Get reliable science

Each decision to suppress fire reinforces a feedback cycle in which fuels continue to accumulate, risk escalates, and the tendency to suppress fires grows (Miller and others, 2003). Existing decision-support tools focus primarily on the negative consequences of fire. This guide outlines a framework managers can use to (1) identify key areas of fire risk and (2) systematically determine where and under what fire weather conditions fire will benefit ecological conditions and management targets while reducing fuels. The Fire Effects Planning Framework (FEPF) sequentially links state-of-the-art, publicly available analysis tools, data, and knowledge to generate GIS-based planning information for a variety of scales. Primary funding for this effort was provided by the Joint Fire Science Program and the National Fire Plan.(source abstract).