The Plan On December 18, 1995, the Secretaries of the Interior and Agriculture signed the Federal Wildland Fire Management Policy and Program Review, which stated, "Every area with burnable vegetation will have an approved Fire Management Plan." The report went on to say, "Fire as a critical natural process, will be integrated into land and resource management plans and activities on a landscape scale, across agency boundaries, and will be based upon best available science. All use of fire for resource management requires a formal prescription. Management actions taken on wildland fires will be consistent with approved Fire Management Plans." The Ely District Managed Natural and Prescribed Plan meets the criteria set forth by the Secretaries. The Purpose The plan, which covers the entire 12 million acres in the Ely District, identifies areas where wildland fires will have negative affects and where fires will be beneficial. It will allow fires, to function as nearly as possible, as a natural ecological process on approximately 3.4 million acres. The plan also identifies the need for prescribed burning to meet management objectives for areas where fire has been excluded. The Expected Results It is anticipated that with the passage of time, there will be less intense fires that are smaller in size. It is also hoped there will be less catastrophic fires, allowing more diverse vegetative communities with different age structures. Cooler fires leaving islands of vegetation, rather than hot stand replacing fires will achieve this. Through this plan, public and fire fighter safety will be increased, air quality in the long term will improve, habitat for livestock and wildlife will be improved, springs will produce greater quantities of water and the costs to suppress fires will be significantly reduced. Ely District Managed Natural and Prescribed Fire Plan Map Prescribed Fires Fire is nature's way of releasing nutrients and stimulating new life. Fire can have beneficial or detrimental effects upon the landscape depending on where or when they burn. Today fire managers are trying to work with nature to improve habitat and forage for animals through the use of prescribed fires and post fire rehabilitation. Fire management is far from being a precise science since there are many variables to consider (weather, slope, soils, fuel moisture, etc.). Rather, prescribed fires are a combination of science and intuition. A well planned prescribed fire, executed within the prescriptions parameters will usually produce the desired results. Copies of the plan are available! If you'd like to review a copy of documents approved to implement managed natural and prescribed fire, please download a copy below.* Ely District Managed Natural and Prescribed Fire Plan (2.5 MB) Programmatic Environmental Assessment for the Ely District Managed Natural and Prescribed Fire Plan (1.65 MB) *These files require an Adobe Reader. If you don't have an Adobe Reader and would like to obtain a free copy from Adobe... Click here.
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