Challenges and Approaches in Planning Fuel Treatments across Fire-Excluded Forested Landscapes

Placing fuel reduction treatments across entire landscapes such that impacts associated with highintensity fire are lessened is a difficult goal to achieve, largely because of the immense area needing treatment. As such, fire scientists and managers have conceptually developed and are refining methodologies for strategic placement of fuel treatments that more efficiently limit the spread and severity of fire across forested landscapes. Although these methodologies undoubtedly improve managers’ ability to plan and evaluate various landscape fuel treatment scenarios, there is still a considerable gap between modeling landscape fuel treatments and actually implementing these treatments “on the ground.” In this article we explore this gap in light of decisions managers make with regards to the type, intensity, placement/pattern, and size of fuel treatments. Additionally, we highlight several critical constraints acting on managers when implementing fuel treatments across landscapes and offer some suggestions for dealing with these constraints.