Torchbearers for a new
fire management paradigm.
New Life for the Federal Fire Policy
The Obama Administration has just approved the “Policy Guidance for Implementation of the Federal Wildland Fire Management Policy.” The new “Policy Guidance” rejects the Bush Administration’s 2003 “Policy Strategy” that had severely restricted opportunities for wildland fire use, resulting in huge, siege-like suppression incidents, billion-dollar wildfire seasons, and a de facto “pocket veto” of the Federal Fire Policy.The new Policy Guidance empowers fire managers to use all available tactics and strategies to accomplish multiple social and ecological objectives on every wildfire. Management actions in response to wildland fires will be flexible, adaptive, and changing according to the specific situation and conditions of a fire. Wildfire operations will now become more dynamic, multidimensional, and complex—just like wildland fire!
FUSEE supports the new Policy Guidance as another step towards realizing a new holistic fire management paradigm. However, it remains to be seen how well fire managers utilize the new guidance, and how the new management flexibility will be balanced with increased collaboration in fire planning, transparency in decision-making, and accountability for wildfire operations.
To keep abreast of new policy developments and their applications in the field, see our Current Issues section on AMR and Wildfire Monitoring.
