Wildfire Mitigation and Fuel Management

Fire disturbance is a necessary part of the natural life cycle of a forest ecosystem. However, years of insufficient management has played a role in producing some of the higher intensity and detrimental wildfires that have devastated some of our communities and natural resources in the past.

Wildfire mitigation is a prescribed treatment system and a set of strategically planned tools anticipated to increase resilience and reduce the risk of high frequency fires that threaten community safety and natural resources. Treatments include clearcut, spacing, fuel break construction, removal of surface and ladder fuels, raking, piling, burning and retaining deciduous species. Hand treatments include pruning, hand falling, piling and burning. Each mitigation treatment is unique based on an ecosystem's natural disturbance type and it's landscape characteristics. 

Treated sites are left with healthy, standing timber and a significant decrease in fuel load. This will give the retained timber greater resilience to wildfire damage and a more successful opportunity to continue prosperous growth with less competition. The spacing will also prevent wildfire from spreading significantly through the stand and will provide emergency and firefighting crews with a more adequate and safer approach to extinguishing and containing a fire.