Fire Use and Fuels Management
The Fire Use and Fuels Management program in Indian Country manages a variety of ecosystems across the Unites States that range from arid, to humid, warm to cold and sea level to over 10,000 feet elevations. The areas of responsibility are a broad spectrum of landscapes, fuels and ecosystems spanning from Alaska to Florida.
The exclusion of fire on the landscape has created vegetative conditions that no longer look or have the ecological conditions they once did. Today’s landscapes are ripe for disease, insect infestation, and catastrophic wildfires. Global climate change, invasive species, threatened and sensitive species and extreme competition for funding is further increasing the complexity to treat hazardous fuels on the landscape.
The mission of the Program is to:
Provide leadership, executive direction, technical assistance and guidance to regional, tribal and agency hazardous fuels management programs.
The Program supports fuels projects that:
- Create a safe environment for fire fighters and those who live and recreate in fire prone ecosystems
- Meet tribal resource management goals
- Involve collaborative efforts with stake holders to reduce risks to communities, restore and maintain healthy ecosystems, and protect our cultural and natural resources
- Restore fire as a natural and managed process in fire dependent ecosystems
- Develop and maintain a competent and skilled work force
- Integrate fuels reduction with other natural resource program activities
- Support biomass utilization and promote healthy economies
- Incorporate fire monitoring to measure fire effects and assure desired conditions are met