Staff from Golden Gate National Recreation Area will provide an overview of wildland fire management at GGNRA and discuss an amendment to the park's fire management plan to include new park lands at Rancho Corral de Tierra in San Mateo County. The new lands at Rancho have added almost 4,000 acres to the park, including approximately 2.4 miles of wildland urban interface where the park shares a common boundary with residential areas in Montara, Moss Beach and El Granada. Wildland urban interface areas are important in wildland fire management planning because they tend to have a higher potential for human-caused fires and more private property at risk.

Smokey’s message is still relevant today, but it has become more nuanced. Not all fire in the forest is bad. While it is still imperative to prevent catastrophic wildfires, fire is necessary for the proper functioning of California’s forest ecosystems. So the challenge becomes: how can we safely bring fire back to the landscape to meet our management and restoration objectives?

One way to gain the benefits of fire is through prescribed burns. These are intentional fires set under very controlled conditions to avoid adverse consequences. Prescribed burning is one of many options in the forest management toolbox. However, the widespread use of fire for forest management is somewhat controversial in California, and extremely complicated. Not only is fire behavior inherently complex, but talk about burning in our forests brings up an array of health, safety, and liability concerns.

The Spring 2013 Edition of the excellent "Forestland Steward" Newsletter addresses prescribed burning in California in-depth, with information on Fire as a Management Tool, Air Quality Concerns, Obstacles to Prescribed Burning, and more. Download the Spring 2013 Forestland Steward Newsletter in PDF format here.