaches for Managing Fire in a Changing Climate

“…Agencies responsible for fire prevention, response, and recovery are generally operating with limited personnel and financial resources [272]. Internal policies and regulations as well as public views about fire management can restrict the options for reallocating resources in an actionable timeframe [273][274][275]. At the administrative level, embedded and longstanding policies are often inflexible, but innovative solutions may be possible within these constraints [276,277].…”

Using wildfire as a management strategy to restore resiliency to ponderosa pine forests in the southwestern United States

“…Over its history, RO wildfire has had many identities including the policy of "Let it burn," and descriptive terms such as prescribed natural fire, wildland fire use, managed fire, or restoration wildfire (Barros et al, 2018;Hunter, 2007). Following 2009, the tactics and strategies used in the application of RO wildfire expanded after changes in national fire policy encouraged the practice (Young et al, 2020), and local policies further supported it (USDA, 2014(USDA, , 2018. However, the process of transforming fire-excluded landscapes to conditions where RO fire is systematically used in concert with traditional forest management is not well defined.…”