Over the past several decades, the United States has had a policy of suppressing fires in wildlands. This policy has led to negative effects on ecosystems, including a buildup of fuels that can cause catastrophic and uncontrolled wildfires. Currently, various government agencies are implementing a policy that deals with the management of prescribed burning activities that will restore ecosystems to their natural state.

The planning for prescribed burning over a significant area requires air quality modeling and plume/surface fire forecasting analyses shortly before the initiation of the burn. The Bureau of Land Management is reviewing its program in this regard, and is examining existing and proposed dispersion modeling techniques as well as NCEP forecasting products that can improve the accuracy of these analyses. The use of the forest fire capability of the CALPUFF model is one such analytical tool, which may be able to be linked with forecast meteorology to provide a predicted plume trajectory and air quality analysis involving particulate concentrations and regional haze impacts.

This paper presents the result of the review of the current techniques used in support of prescribed fire initiation decisions and how new techniques and forecast data could be used to improve these techniques.