Fire Management

• Apply the best science in efforts to restore and maintain healthy fire dependent ecosystems

• Plan and execute FAM operations in a safe, effective and cost-efficient manner

• Actively participate and provide leadership supporting all elements of the Forest Service mission

• Provide leadership in developing interagency cooperation and partnerships

• Provide leadership in conservation education

• Ensure a professional, diverse and motivated workforce that can adapt and derive benefit during times of change

• Proudly serve the nation as Forest Service employees

Fire has a vital role in maintaining healthy forests in and around the Klamath Mountains. Fire reduces dead vegetation, replenishes nutrients in the soil, stimulates new growth, and maintains biological diversity. Historically, fire was ignited by lightning and by Indigenous people tending the land. As settlers forcibly removed and killed Indigenous people and began industrial timber harvesting, the Forest Service and other federal agencies portrayed fire as an enemy that destroyed lives, property, and resources, and committed to a policy of excluding fire from the environment. Over time, the agency has recognized that this approach itself threatens life and resources. Without fire, forests became overcrowded and vulnerable to insects and disease.

On the Klamath National Forest, public land managers have been trying to reduce the risk of large, severe wildfires, improve wildlife habitat, and achieve other natural resource objectives through the use of prescribed fire for more than a decade. We ignite prescribed fires in the spring and fall when conditions allow for slow, low intensity burning.

Substantial progress has been made and the number of acres treated annually with prescribed fire is increasing. However, significant challenges have prevented land managers from igniting prescribed fires on as many acres each year as they believe are necessary. These challenges include weather, the time required to complete prescribed fire plans, various government regulations, litigation and appeals, and occasionally, the impacts of prescribed fire on air quality.

The US Department of Agriculture and the Department of Interior developed an interagency strategy, known as the "National Fire Plan", to respond to severe wildfires, to reduce their impacts on rural communities, and to assure sufficient firefighting capacity in the future. Reducing hazardous fuels, using prescribed fire and other tools, is one of the key components of the National Fire Plan. The U.S. Congress has increased funding to the Forest Service to reduce hazardous fuels on federal lands, with emphasis on forests surrounding communities to decease risk to people and property.

Fuel management and reduction must occur to implement the goals of the National Fire Plan. Today, serious fire threats are concentrated within fire-adapted ecosystems that historically evolved from frequent, low-intensity fires. The Klamath National Forest, along with private landowners, are working diligently to manage fuels in these areas. This effort is an integral part of our strategy to reduce the occurrence of life and property threatening wildfires. With the increased emphasis to protect Wildland Urban Interface areas, we are using mechanical treatment methods in combination with prescribed fire.

Prescribed fire alone as the first treatment is not always feasible because of the current density of the forest. Ladder fuels, which consists of dense vegetation near the forest floor and extending up to the crowns of trees, predisposes some areas to severe wildland fires, potentially leaving watersheds, species, and people at risk. Both prescribed fire and mechanical methods are being integrated to restore fire, which changes fire behavior making it safe for the public and firefighters when homes must be protected in the Wildland Urban Interface.

Mechanical treatments for fuel reduction projects are used in two ways. In forested areas, trees are thinned to reduce density; or in some cases, the lower limbs of trees are removed to reduce the likelihood of fire reaching the crowns of the trees. The resulting fuels from thinning are often piled and burned after sufficient drying. In a dry forest vegetation type, such as Ponderosa Pine, we underburn the thinned area following the mechanical treatments.

The Klamath National Forest uses a combination of mechanical treatment to remove fuel, burning of piled limbs or branches, and area burning (called underburning). While such efforts are labor intensive, they are very effective in reducing the decadal fuel buildup while reducing the risk of flame damage to both vegetation and surrounding communities.