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This handout was published in 2005, but it contains good information. Topics covered include history of fire use in Texas, fire ecology in different ecoregions, use of fire in wildlife management, several case studies, roles of fire management agencies, and increasing stakeholder involvement.

This technical reference applies to monitoring situations involving a single plant species, such as an indicator species, key species, or weed. It was initially developed for monitoring special status plants.

This document has been transcribed from a scan of the February 1992 Fire Behavior Field Reference Guide. The scan was converted to editable text using OCR; the text was then edited and formatted. Outdated content referring to BEHAVE was not transcribed. Figures have been included in this document by simple copy-and-paste, not by scanning to an image file. Many figures should be re-created with graphing or illustration software. Tables were either copy-and-pasted or re-created in electronic format.

Prescribed fire affects wildlife in various ways. Population responses by species can be positive, negative, or neutral, short-term or long-term, and they often vary across spatial scales. Whereas prescribed fire can create or maintain habitats for some species, it can also remove or alter conditions in ways that render it unsuitable for other species. Furthermore, a species may benefit from fire in one situation but not another. Given the variations in fire and in species responses, the only real generalization one can make is that exceptions occur.

The fires were suspected to be human caused. Lack of snow cover and Chinook winds contributed to fire spread. A change in weather conditions was needed to fight the fire. Further analysis of the weather indicated that similar conditions occur more often that thought and increased human activity in the area leads to an increase in fire potential. Therefore a system for monitoring fire danger and warning communities would be advantageous.

The National Wildlife Federation now has five America’s Grasslands Conferences to be proud of with the most recent conference hosted in Bismarck, North Dakota in August 2019. This fifth conference was also the largest by number of attendees and presentations which is a testament to the growing popularity and continued significance of this biennial event. Our co-hosts in Bismarck were the North Dakota Grazing Lands Coalition and North Dakota State University who were instrumental in pulling off a successful conference. A defining feature of the conference is who attends and the organizations and grassland interests they represent. Of the almost 300 attendees in Bismarck, we had individuals from over twenty seven states, the District of Columbia, plus attendees from Canada and Mexico. Participants included over 30 ranchers and producers, academics from over 20 universities and a number of other research institutions, 35 different non-profit organizations, multiple state and regional wildlife agencies, joint ventures, local and federal agency representatives, and numerous other entities ranging from conservation districts and wildlife reserves to native seed and prairie restoration companies. 

Fire managers rely on research syntheses for concise, objective information. This report, based on current literature and interviews with fire professionals, describes ways to create more useful syntheses for managers in fire and related natural resources.

This “synthesis about syntheses” describes characteristics of effective syntheses and provides suggestions for writing more useful syntheses.

The increasing frequency and intensity of wildland and wildland-urban interface (WUI) fires have become a significant concern in many parts of the United States and around the world. To address and manage this WUI fire risk, local fire departments around the country have begun to acquire the appropriate equipment and offer more training in wildfire response and suppression. There is also growing recognition of the importance of wildfire mitigation and public outreach about community risk reduction. Using survey and interview data from 46 senior officers from local fire departments around the U.S., this report describes how some local fire departments are addressing the wildfire peril in terms equipment, training, fitness, response strategies and tactics, public communication, education, and mitigation activities. The successes and challenges these departments have experienced also show how departments face and overcome barriers to being better prepared and ready to control and mitigate a wildfire incident in their communities.

This report describes a new set of standard fire behavior fuel models for use with Rothermel’s surface fire spread model and the relationship of the new set to the original set of 13 fire behavior fuel models. To assist with transition to using the new fuel models, a fuel model selection guide, fuel model crosswalk, and set of fuel model photos are provided.