Fire Management

Working Together

Federal, state, and local fire agencies work together to coordinate, communicate, and collaborate to provide responsive wildfire prevention and fuels reduction to protect the communities of the Lake Tahoe Basin.

Prescribed Fire operations by Casey Hoffman, USFS.

2025 Prescribed Fire Operations

Prescribed fires are a vital forest management tool used by land managers to help protect communities by removing fuels that can feed unwanted wildland fires. Burning excess vegetation also benefits forest health by making room for new growth which provides forage for wildlife, recycles nutrients back into the soil and helps reduce the spread of insects and disease.

Caldor Fire and Recovery Information

The Caldor Fire began on August 14, 2021. It burned approximately 221,835 Acres of National Forest lands on the Eldorado National Forest and the Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit. Learn more about the fire, post-fire Burned Area Emergency Response (BAER), BAER Assessment Report Summary and Caldor Fire recovery activities.

Daily Burn Day Status

The Daily Burn Status affects outdoor project activity and woodcutting in National Forests. Contractors and woodcutters should monitor the Project Activity and Sale Activity levels daily before conducting outdoor operations.

Fire Danger Ratings

Do you know what the fire danger rating adjectives Low, Moderate, High, Very High, and Extreme mean?

Fire Information

Curious about a current fire? This page provides numerous resources and links available online, including InciWeb, the nationwide online source for incident related information.

Fire Management

In order to reduce the severity of wildfire behavior, improve defensible space around infrastructure and adjoining lands, and to enhance the forest ecosystem health, we utilize a wide variety of fuels treatment planning and implementation.

Fire Prevention

Every year, on average, human-caused wildfires account for approximately half of all wildfires in the United States. Though most of these fires are caused by accidents, many of them can be prevented. Educate yourself on how you can prevent wildfires and mitigate the impacts of wildfires on your community.

Fire Restrictions

National Forest System lands in the Lake Tahoe Basin are under year-round fire restrictions. This means wood and charcoal fires are only permitted within metal fire rings in developed campgrounds like Fallen Leaf or Nevada Beach.

Northern California Geographic Coordination Center

The Northern California Geographic Area Coordination Center is the focal point for coordinating the mobilization of resources for wildland fire and other incidents throughout the geographic area. Located in Redding, CA, the center also provides intelligence and predictive services related-products designed to be use by the internal wildland fire community for purposes of wildland fire and incident management decision-making.

Prescribed Fire Information

Prescribed fires, also known as prescribed burns, refer to the controlled application of fire by a team of fire experts under specified weather conditions to restore health to ecosystems that depend on fire.

Red Flag Warnings

Red Flag Warnings are issued by the National Weather Service when conditions signal an increase in wildfire danger. A Red Flag Warning means warm temperatures, very low humidity, and strong winds are expected to combine to produce an increased risk of fire danger.

Smoke and Air Quality

While fire is an important process for maintaining healthy forest ecosystems, fire managers in the Lake Tahoe Basin are sensitive to the need for smoke management during prescribed fire operations. We work collaboratively with the local and state air quality boards and districts to meet mandates and targets for our smoke management efforts.

Tahoe Living with Fire

Tahoe Living with Fire is a collaborative education and outreach program founded in 1997 by the University of Nevada Cooperative Extension and supported by members of the Tahoe Fire and Fuels Team. The Tahoe Living with Fire website provides information about wildfire preparedness and prevention in order to educate Lake Tahoe residents and visitors about how they can prepare now for the next wildfire.