Changing fuel management strategies - The challenge of meeting new information and analysis needs

Attitudes and policies concerning wildland fire, fire use, and fire managem ent have changed greatly since early European settlers arrived in North Ame rica. Active suppression of wildfires accelerated early in the 20th Century , and areas burned dropped dramatically. In recent years, burned areas and cost of fires have begun to increase, in part due to fuel buildups resultin g from fire suppression. The importance of fire as an ecosystem process is also being increasingly recognized. These factors are leading to changes in Federal agency fire and fuels management policies, including increased emp hasis on use of prescribed fire and other treatments to reduce fuel loads a nd fire hazard. Changing fire management strategies have highlighted the ne ed for better information and improved risk analysis techniques for setting regional and national priorities, and for monitoring and evaluating the ec ological, economic, and social effects and tradeoffs of fuel management tre atments and wildfires. The US Department of Interior and USDA Forest Servic e began the Joint Fire Science Program in 1998 to provide a sound scientifi c basis for implementing and evaluating fuel management activities. Develop ment of remote sensing and GIS tools will play a key role in enabling land managers to evaluate hazards, monitor changes, and reduce risks to the envi ronment and the public from wildland fires.