| OCR Text |
Show Controlled burning is management tool r J, STrke you see from rest or rangeland f.re may not be a wildfire sb.Un8 out f control. It may be instead in-stead a planned and controlled burn to accomplish a carefully planned resource management objective. In recent years rangeland managers, both private and public, have taken a new look at fire as a natural part of rangeland and forest management The results are new fire management policies including the use of fire in natural resource management. Some old commonly accepted concepts con-cepts of fire such as, all fires are bad all smoke is pollution and most fires kill wildlife, are being challenged as false and unrealistic. It is now widely recognized that nature has used fire along with other natural forces in the formation and constant change of many ecosystems. Therefore, total fire suppression may be detrimental to many ecosystems that land managers are trying to maintain. With these new concepts we are finding that fire, both natural and planned can play an important role in advancing resource management objectives. During the past two years the Vernal BLM District has begun to use prescribed or controlled burning as a part of the resource management program. The first prescribed burns were tried on a limited and very closely controlled basis in 1979. About 175 acres were burned. The results were very good based on the achievement of desired objectives and minimal costs. This past summer, 1980, the program was continued with five prescribed burns totaling about 800 acres. Most of these burns were for the control of old decadent brush sites of very limited value in their present condition. A variety of shrubs and grasses valuable to wildlife and livestock will fill in the burned area. It should be emphasized that the new fire management programs are not a "let burn" policy. Wildfire will continue con-tinue to be suppressed as usual with highest priority given to aggressive fires which endanger life, property and high value resources. The above information may come as a surprise to many readers and may be looked on with considerable skepticism. skep-ticism. This public reluctance to accept natural burns is a legacy of 50 years of fire prevention campaigns that condemned con-demned all fires as bad. Many of the agencies that have suppressed all fires in the past are now implementing policies to use fire as a part of a predetermined resource management program. Land managers see prescribed burns as a method of achieving management objectives such as: vegatation management, fuels management, insect and disease management, fish and wildlife management, range improvement, im-provement, recreation and access. In many cases the use of fire has significant advantages over other methods. One of the most common is substantially lower costs in favor of fire. Prescribed fire often requires less equipment, less total manpower and often less time. Fire can also replace pesticides for some insect and plant control. Prescribed burns have been used for fuel management, very successfully, for many years on some Indian reservations. Fuel management involves in-volves prescribed burns in areas with a build up of forest and range fuels before the fuel level become too high. If fuel levels are allowed to build up too high, when natural fires do occur, a major conflagration may result with danger to human life, property and natural resources. Such fires can be very disruptive to the ecosystem that is being protected. With prescribed burns management objectives can be safely achieved by selecting the time and place of ignition before the fuel level is at a dangerous level, and by making needed advance preparation for control. con-trol. There are negative aspects to fire such as smoke pollution and possible control hazard. These are carefully considered before a controlled burn is made. Fire managers are finding, however, that in many situations prescribed burning is the best method to accomplish resource objectives. |
