The National Association of State Foresters (NASF) and the Coalition of Prescribed Fire Councils (CPFC) worked collaboratively to produce the 2020 National Prescribed Fire Use Report.
Since 2011, the two organizations have partnered to prepare triennial reports (in 2012, 2015, and 2018) on prescribed fire activity, state-level programs, and barriers to prescribed fire implementation. These reports remain the only fire surveys that assimilate state forestry agencies’ fire intelligence for use among the prescribed fire community.
For the first time, this year’s National Prescribed Fire Use Report includes data on annual forestry/rangeland acres treated with prescribed fire. According to state forestry agencies, 8,540,401 acres were treated with prescribed fire in 2018. In 2019, 10,003,541 acres were treated – an increase of 28% compared to 2011. Importantly, 2019 was the first year the number of forestry/rangeland acres treated with prescribed fire in the U.S. exceeded 10 million.
Thumbnail Photo Credit: Tyler Gilbert, The Ember Alliance; Fort Union Prescribed Fire Operations, 2019. Near Watrous, New Mexico. The Ember Alliance acknowledges this image is taken on culturally significant land to the Jicarilla Apache, and Pueblos peoples.