Controlled burn
A deliberately set and managed fire used to reduce hazardous vegetation, improve habitat, or achieve other land-management goals.
Prescribed fire plan: A document specifying a planned burn’s objectives, conditions, methods, resources, and safety measures. It translates land-management goals into operational limits and procedures.
Fuel management: The treatment of vegetation and other combustible material to alter wildfire risk or behavior. Controlled burning is one method for reducing hazardous fuels across landscapes.
Wildfire: An unplanned fire that burns in vegetation or other combustible landscapes. Unlike a controlled burn, it is not deliberately ignited under a management plan.
Smoke management: The planning and control of smoke emissions to reduce their effects on people and the environment. Burn plans must account for smoke exposure and visibility beyond the burn area.
Indigenous fire stewardship: The diverse practices through which Indigenous peoples use and care for fire within their territories. These long-standing practices predate and inform many contemporary approaches to planned burning.
Fire weather: Atmospheric conditions that influence fire ignition, spread, intensity, and containment. Wind, humidity, and temperature help define when a burn can proceed safely.
Wildfire mitigation: Actions that reduce the likelihood or consequences of damaging wildfires. Burning can lower fuel continuity near communities and within forests.
Cultural burning: Intentional fire practices grounded in Indigenous knowledge, responsibilities, and cultural relationships to land. It may resemble agency burns in technique but arises from distinct authority and purposes.
Particulate matter: A mixture of tiny solid particles and liquid droplets suspended in air. Smoke from prescribed fire can worsen air quality, especially for people with respiratory conditions.
Smokey Bear: The U.S. Forest Service’s wildfire-prevention mascot, introduced in 1944. The campaign became a prominent symbol of fire suppression in the United States.