Kaibab Adapts to Fire Flexibility
During the 2008 fire season, the Kaibab National Forest in Arizona was one of two forests in the Southwest region asked to participate in a pilot program to test proposed changes to the 2003 Interagency Strategy for the Implementation of Federal Wildland Fire Management Policy. Kaibab was chosen to participate in part because of the forest's proactive wildland fire use management program. Since 2003, the forest has managed 52 fires for natural-resource benefits on more than 54,000 acres.
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The guidelines of the pilot program give fire managers the authority and flexibility to implement a full range of management options on lightning-started fires on public lands. Specifically, fire and land managers are able to manage a fire for more than one objective, and they have the flexibility to respond appropriately to changing incident conditions to meet safety, protection and natural-resource management goals.
Under the old policy, once a fire was classified as either "suppression" or "wildland fire use," the objective could not change. Under the pilot program, fire and land managers can change strategies throughout the incident to meet resource objectives. Managing a fire for more than one objective makes sense because fires often burn across the landscape at various intensity levels, in different vegetation types and near values at risk that require a full spectrum of management actions to keep the fire within desired parameters. On many fires in 2008, personnel managed for multiple objectives by taking aggressive actions when fire spread threatened watersheds, infrastructure, developed recreation sites or private property. In addition, they took less-forceful actions and monitored the same fire when it moved into areas where such threats were not present.
Also under the old policy, the decision to manage a fire for wildland fire use had to be made within eight hours of size-up. This year, Kaibab personnel tested this option by placing new fires in "monitor" status while assessing and evaluating their potential. The decision to transition to wildland fire use management could be made later if it was determined that the fire was benefiting the resources. This is an important management tool for forest officials because a fire could be capable of benefiting the resources, but such an opportunity may not be obvious soon after size-up. Without the flexibility to change strategies depending on conditions, many new fires that could provide enormous resource benefits could be suppressed instead due to the constraints that an eight-hour time limit imposes.
Throughout the 2008 fire season, Kaibab National Forest personnel tested changes to the current policy on about 10 fires. Among these new starts, several notable fires emerged, including the 10,778-acre Marteen Fire and the 473-acre Oak Fire on the Williams District; the 747-acre Newt Fire on the Tusayan District; and the 1,710-acre Mill Fire on the North Kaibab. The other smaller fires went out naturally. The large fires were successfully managed from July through December; consequently more than 13,000 forest acres benefited from fire's natural disturbance, necessary in a fire-adapted ecosystem.
The Kaibab National Forest was pleased to participate in the pilot program to improve fire management capabilities across the landscape. The results of the pilot program will be implemented this year, providing managers the opportunity to apply a more integrated approach to land management programs. Giving resource specialists a full range of management options and the authority to make decisions to meet resource objectives based on changing conditions is a step in the right direction to protect communities, allow fire to resume its proper role in the ecosystem and improve overall forest health.
Punky Moore is the Fire Information Officer on the Kaibab National Forest in Williams, Ariz. Moore began her information career as a Visitor Use Assistant in the Mountaineering Program at Denali National Park in 1995. She moved to the Forest Service in 2000, and continued working in Information Services in Steamboat Springs, Colo. on the Med Bow/Routt National Forests. She acquired her Type II Information Officer qualifications in Colorado and began working with the Northern Rockies Interagency Fire Use Management Team in 2001. Moore moved to the Mendocino National Forest in northern California in 2004. While on the Mendocino, she coordinated fire information efforts during incidents and developed communication plans for the fire management program.
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