Introduction
Prescribed fire, also known as a controlled burn, is a planned, intentional fire in a specific geographic area used to meet land management goals.[1] Prescribed fire reduces hazardous fuels which decreases severe wildfire risk, minimizes the spread of insects and disease, controls invasive species, and promotes the regeneration and recruitment of desired species by controlling competition.[2] Notably, prescribed fire also improves wildlife habitat for game and nongame species by increasing vegetative diversity, increasing the availability of forbs and grasses and other browse, improving cover, and creating diverse habitats across the landscape.
Despite its ecological and societal benefits, prescribed fire faces regulatory, liability, and resource barriers that limit its use, as well as practical on the ground challenges as the wildland urban interface increases.[3] The Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation supports policies that promote the use of prescribed fire on both public and private lands to restore and maintain fire-adapted ecosystems, enhance wildlife habitat, increase forest resiliency to severe wildfire and other threats, and improve access and opportunity for sportsmen and women.
Background
Most forests and grasslands in the United States evolved with fire.[4] These fire-adapted ecosystems depend on regular fire to maintain health and function through regeneration, nutrient cycling, and competition reduction. Native Americans burned forests and grasslands regularly to clear areas, promote new plant growth, and drive and harvest game.[5] European settlers also frequently burned to clear areas for cultivation and settlements creating and maintaining early successional habitats.[6] At the beginning of the 20th Century, following a series of large wildfires in the Midwest and West, the U.S. Forest Service adopted a total fire suppression policy which included opposing “light burning” used by farmers and timbermen to improve land conditions.[7] Later scientific research shed light on the positive role that fire plays in forest ecology leading to changes in forest policy.[8] As a result the conservation community has led the charge in promoting the use of, and education surrounding, prescribed fire as a safe and effective management tool. Further, the U.S. Forest Service, in an effort to change public perception of prescribed fire, changed the famous Smokey Bear catchphrase in 2001 from “Only YOU can prevent forest fires” to “Only YOU can prevent wildfires” in an effort to draw a clear distinction between the useful management practice and the catastrophic wildfires that can result in the absence of prescribed burning.
Today, prescribed fire is intended to mimic the low-intensity fires that would have occurred on the landscape naturally.[9] Fire prevents the encroachment of woody species in grasslands, plants in chaparral ecosystems require fire to germinate, and trees have evolved adaptations for fire. For example, several tree species (e.g., Table Mountain pine, pond pine, lodgepole pine, and Giant sequoia) have serotinous cones that require fire to open and release seeds. Some trees species have deep roots (e.g., oak species and Ponderosa pine) that can withstand moderate fires, and some tree species have thick bark that is resistant to low-intensity fires and self-prune their branches to minimize fuel ladders (e.g., Ponderosa pine and longleaf pine).
Fire return intervals range from one year to decades, but the absence of fire in any fire-adapted ecosystem causes changes in plant communities and wildlife habitat. For example, without fire, fast-growing invasive species outcompete native species, and forest stand composition and structure changes favoring more shade-tolerant species (e.g., spruce and fir species over lodgepole pine and American beech and maples species over oak species). A lack of fire also contributes to forest overcrowding which stresses trees and reduces their resiliency to insects, disease, and fire, and without fire hazardous fuels load increasing the risk of severe wildfires.
While the use of prescribed fire entails risk, the benefits of prescribed fire, when planned and executed correctly, outweigh the risk of severe wildfires that ruin communities, destroy timber and other forest resources, erode soils, emit significant amounts of carbon, negatively impact air quality, degrade fish and wildlife habitat, and limit hunter and angler access. Obstacles to increasing the use of prescribed fire include social acceptance, workforce and funding constraints, regulatory complexity and hurdles, liability concerns, and insurance costs.
Points of Interest
- Prescribed fire restores and maintains healthy ecosystems that support wildlife diversity and abundance. For example, a longleaf pine forest managed with fire is one of the most biologically diverse habitats in North America, supporting bobwhite quail, wild turkey, white-tailed deer, fox squirrels, and several nongame species ranging from the gopher tortoise to the red-cockaded woodpecker.[10]
- Prescribed fire frequency, patch size, and seasonality can be varied to account for concerns over impacts to ground-nesting birds.[11]
- Prescribed burning in Eastern hardwood forests costs less than managing a warm-season food plot.[12] On a cost per acre basis, more acres can be treated with prescribed fire than food plots to maximize benefits to wildlife habitat.[13]
- Carefully planning a prescribed fire is essential to minimizing safety risks. A prescribed burn plan details the (1) site description, management goals and objectives; (2) prescription parameters (i.e., criteria, such as the amount of fuel, fuel moisture content, humidity, temperature, and wind speed, that defines conditions when a prescribed fire can be conducted safely); (3) site preparation, including fuel treatments before the burn and control lines; (4) ignition plan, holding plan, and mop-up plan; (5) smoke management to account for dispersal and identification of smoke-sensitive areas; (6) safety and contingency plans; (7) notifications; and (8) legal requirements.[14]
- Recently, state legislatures in Missouri and Arkansas have passed Prescribed Burn Act legislation defining prescribed fire liability standards and establishing prescribed burn manager certifications to promote the safe and effective use of prescribed burning.
- In 2025, Montana passed the Prescribed Fire Certification and Liability Act that created a prescribed burn manager certification and defined liability protections for those who receive the certification and utilize prescribed fire as a land management tool.[15]
- Prescribed fire is an important wildfire mitigation tool, particularly when used in conjunction with thinning and timber harvesting.
- Prescribed burns are often delayed by National Environmental Policy Act litigation against forest management projects designed to reduce wildfire severity.
Moving Forward
Prescribed fire is a cost-effective tool for land managers to improve wildlife habitat, increase forest health, reduce severe wildfire risk, and support America’s outdoor sporting traditions. Local, state, and federal policymakers are encouraged to support policies that promote the use of prescribed fire including increasing funding for capacity and resources, educating the public, removing regulatory barriers and streamlining authorities, promoting cross-boundary management, collaborating with partners, investing in prescribed burn manager certification programs, and enhancing liability standards for prescribed fire practitioners.
[1] “Prescribed Fire.” U.S. Forest Service. https://www.fs.usda.gov/managing-land/prescribed-fire
[2] Id.
[3] “Ask an Expert: Why is Prescribed Fire Important?” N.C. State University College of Natural Resources. https://cnr.ncsu.edu/news/2021/11/why-is-prescribed-fire-important/
[4] “Fire and Ecosystems.” U.S. Forest Service. https://research.fs.usda.gov/firelab/fire-and-ecosystems
[5] “Analysis of the Cost and Cost Components of Conducting Prescribed Fires in the Great Plains.” Rangeland Ecology & Management. Volume 92, January 2024, Pages 146-153. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1550742423001240
[6] ”Natural Disturbances and Historic Range of Variation. Type, Frequency, Severity, and Post-Disturbance Structure in Central Hardwood Forests.” Managing Forest Ecosystems, 2015, Vol. 32. Pages 319-354. Greenberg, Weeks, and Warburton.
[7] “U.S. Forest Service Fire Suppression.” Forest History Society. https://foresthistory.org/research-explore/us-forest-service-history/policy-and-law/fire-u-s-forest-service/u-s-forest-service-fire-suppression/
[8] Id.
[9] “Ask an Expert: Why is Prescribed Fire Important?” N.C. State University College of Natural Resources. https://cnr.ncsu.edu/news/2021/11/why-is-prescribed-fire-important/
[10] The Longleaf Alliance. https://longleafalliance.org/what-is-longleaf/the-ecosystem/species-diversity/
[11] “Does Growing Season Prescribed Fire Affect Turkey Nesting?” Tall Timbers. February 2024. https://talltimbers.org/articles/does-growing-season-prescribed-fire-affect-turkey-nesting/
[12] “Food Plots, Feed or Fire: The Real Costs Per Pound of Deer Forage.” National Deer Association. January 2024. https://deerassociation.com/food-plots-feed-or-fire-the-real-costs-per-pound-of-deer-forage/
[13] “Utilizing Prescribed Fire. To Create ‘Food Plots.’” Cooperative Extension. https://prescribed-fire.extension.org/
[14] Prescribed Fire Basics: Planning a Prescribed Burn.” Oregon State University Forestry and Natural Resources Extension Fire Program. February 2022. https://extension.oregonstate.edu/sites/extd8/files/documents/em9343.pdf
