Perspectives on Trends, Effectiveness, and Impediments to Prescribed Burning in the Southern U.S.

Leda Kobziar,Daniel Godwin,Leland Taylor,Adam Watts

doi:10.3390/f6030561

Leda Kobziar, Daniel Godwin + Show 2 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/f6030561

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Abstract

The southern region of the U.S. uses prescribed fire as a management tool on more of its burnable land than anywhere in the U.S., with ecosystem restoration, wildlife habitat enhancement, and reduction of hazardous fuel loads as typical goals. Although the region performs more than 50,000 prescribed fire treatments each year, evaluation of their effects on wildfire suppression resources or behavior/effects is limited. To better understand trends in the use and effectiveness of prescribed fire, we conducted a region-wide survey of 523 fire use practitioners, working on both public and private lands. A 1–2 year prescribed fire interval was consistently viewed as effective in decreasing wildfire ignitions, behavior, and severity, as well as reducing suppression resources needed where wildfire occurred. Yet fewer than 15% of practitioners viewed burn intervals of 3–4 years as effective in reducing ignitions, underscoring the importance of high-frequency burning in vegetation communities where fuel recovery is rapid. Public lands managers identified limited budget and staffing as major institutional impediments to prescribed fire, in contrast to private individuals, more of whom chose liability as a key challenge. Differences in responses across ownership type, state, and vegetation type call for a broader perspective on how fire managers in the southern U.S. view prescribed fire.

Highlights

IntroductionAnthropogenic fire use has decreased during the last 200 years due to increased population and development, as well as a cultural shift towards the suppression of wildfires
The forests, savannas, and grasslands of the southern U.S (i.e., Region 8 of the U.S Department of Agriculture (USDA) Forest Service) have a long and well-established history of fire [1,2], whether from lightning, Native American ignitions, or Anglo-European ignitions
The limited existing assessments, we looked to the first-hand knowledge of a wide range of wildland fire practitioners to help characterize the relationship between prescribed fire and wildfire in the southern U.S inherently subjective, the extensive experience of these practitioners integrates institutional memory across a broader geographic and temporal scope than can be documented via case studies

Summary

Introduction

Anthropogenic fire use has decreased during the last 200 years due to increased population and development, as well as a cultural shift towards the suppression of wildfires. In addition to its fuel-reduction effects, prescribed fire drives key ecosystem processes (e.g. nutrient cycling, seed scarification, stimulation of food plants for wildlife) and maintains fire-adapted biological communities [6,7]. Together, these attributes make prescribed burning a popular tool for southern land managers, who in 2011 reported burning over

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