Fighting fire with fire: Prescribed burns to offset wildfire dangers down the line

CLE ELUM, Wash. - It’s a rare sight in July: firefighters walking the Cle Elum Ridge in the Central Cascades Forest with drip torches in hand, setting fires.

These men and women aren’t preparing for a wildfire. Essentially, they’re attempting to prevent the next big one—they’re working on what’s known as a prescribed burn, a burn that’s meant to return natural processes to the land.

"It’s a shift in culture and in mindset to be burning while it’s also fire season," said Sami Schinnell, the cooperative fire director for The Nature Conservancy (TNC) Washington. "We respond to wildfires like it’s an emergency. We need to be responding to this issue of putting fire back on the landscape as an emergency."

PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Prescribed burns could heal Washington forests after decades of fire suppression

Washington is facing a forest health crisis. As a whole, the state’s 20-year forest plan calls for specialized treatments, including prescribed burns, on roughly 1.25 million acres of forest lands.

Decades of federal policies drove plans to suppress fires, leading to overgrown forests that are prime to burn. The idea that fire is bad has been dubbed the "Smokey Bear effect," essentially the message to prevent wildfires was so well received, the idea became: fire is bad, instead of fire is natural.

In reality, fire is part of a healthy ecosystem. Prescribed fires aren’t even a new idea. The use of prescribed fire predates modern civilization—Indigenous people were using fire to manage land long before settlers arrived, but those practices were eventually banned.

"Fires are natural," said Schinnell. "Fire in itself is not an evil thing. We’ve been suppressing fire for the last 120 years. Now, the vast majority of forests are extremely overstocked with ground fuels, surface fuels from the century of fire suppression."

TNC Washington is working on 10,000 acres of land in what they call a "living laboratory" to show how forest restoration, ecological fire and science can work hand-in-hand to improve forest health. The ideas hatched on their land in the Central Cascades area could be used to address the wildfire crisis around the western U.S.

On this day, TNC Washington is attempting to burn 80 acres of land near Cle Elum to reduce the risk of future fires for the surrounding communities. Typically, these fires are intentionally set in the spring and fall, but after a failed attempt to burn earlier this year, a rare opportunity arrived in mid-July allowing fire to be set in the middle of the summer.

The work also allows surrounding fire departments to work, and train, on prescribed fire techniques.

Jacob Stadelman, who is training to become a fire boss, was among those on this rare July burn.

"I feel like this opportunity is beneficial," said Stadelman. "You’re taking away a fuel source that could impact a town just below us, especially if a fire were to come over this ridge. You’re potentially saving a town just by doing this."

The nearby towns include Roslyn, Ronald and Cle Elum. Returning a natural process of fire to the ground—also referred to as "good fire"—doesn’t rule out the possibility of future wildfires, but it will make them less likely to explode in size, or sock the area in with smoke for days or weeks on end.

Burning doesn’t happen on a whim, however. It takes months, sometimes years, of planning and the setup needs to be just right; the May attempt to burn was canceled because a shot of rain a few days prior made it impossible to meet objectives. But in order to burn, specific guidelines for weather need to be met, as do fuel conditions and moisture.

Schinnell noted they don’t just go out in the forest with an intent to burn. A lot of science is involved.

It isn’t without risks if not done right. Earlier this year, payouts were announced following the 2022 wildfire season in New Mexico; missteps by forest managers with the U.S. Forest Service led to prescribed burns, turning into the largest wildfire in that state’s history.

PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Largest fire in New Mexico history caused by planned burns, federal review finds

The misstep halted many prescribed burns on federal lands at a time that forests were in desperate need of treatment.

In unmanaged forests where fire has long been suppressed, vegetation has shifted and species are being replaced, while fire-dependent forests are forever changed.

The reality is, fire suppression isn’t going anywhere—health and human property are often at-risk when wildfires break out.

There is, however, a hope that prescribed fires can change people’s perception of fire. In fact, some believe you won’t be able to achieve a greater forest health without such a shift.

"There is optimism," said Schinnell. "There is a lot of energy and momentum to get more fire on the ground, but it is and will continue to be an uphill battle. If we don’t do these burns, things will keep piling up. We want to get these conditions of the landscape back to pre-suppression times so when those natural fires do start, they’re not catastrophic, and they’re not threatening lives and communities."