The new smoke management

The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will implement new regulations for the management of atmospheric particulate matter 2.5 mum an d less in diameter (PM2.5), tropospheric ozone, and regional haze in the ne xt few years. These three air quality issues relate directly to forest and agriculture burning. Fire generates PM2.5 and ozone precursor gases that re duce visibility. Hence, wild and agricultural land managers will be subject to these air quality regulations much as industrial and mobile sources hav e been for the past 25 years. In addition, these new regulations come at a time when private as well as public land managers throughout the United Sta tes are developing plans to increase their application of fire as a managem ent tool. Prescribed fire will remain viable as a tool for land managers wi th these new regulations but only under a responsible smoke management para digm. This paradigm will include formal 'state-approved' Smoke Management P rograms and will require the use of new and 'approved' technologies that ha ve been subjected to public and stakeholder scrutiny as regulatory tools. T hese programs will acknowledge that wildland fire is different from convent ional human-caused air pollution sources. They will recognize that the mana ged use of fire is a superior option to wildfire from public safety and hea lth perspectives. But they will also require greater utilization of non-bur ning alternatives in all circumstances, especially where fire is used for e conomic rather than ecological reasons. Through better smoke management and greater use of non-burning alternatives, steadily reduced smoke emissions will likely result.