As the risk of catastrophic wildfire in the western United States grows, prescribed fire is an increasingly critical tool for reducing dry fuels and enhancing ecosystem diversity. Western States are gearing up for a ten-to-hundred-fold increase in prescribed fire over the coming decade. To help prepare for this growth, land and fire managers are looking for inspiration and advice from the southeastern US – states like Florida which has been at the forefront of this growing movement.

Prescribed burning, also called controlled burning, is a land management practice where fire is intentionally set under carefully monitored conditions to reduce fuel loads and deliver ecological benefits. This approach helps recycle nutrients into the soil, encourages the growth of native plants, and supports ecosystems that have long adapted to periodic fires. Prescribed burns also create a patchwork of habitats across the landscape, benefiting diverse wildlife species. By reducing excess vegetation, prescribed burns lower the risk of severe wildfires.

A major obstacle to increasing prescribed fire use has been the limited availability of roles outside government agencies. Until recently, prescribed fires in the West were almost exclusively the domain of federal and state agency personnel. Florida offers a valuable blueprint for how private citizens can successfully use prescribed fire. This region’s success is largely due to the widespread establishment of local Prescribed Burn Associations (PBAs), which bring together landowners, residents, and technical experts to collaborate on safe and effective burns. PBAs not only pool resources, such as equipment and labor, but also provide crucial training and liability protection for those leading the burns.

With help from PBA’s, the state of Florida has been lighting prescribed burns for decades. According to the Florida Forest Service, an estimated 2.1 million acres are burned with prescribed fire annually, much of that done by private landowners. From 1998 to 2018, non-federal entities were responsible for 70% of all prescribed fire completed in the Southeastern U.S.

PBAs trace their roots back to the 1990s in the Great Plains, where landowners came together to manage rangelands with fire. The model quickly spread to the Southeast, where it has been instrumental in forest management. Florida has been a leader in the prescribed fire movement, carving a path, through state policy, that encourages prescribed burns. The state is also home to the National Interagency Prescribed Fire Training Center, which has been at the forefront of training burn leaders and advocating for policy changes that make prescribed fire more accessible.

To aid this transition, Western states must continue to break through several barriers, including restrictive policies and cultural resistance to prescribed fire. Progress is being made, for example in 2018 California passed legislation that validated and certified experienced private burners for the first time, moving the needle for more citizen-led fire on the ground.

Read more about one western PBA bringing community together to put fire on the ground:

https://vitalsigns.edf.org/story/fighting-wildfires-fire-can-prescribed-burns-save-our-forests

No matter where in the U.S. that you live, see if there is a Prescribed Burn Association near you and sign up to get involved, and if there isn’t a PBA near you, consider gathering experts and citizens in your area to discuss starting one.

• Find a PBA near you in California: https://calpba.org/connect-ca-pba
• Connect with your local wildfire resilience community initiatives to discuss potential for starting a PBA, consider steps in this guide: https://www.landcan.org/pdfs/rx_fire_assoc.pdf