Rocky Mountain National Park fire crews, using chainsaws and hand tools, remove dead and downed woody materials, and thin closely spaced live trees to create fuel breaks. Some dead standing trees and downed material may remain in place as wildlife habitat. The excess vegetation is disposed of in several ways. Material may be piled and burned on site when conditions permit, hauled away to be burned off-site when conditions permit or utilized as firewood or fencing materials.

These fuel reduction projects are designed to combat both the intensity and available fuel for fires. It has been demonstrated that when wildfires approach treated areas, rate of spread generally slows and they are usually much more easily controlled. While fuel reduction projects are an important part of fire management, there are also a number of inherent challenges. These projects are very labor intensive, with relatively high treatment costs. They require periodic maintenance treatments and are best supported by private landowner participation on neighboring properties. Fuel breaks alone are not enough to prevent wildfires, but will allow for more effective fire management and can be valuable in community protection efforts on the wildland urban interface.

Prescribed Fire and Fire Use

Periodic lightning-caused fires have shaped the landscape of Rocky Mountain National Park. These fires occurred on a regular basis and were very beneficial in clearing debris from the forest floor and recycling nutrients into the soil. Fire suppression during the past century has resulted in significant accumulations of forest fuels and creates the potential for intense wildfires. In order to help restore natural processes, the National Park Service has and will continue to reintroduce fire into the ecosystem where possible.

Prescribed fires are intentionally set under predetermined environmental conditions to meet a wide variety of park management objectives. Chief among these are to reduce the risks of unnaturally heavy fuel buildup, the potential for destructive wildfires, the potential loss of life and property and to perpetuate species that require the presence of fire for survival. Much like a doctor would provide a planned course of action for a sick patient, the fire managers prescribe a specific treatment for an unhealthy forest. Prescribed fire has many advantages, including mimicking a natural process, a lower treatment cost per acre and being a much more efficient method for treating larger areas, in which manual thinning would be a nearly impossible task. A significant challenge with prescribed fire is managing risk. Despite modern predictive models, weather conditions and resulting fire behavior can be variable. Research indicates that fire intensity sometimes can't be replicated due to safety concerns. In order to address these issues, the fire management program at Rocky Mountain National Park is designed to use the highest level o f professionalism, along with the best available tools and techniques in planning and implementation of prescribed fire projects.

Wildland fire use is the term used by fire managers to describe naturally ignited lightning caused fires, allowed to burn in predetermined areas under carefully monitored conditions to benefit park resources. While allowing this natural process to continue is highly desirable, values at risk and safety must still be protected. The designated fire use area in Rocky Mountain National Park contains 168,000 acres, with the majority being within the interior of the park and at higher elevations.