Direction for Fire Management in Land Use Plan Revisions

1. Direction for Fire Management in Land Use Plan Revisions

2. Needed Fire Management Direction • Role of fire as an ecological factor • Landscape level fuels considerations • Appropriate suppression response • Wildland fire use

3. Objectives of State and Regional Direction • Assure this generation of land use plans address common deficiencies in fire direction • Assure consistency with legal requirements and national interagency fire policy • Assure consistency with planning regulations

4. Units Retain Wide Discretion • Wide variation in fire issues among units • Fuels, weather, topography • Resource integration considerations • Social / political considerations • Evolving knowledge and building of experience favor encouraging Forest and District scale solutions • Therefore, much of the direction suggests rather than requires plan content or process

5. Some Direction Must be Specific and Mandatory • Items required by law or national policy • Items where Regional Forester and State Director has deemed consistency essential

6. Direction Package • Arranged by plan components as defined in FS Planning Rule and BLM Planning Handbook • Each component has three sections: • Plan content • Process for developing that content • Description of how plan content relates to the Fire Management Plan • Mandatory direction is in bold text • National policy sources are footnoted

7. Desired Condition/Goals – Requirements • Desired role of fire as an ecosystem process • Desired fire regime condition classes (FRCC) • Fire management considerations are integrated with other resources

8. Desired Conditions/Goals - Suggestions • Scale: larger than 5th field, but smaller than unit-wide • Determine historical range of fire regimes • Desired condition may be outside of historical range

9. Objectives – Requirements • Objectives to move toward desired conditions/goals • Role of fire • Fire regime condition class • Measurable, time specific activities • Must use a science based approach

10. Objectives - Suggestions • Fuel treatment methods • Use of unplanned fire • Suppression strategies • Monitoring • Point control • Perimeter control • Full control • Post fire rehabilitation and restoration

11. Objectives - Suggestions • Discuss objectives in terms of: • Types of activities • General locations • General priorities • Rate of change

12. Guidelines – Requirements • Include a statement that guidelines apply except where human life and safety are imminently threatened

13. Guidelines - Suggestions • Identify needed limitations on management practices: • Fuel treatment methods • Use of unplanned fire • Suppression of unplanned fire • Post fire restoration and rehabilitation • Guidelines can be listed according to either: • Resource value to be protected • Activity causing the effect

14. Suitability – Requirements • Describe landscapes generally suitable for wildland fire use and prescribed fire • Describe lands suitable for different general suppression responses • Monitoring • Point Control • Perimeter Control • Full Control • Determine where less aggressive responses better meet plan objectives, move toward desired conditions, and save money

15. Suitability Criteria – Requirements for Fire Use • Fire use prohibited by law, regulation, or policy • High public use levels over a wide area create safety situations that cannot be dealt with in project design or incident management

16. Suitability Criteria – Suggestions for Fire Use • Fire effects would retard movement toward desired conditions/goals • Unacceptable risk of loss to other ownerships • Size of area is smaller than the characteristic fire size for the fire regime involved • Fire use incompatible with other resource objectives or plan direction tied to legal protection mandates

17. Special Areas • In wildland-urban interface, consider adjusting: • Desired conditions/Goals • Objectives • Guidelines

18. Comprehensive Evaluation Report/Effects Analysis • Effects of Desired Conditions, Objectives, Guidelines, and Suitability determinations on firefighter and public safety • Landscape sustainability with fire as a disturbance agent

19. Monitoring • Change in fire regime condition class: • Scope • Magnitude • Cause • Wildland fire use decisions in lands determined to be suitable • Number of GO vs. NO GO decisions • Reasons for those decisions • Monitoring questions must be approved by the responsible official

20. Questions?