Prevention
Fire Prevention
Fuel Management
Forest Service fire management specialists uses mechanical methods like thinning out dense stands of trees, overcrowded brushes, and creating fuel breaks to help make areas less susceptible to fire. Tools include rakes, chainsaws and bulldozers.
Fuel Reduction
Fire management specialists reduce fuel by removing them through handlines, heavy equipment, or soaking fuels with retardants and water.Wildfire Preparedness
- Reducing Wildfire Risk (Southern Group of State Foresters)
- Firewise
- Smokey Bear - How to Prepare Your Home for Wildfire
Wildfire Prevention Tips
Help Smokey Bear prevent wildfires by:
- Parking on dry grass can spark a wildfire. Avoid parking vehicles on dry grass.
- Please dispose of cigarettes appropriately. Never throw cigarettes out your car window!
- Secure trailer chains behind vehicles. Dragging chains makes sparks!
- During this drought, check for fire bans.
- Avoid outdoor cooking, firepits, and campfires
Fire Prevention Videos
- Hunter Wildfire Safety
- Drown, Stir, Feel: How to Extinguish Your Campfire
- Campfire Safety: Mop Up like a firefighter
- 2023 Drought: Alabama's Forests
Prescribed Fire
One of the most important natural agents of change, fire plays a vital role in maintaining certain ecosystems as part of the environment. Prescribed fires refer to the controlled application of fire by a team of fire management specialists under specified weather conditions to restore ecosystem health. As a result of prescribed fires, we can reduce the catastrophic damage caused by wildfires on our lands and around our communities by the following means:
- Reducing excessive amounts of brush, shrubs, and trees in a safe manner
- Promoting the growth of native vegetation
- Preserving the habitats of plants and animals that rely on periodic fires for survival
Our most effective tool for preventing wildfires and managing their intensity and spread is prescribed fire. In spite of this, prescribed fires are still fires, which is why fire management specialists are extremely careful when planning and executing them. With years of training and experience, these specialists know what the best conditions and timing are for conducting prescribed fires.