HISTORY
It's well documented that not all wildland fires are extremely damaging to resources. Fire, in fact, is the agent that is responsible for many of the forests we see and value today. Wildland fires have been managed instead of being suppressed in large Wilderness areas like the Selway-Bitterroot since the 1970's. In recent years the Forest Service has used wildland fire use (WFU) in backcountry areas outside of designated Wilderness.

MANAGED WILDFIRE and SUPPRESSION AREAS
Wildland fires in approprate areas (green on the map) can be considered for a managment approach if they are expected to provide beneficial effects to resources including elk habitat. Each fire is evaluated shortly after its discovery and the decision to suppress or manage the fire is made depending on the weather, fire location, vegetation conditions and expected fire behavior and spread over the rest of the fire season.  Managed wildfires are monitored and reevaluated daily to determine if they are still producing desired results. The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation is an important partner in the use of managed wildfire as this tool is recognized as the most practical way to rejuvenate elk habitat over broad areas.

Fires that ignite or threaten the developed parts of the forest where timber is being harvested and there are significant investments in planted trees, or threaten structures or private property receive a suppression response to protect those values. Those areas show as brown on the map. The tan areas are transition areas where an appropriate suppresion response will be used. In this approach managers will use less than an all-out suppression effort to reduce firefighting costs. Despite suppression efforts, fires here may still burn significant areas and provide habitat changes that are beneficial for elk.

SOME RECENT MANAGED WILDFIRES
See below for links to pictures and facts about selected managed wildfires on the Clearwater NF. Information on these and other fires is available on the Grangeville Interagency Dispatch web site.

2010 Managed Wildfires

2008 WFU

2007 WFU

2006 WFU