Fire Management Lessons Learned—Evolving Fire Management
Programs on the George Washington and Jefferson National
Forests and Sequoia National Forest
Carol M. Ewell, Ecologist, USDA Forest Service, Adaptive Management Services Enterprise Team, Sonora, CA; David Kerr,
Fire Management Specialist, USDA Forest Service retired, Santa Clarita, CA; Frankie Romero, National Fire Use Program
Manager, USDA Forest Service, Boise, ID; and Steve Croy, Ecologist and Fire Planner, USDA Forest Service, George
Washington and Jefferson National Forests, Roanoke, VA.
Abstract—The innovative and evolving fire management programs on the George Washington and Jefferson
and the Sequoia National Forests were documented in a 2013 Wildland Fire Lessons Learned Center case study1.
These fire management programs, with the support of Forest Service leadership, are taking proactive steps
to address agency direction in developing and maintaining fire-resilient forests while assuring firefighter and
public safety and economic efficiency. Historical fire and GIS data, case study information, and interviews with
key fire program and Forest Service leadership were used to inform this study, which was organized into four
themes: organizational culture, safety, economics, and natural resource effects and data modeling. While these
two National Forests represent vastly different ecological systems with contrasting fire regimes, several common practices have allowed these National Forests to become progressive fire management leaders, such as:
• Acknowledgement by leadership that existing practices were not compatible with maintaining functioning
ecosystems, based on past significant fire events or current forest conditions.
• Embracing management of fire-adapted systems by National Forest leadership, and using fire as a tool to
improve overall forest health. Critical habitat was enhanced by managing wildfires for integrated objectives.
• Acknowledgement that wildfires managed for both human or infrastructure protection and resource benefit
objectives improved firefighter/public safety and ecosystem health.
• Tailoring incident actions/operations to the threats and opportunities presented, which resulted in a cost-peracre reduction for incident management.
• Establishing that agency and National Forest direction exists through land management plans to utilize a wide
variety of fire management practices to meet land management and public safety goals.
• Recognition that larger burned areas under these evolving strategies are resulting in landscape-level improvements in fuel conditions, allowing available fuels funding to be focused on key locations closer to communities
and developments.
Wildfires managed for human or infrastructure protection and resource objectives have benefits beyond
ecosystem restoration, including reduced needs for large numbers of ground-based and aviation resources
associated with incident-specific safety improvements. These strategic shifts in fire management come with
leadership support. Key human factors and commonalities were seen in these fire management programs
including: insightful leaders who are responsible for driving the organizational change; support from key partners and stakeholders which is critical to sustain these programs through time; resistance to organizational
change decreased as program successes became obvious; and shared risk management between line officers
and incident or local fire staff is necessary for the long-term success of resilient landscapes. The four keys to
the future success of these programs were: engraining successful fire management practices into day-to-day
incident or National Forest operations; remembering the seminal events that lead to the organizational paradigm shift; assuring that policy and enabling documents support resilient or integrated land management
practices; and maintaining strong partnerships with stakeholders and the public. Each National Forest has
unique challenges in meeting the goals of developing and maintaining healthy, fire-resilient ecosystems, while
simultaneously ensuring firefighter and public safety. The George Washington and Jefferson and the Sequoia
National Forests have demonstrated that, through the thoughtful use of existing agency authorities, these
goals are within reach.
1full
report available online at: http://www.wildfirelessons.net/viewdocument/?DocumentKey=de0bb7
ad-1010-4b88-8dbd-658ddbc811b8&tab=librarydocuments
In: Keane, Robert E.; Jolly, Matt; Parsons, Russell; Riley, Karin. 2015. Proceedings
of the large wildland fires conference; May 19-23, 2014; Missoula, MT. Proc.
RMRS-P-73. Fort Collins, CO: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky
Mountain Research Station. 345 p.
334
The content of this paper reflects the views of the authors, who are responsible for the
facts and accuracy of the information presented herein.
USDA Forest Service Proceedings RMRS-P-73. 2015.