Management

Wildland fire is a natural and somewhat common occurrence in North American ecosystems. Living with fire can be challenging but there are actions that can be taken to reduce the intensity and outcome of wildfires.  It requires land managers and landowners to be proactive.  Wildland fire managers decide to respond to wildfires in a variety of ways. Strategy and tactics are selected to balance the risk to responders and the risk to critical values on the landscape- things like structures, powerlines, or transportation corridors. Strategic actions are developed to reach the highest probability of success.  Sometimes, this means firefighters put out wildfires when they are small and newly started and sometimes this means selecting the best place to fight the wildfire based on terrain and fuel conditions.   In some cases, especially in wilderness and roadless areas, there are times that the proper use of fire is appropriate to return the historical role of fire to enhance resource conditions which can lead to long-term land management values.

Effectively managing forest fuels and dealing with wildfires relies on the coordination between the Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, other agencies, and communities. The Bighorn National Forest works closely with partners such as Wyoming State Forestry and county fire organizations to complete prescribed burns and fuels reduction work.