The use of climate information in prescribed fire planning and implementation

Climate information has many uses in fire management, including decision-making for prescribed fire use in fuels management. We surveyed 192 state and federal fire managers to assess how climate information is currently used in prescribed fire planning and implementation. We also wished to determine what obstacles exist to utilizing climate information for prescribed fire, and found that fire managers are primarily unable to take advantage of climate information and climatically “good” burning periods due to funding and regulatory constraints. Additionally, fire managers are restricted by personnel shortages at critical times, and by their ability to acquire adequate climate information from sources that they consider reliable. This inability to use climate information for planning and executing prescribed fires indicates that prescribed fire use is not currently meeting ecological objectives to restore fire regimes in the United States to Condition Class 1, or ‘natural' conditions. This paper describes survey results, and discusses the potential role of climate information for prescribed fire planning and implementation.