1. Sustaining Healthy Ecosystems With Prescribed Fire in the
Closing Remarks:
Sustaining Healthy Ecosystems
With Prescribed Fire in the
Southeast
A Dream, A Team, A Theme
Robert W. Mutch

2. A Dream: Safely Sustaining Healthy Ecosystems with RX Fire on a Landscape Scale

3. A Team: Integrating a network of human resources to define, refine, and implement the Theme on a landscape scale.

4. The Theme: Implement a Program of Systematic RX Fire Applications in Time and Space

6. Systematic Prescribed Fire Model Evaluation Monitoring Holding
Ignition Rx
Approval
Planning
Safety
Cost + Loss >
Air Quality
Public Support
Media
Liability
Training
Funding
Time >

8. Steve Pyne on Prescribed Fire
“Too much of the wrong kind of fire & not enough of the right kind.”

10. The Poetry of Wildfire

12. Primary Reasons for Rx Burning in U.S.
Fire hazard reduction…… %
Silviculture………………….17.9 %
Vegetation management…..2.5 %
Range improvement………..1.2 %
Wildlife habitat………………9.8 %
Others…………………………4.5 %
From Peterson et al. (1993)

13. FS 1997-2002 Rx Fire Trend Year Acres Burned 1997 1,097,658
,097,658
,489,293
,412,281
,374
,319,934
,051,304
Total ,142,844

14. Prescribed Burn Acres in SE
1994
552,325
1995
583,453
1996
531,822
1997
728,930
1998
758,044
1999
950,718
2000
455,942
2001
678,865
2002
761,313
2003
935,027
2004
1,043,618
Prescribed Burn Acres in SE

15. Rx Fire Issues in the Southeast
Safety
Rx Fire Training
Growing Season Burning
Wilderness Fire
Diverse Eco-Region Burning
Wildland/Urban Interface

16. Smoke Related Accidents

17. Cramer Fire Fatality Site, 2003

18. Lessons Never Learned
1949: 13 Deaths : 2 Deaths

19. Rx Fire Training Center

20. Dormant Season Burning

21. Growing Season Burning

22. Big Gum Swamp Wilderness

23. “Have We Done Enough?”
Can We Do More?

24. “Between a Rock & a Hard Place”
“Motivation can overcome the impossible.”

25. Estimate of Rx Fire by Eco-Region, R-8
96 % Coastal Plain
3 % Ozark Highlands
1% Appalachians and Piedmont

26. Lagadec, in “Preventing Chaos in a Crisis”:
“…the ability to deal with a crisis situation is largely dependent on the structures that have been developed before chaos arrives.”

27. “The event can in some ways be considered as an abrupt and brutal audit at a moment’s notice.”

28. “Everything that was left unprepared becomes a complex problem, and every weakness comes to the forefront.”

29. “You do things the opposite in U.S. Interface.”

30. Prepare, Stay, and Defend--the Ultimate in Teamwork (AFAC)
The Dream: houses are able to survive fires even when Fire Service personnel are not available.
The Team: consists of the effective partnership between Fire Services and home dwellers.
The Theme: comprises the dual strategy of adequate defendable space coupled with the home dweller’s motivation to remain on-site.

31. Wedge Fire, Montana, USA, 2003

34. Lady of the House Makes OJ

35. Volunteer Fireman Celebrates

36. The Reason to Stay

38. “It is hard to know what to do with all the detail that rises out of fire.”

39. “It rises out of a fire as thick as smoke and threatens to blot out everything…”

40. “Some of it is true but doesn’t make any difference.”

41. “Some of it is just plain wrong…”

42. “And some doesn’t even exist, except in your mind, as you slowly discover long afterwards.”

43. “Some of it, though, is true—and makes all the difference.”
Norman Maclean
Young Men and Fire

44. “Have We Done Enough?”
Can We Do More?

45. Rx Fire Issues in the Southeast
Safety
Rx Fire Training
Growing Season Burning
Wilderness Fire
Diverse Eco-Region Burning
Wildland/Urban Interface

46. The Dream: Look Where You Are Going!

47. The Theme: Go Where You Are Looking!

48. “Thank You for Leading the Way!”