Problem: Excluding fire from hills, forests, and wildlands for decades has created massive fuel loads which lead to hotter, more destructive, and expensive fires. By excluding periodic fire from management regimes on hills, forests, and wildlands we have allowed fuel loads to accumulate, promising hotter fires and inviting conflagrations. Like anything else, too much control can get out of hand!

Solution: Controlled burns making fire a natural part of landscape health, reducing noxious weed and plant expansion in and around farms and ranchland. The RCD supports judicious burning, that focuses on controlling invasive weeds and woody plants and promoting the growth of native grasses, which naturally evolved and even depend on occasional fires. When coordinated with knowledgeable local and regional fire officials, controlled burns can be a safe, effective management practice. We are working to create an area-wide blanket permit program through the RCD, California Dept. of Forestry and Fire Protection (CDF), and local fire districts for controlled burns in the western range. If you would like to reduce the cost of a burn, do it safely, and with the support of CDF teams, contact the RCD Vegetation Management Specialist for more information. 

For a more detailed description on the use of prescribed burning in our Resource Library, select: Fire Management