Fuels Management

It could be from one of many fuel treatments the Carson City Field Office's Fuels Management program is conducting through out the year. The BLM is embarking on a program to treat Wildland fuels for the benefit of wildlife, range, recreation, trees and numerous other things that live and play on the BLM managed public lands.

What is this stuff  we call fuels?   A fuel, from a fire management standpoint, is what burns in a fire. Mainly it's made up of the grasses, brush, woody (trees), organic material that you see all over the public lands. It can be living or dead, on the ground, in the ground, or up in the trees. It's what the animals use for food, shelter, and cover. It's what people use for firewood, shade, food, and a place to get away. Rocks, it's not!

Why do we need to treat it?    Before the movement to settle the western part of the country, fire played an active part in the environment. Over time things changed, and fire became less of an influence on the land. People's thoughts and feelings about fire changed, fire was thought of as a negative influence on the land. We started to exclude fire from the land by aggressively suppressing Wildland fires, reducing the amount of human started fire (prescribed fire), and changing the types of vegetation that grew in the area. Fire went from frequent, low severity types of occurrences to one that hardly played any role at all. By excluding the role fire played on the land, the fuels have had an opportunity to build up. We measure this fuel in what we call "tons per acre". Compared to what it was then, versus now, there is probably an increase of three to five fold. When there is a fire now it tends to be of higher severity, hotter, and harder to control. The BLM would like to reduce the amount of fuels (fire folks call it "hazard fuels") that have increased over the last 80 years or so. By reducing the amount of fuels, the type of Wildland fire we would experience is one that could be beneficial to the environment, easier and cheaper to control, and safer to the public and Firefighters.

Is prescribed fire the only way to reduce the fuels?   No, there are many different types of treatments that are in use today. Some of the factors we must consider in selecting a treatment are, accessibility of the site, safety to both the public and the workers, cost, smoke/air quality issues, and will the treatment meet the objectives of the project. The common types of treatment are usually broken down into two broad categories. The first category is prescribed fire. This includes the fires that land management agencies start themselves, and the fires that start from a natural ignition such as lightning. The second category is mechanical treatment. This could include treatment such as, firewood cutting, brush mowers, wood chippers, chainsaw work with crews, or timber management activities like commercial timber sales.

So what type of treatment is the best?   Good question, and one that's debated all the time. Not only by the folks in the BLM, but by the public who are interested in how their public lands are being managed.

Fire mimics the natural process the best of all the treatment options, but it comes with some drawbacks that need to be addressed before its use. The big issue with using fire right now is the smoke the fire creates. When we use fire for treatments, we're concerned for public health, visibility, and private property impacts (no one likes smoky curtains). Using fire to treat some of the areas that have large fuel loads is difficult because of the high intensity fire that can be the outcome. Not only is it hard to control, but it can do damage to the vegetation that we are trying to treat. We need to use extra caution, additional staffing, and a slower process, which adds up to additional cost. In the unpopulated areas of Nevada, fire is probably the best treatment option we have. The cost per acre treated is very low, there is little impact or danger to the public, and limited smoke concerns. Along the Sierra Front, the best option might be a combination of all the treatment options. By using some type of mechanical treatment prior to the use of prescribed fire, the intensity of the fire will be reduced, along with the negative impacts mentioned earlier.