Fire Issues Today

The purpose of this section of the class is to gain an understanding of the main issues affecting fire management today. The lectures and readings in this section, will enable the student to achieve the following learning objectives:

• Understand the importance of air quality and smoke management.

• Understand the importance of high value resources and what this means for the different federal fire agencies. 

• Understand the interactions of courts and land management. 

• Understand the importance of the wildland urban interface. 

Lectures:

• Week 15 - Fire Management Issues: Air Quality and Smoke Management (PDF) 

• Week 15 - Quiz: Section 3 Lectures and Readings

• Week 16 -  Class in Retrospect

Assignments and Blackboard Discussions:

• Week 15 Discussion: Public Perceptions of Fire and Smoke [Blackboard]
• Week 16 Discussion: Class in Retrospect [Blackboard]

Required Reading:

• Week 15 Reading: Arno and Alisson-Bunnell (2002), Chapter 11. Managing Widland Fuels Around Homes, pp 157-168

  AND Pyne (2001), Chapter 6. Urban Fire: Building Habitats for Fire, pp 102-118

• Week 16 Reading: Pyne (2001), Chapter 10. The Future of Fire: Burning Beyond the Millennium, pp 172-186

  AND Arno and Alisson-Bunnell (2002), Chapter 12. Lesson Learned from Nature: Will We Learn?, pp 169-182