Upper Feather River Watershed

Using Fire to Increase the Scale, Benefits, and Future Maintenance of Fuels Treatments

The USDA Forest Service is implementing a new planning rule and starting to revise forest plans for many of the 155 National Forests. In forests that historically had frequent fire regimes, the scale of current fuels reduction treatments has often been too limited to affect fire severity and the Forest Service has predominantly focused on suppression. In addition to continued treatment of the wildland urban interface, increasing the scale of lowand moderate-severity fire would have substantial ecological and economics benefits if implemented soon. We suggest National Forests identify large contiguous areas to concentrate thEIR fuels reduction efforts, and then turn treated firesheds over to prescribed and managed wildfire for future maintenance. A new round of forest planning provides an opportunity to identify and overcome some of the current cultural, regulatory, and institutional barriers to increased fire use that we discuss.

With less than 20% of the Sierra Nevada's forested landscape receiving needed fuels treatments, and the need to frequently re-treat many areas, the current pattern and scale of fuels reduction is unlikely to ever significantly advance restoration efforts.

2015-08-21

2015-08-21

Malcolm North, Brandon M. Collins, and Scott Stephens, Journal of Forestry - October/November 2012

Fire Policy, Fire Suppression, Forest Management, Forest Restoration, Forest Service Planning Rule, Managed Wildfire

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