Prescribed fire and ecosystem management: Managerial considerations for longer temporal and broader spatial scales

Abstract

Ecosystem management is positioned as the modern paradigm of resource management. Fire management activities within the natural resource management agencies, under the adoption of an ecosystem management approach, supports an increased focus upon prescribed and manager-ignited fire programs. A review of past national fire policies and the effects they have had upon ecosystem conditions today further supports the role for prescribed fire. Under an ecosystem management approach, resource managers need to consider the effects of fire management activities over longer temporal and broader spatial scales. Examining the ecological, social, political, and economic aspects surrounding fire management activities on these scales will help ensure healthier ecosystems in perpetuity. Although the suppression of wildfires will remain a necessary component to fire management activities today, there needs to be an increased effort to reintroduce fire into ecosystems and to recognize fire as a natural component vital to maintaining ecosystem health.