Fire Management program

Wildland fire has long been recognized as one of the most significant natural processes operating within and shaping the northern Sierra Nevada and southern Cascade Mountain ecosystems. Virtually all vegetation communities show evidence of fire dependence or tolerance. Many forest types in the park have been shaped by frequent fire return intervals (ranging from 5-16 years) as evidenced by park research. At the same time, wildland fire has the potential to threaten human lives and property. Consequently, there is a need to manage wildland fire so that threats to humans and property are reduced, and, at the same time restoring and/or maintaining its function as a natural process. The fire management program protects life and property from destructive wildfires. The program also reintroduces fire on the park’s landscape to insure forest health. The program employs five appropriate management strategies to reach its goals.

1. Fire Suppression
2. Manual Fuel Treatments
3. Mechanical Fuel Treatments
4. Wildland Fire Use
5. Prescribed Fire

A firefighter removes a dead snag from an adjacent fire while another firefighter watches for safety reasons.

Fire Suppression

Wildland fire suppression is an appropriate management response to some wildland fires which threaten life, property and critical resources. All suppression actions are implemented with firefighter safety as the highest consideration. Suppression activities seek to minimize loss of resource values, economic spending, and the use of firefighters.

A firefighter removes fuels and prepares the fire line for a future prescribed fire.

Manual Fuel Treatments

Manual treatment is the use of hand tools or hand operated power tools to reduce hazardous accumulations of wildland fuels and to create defensible space near structures and along prescribed fire boundaries.

Mechanical Fuel Treatments

Mechanical treatments include the use of larger mechanized equipment such as front end loaders, tub grinders, and other large equipment in order to move and process larger material. Mechanical treatments are used only in developed areas to remove larger diseased trees which pose a hazard to the public.

The fire management program at Lassen Volcanic National Park is actively engaged in reintroducing fire through two methods: wildland fire use and prescribed fire.

Bluff Wildland Fire Use Fire-2004.

Wildland Fire Use

Wildland Fire Use is one strategy that Fire Management uses to reintroduce fire into fire adaptive ecosystems, restore healthy forests and remove heavy buildups of hazardous fuels.

Wildland Fire Use occurs when a lightning fire is managed in a predetermined geographic area, under strict parameters to achieve specific resource management goals.
Download the Wildland Fire Use Risk Assessment in Lassen Volcanic National Park.

Butte Lake Prescribed Fire Afternoon Ignitions.

Prescribed Fire

Prescribed fires are ignited by management to achieve resource objectives. In some forest types it is necessary to return and retreat these areas with prescribed fire in order to maintain them. These operations are not mutually exclusive and usually all prescribed fire operations contain a mix of initial treatment and maintenance treatment.

Prescribed fires must be described in a prescribed fire burn plan. The plan will contain a prescription defining goals, objectives, and treatment methods employed to achieve the objectives. The park employs methods to monitor areas before and after treatment to insure that fire management operations are meeting resource management objectives.