The role of fuel treatments during incident management

Abstract Background Forest fuel reduction treatments are intended to mitigate negative impacts from wildland fires, protect communities, and support firefighting. Understanding fuel treatment use is important for evaluating treatment effectiveness, which, in turn, can inform the strategic planning and design of treatments. A relatively understudied aspect of fuel treatments is how existing fuel treatments are incorporated into firefighting (i.e., incident management). In this paper, we explore how fuel treatments are used by firefighters and Incident Management Teams during fires to inform the broader conversation of designing fuel treatments and assessing fuel treatment effectiveness. Results Through interviews with wildland fire and forest managers (e.g., Incident Commanders, Agency Administrators, Fire Management Officers, and Fuels Planners) on seven western wildfire incidents during 2020 and 2021, we investigated how forest fuel treatments were utilized during firefighting. We found that treatments were considered and used during incidents in various ways, including to conduct burnouts, for direct modification of fire behavior, as access points for firefighters or equipment, or as components of contingency plans. Most interviewees said treatments provided additional options and flexibility in decision-making, enhancing both firefighter and community safety. For instance, treatments were used to reduce overhead hazards to firefighters and, in some cases, were prepared to serve as safety zones. Conclusions The decision to use a fuel treatment was based on several conditions, including the time since the treatment was implemented or maintained, treatment location, incident conditions, and personnel dynamics within the Incident Management Team or local forest unit. We explain what these findings mean in the context of wildland fire decision-making literature. We also provide recommendations for using fuel treatments to support wildfire incident management.