Climate Science Centered Approach Unifies Fire Management in South Florida

A firefighter monitors a fire burning in south Florida.

NPS

It’s no secret that wildfires across the United States are worsening. Years of fire suppression have left excessive fuels on the ground, and when combined with hotter, dryer, longer fire seasons, this pushes the boundaries of fire management. With community urban sprawl moving onto fire-dependent lands, communities are more vulnerable to catastrophic fire.

South Florida National Parks and Preserve Fire and Aviation Management (SFFA) is taking steps to combat these challenges and come together to develop a cohesive strategy for fire management that meets the challenges today and into the next century.

In winter 2020, with the support of National Park Service (NPS) leadership and superintendents in south Florida, final pieces were in place to fully execute this vision. The first step was to standardize practices and procedures where it made sense for efficiency and effectiveness. This action set in motion a series of events that are still unfolding today as the South Florida National Parks and Preserve lands continue to align under one fire management organization.

“The goal is to have everything centralized at the programmatic level to support both units,” said James Sullivan, chief of South Florida National Parks and Preserve Fire and Aviation Management. “The individual units, maintaining their unique identities, work together to support a common goal. In the end it saves money, reduces stress on any one resource, and creates efficient and effective processes. Operations are done by the firefighters on the ground and this unified approach allows us to put more boots on the ground.”

South Florida Fire and Aviation employee finishes Rx Fire ignitions in South Florida.

NPS, M. Gue

The vision of SFFA prescribed fire program is designed to reduce wildfire cost, risk to communities, and severity within the ecosystem by implementing landscape-level burns under moderate conditions. This approach builds resiliency within the fire-adapted and fire-dependent ecosystems of south Florida by breaking up fuel continuity and reducing hazardous fuels. In 2021, 143,749 acres of prescribed fire treatments were successfully accomplished within this framework.

“With community sprawl comes canals, roads, farmland, and other forms of habitat fragmentation. The reorganization of South Florida National Parks and Preserve is a way of turning back the clock on some of that self-imposed fragmentation and allowing fire to take its rightful place in these ecosystems,” said Jack Weer, deputy fire management officer, Everglades National Park.

The challenges facing fire management today are different than the challenges of the last century. The recent successes and accomplishments of SFFA during this historic period can only come to fruition when the right individuals come together under a common vision to create a better future to preserve unimpaired the natural and cultural resources and values of the National Park System for the enjoyment, education, and inspiration of this and future generations.