Management
Fire Management involves both fire suppression and proactively using fire to achieve set goals. Fire effectively and efficiently reduces the level of hazardous fuels thus reducing risks and costs.
After many years of fire exclusion, an ecosystem that needs periodic fire becomes unhealthy. Trees are stressed by overcrowding, fire-dependent species disappear, and flammable fuels build up and become hazardous. However, the right fire at the right place at the right time helps maintain healthy forests, communities and watersheds.
History of Fire in the Southern Appalachians
Fire has been an essential natural process in Southern Appalachian oak and pine forests for thousands of years, and its absence over the past century has transformed our forests. Learn more about the fascinating relationship between fire and forest here in Georgia.
Wildfire Information
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.
Prescribed Fire & #BurnAlerts
Prescribed fire refers to the controlled application of fire by a team of fire experts under specified weather conditions to reintroduce the beneficial effects of fire into an ecosystem and reduce the hazard of catastrophic wildfire caused by excessive fuel buildup.
Firewise Communities & Homes
Every year, wildfires burn across the U.S., and more and more people are living where wildfires are a real risk. Nearly 45 million homes abut or intermingle with wildlands and more than 72,000 U.S. communities are now at risk. But, by working together, residents can make their homes - and their communities - safer from wildfire.
Fire Hire
Each year we hire permanent wildland fire positions during our Fire Hire event, usually in September or early October.