Fire
Wildland fires are a force of nature that can be nearly as impossible to prevent, and as difficult to control, as hurricanes, tornadoes, and floods.
Wildland fire can be a friend and a foe. In the right place at the right time, wildland fire can create many environmental benefits, such as reducing grass, brush, and trees that can fuel large and severe wildfires and improving wildlife habitat. In the wrong place at the wrong time, wildfires can wreak havoc, threatening lives, homes, communities, and natural and cultural resources.
The Forest Service has been managing wildland fire on National Forests and Grasslands for more than 100 years. But the Forest Service doesn’t – and can’t – do it alone. Instead, the agency works closely with other federal, tribal, state, and local partners.
This is more important than ever because over the last few decades, the wildland fire management environment has profoundly changed. Longer fire seasons; bigger fires and more acres burned on average each year; more extreme fire behavior; and wildfire suppression operations in the wildland urban interface (WUI) have become the norm.
To address these challenges, the Forest Service and its other federal, tribal, state, and local partners have developed and are implementing a National Cohesive Wildland Fire Management Strategy that has three key components: Resilient Landscapes, Fire Adapted Communities, and Safe and Effective Wildfire Response.
Resilient Landscapes
Healthy, thriving ecosystems are less vulnerable to extreme wildfires that can devastate watersheds, destroy wildlife habitat, and risk lives. Healthy ecosystems can adapt to climate change, invasive species, and insect infestations. Unfortunately, keeping fire out of wildlands has left forests and grasslands crowded with flammable vegetation. Fire seasons are becoming longer and droughts and insect infestations worse. Whole landscapes are now vulnerable to devastating, extreme wildfires.
Fire Adapted Communities
More than 70,000 communities and 46 million homes are at risk from wildfire in the wildland urban interface (WUI) – where undeveloped wildland and the built environment meet. Over the last ten years, more than 35,000 structures were destroyed by wildfires – an average of 3,500 a year.
Safe and Effective Wildfire Response
Each year, an average of about 7,500 wildfires burn an average of approximately 1.5 million acres on National Forests and Grasslands. Over the last ten years, just over half (54%) of these wildfires have been caused by humans while the rest (46%) have been ignited by lightning.