Suppression Firing
The unmeasured variable in American fire science: what is known, what is not, what it costs us, and what the agencies can do about it now.
American wildland firefighters deliberately ignite fire inside wildfire perimeters as a routine tactic. The practice is required by doctrine, taught in a national curriculum, equipped with an expanding arsenal of aerial delivery systems, and conducted at a scale nobody counts. The acres it burns enter the national wildfire statistics without a label. The fire it produces is not distinguished from free-spreading fire in any dataset researchers use. Its effects on soils, old trees, water, air, and listed species have never been measured against a control, in any fuel type, anywhere.
About the author
Frank Carroll
My name is Frank Carroll. I'm a wildfire consultant and a veteran of the Forest Service. For the last decade or so I've been deeply engaged in wildfire policy, and in looking at the overarching picture of wildfire management, forest management, and active management in the United States on both public and private lands.
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