Managing smoke at the wildland-urban interface

Abstract

When prescribed burning is conducted at the wildland-urban interface (WUI), the smoke that is produced can sometimes inconvenience people, but it can also cause more serious health and safety problems. The public is unlikely to continue to tolerate the use of prescribed fire, regardless of the benefits, if burn managers cannot keep smoke out of smoke-sensitive areas. In the South, forest management organizations commonly require that plans for prescribed burns pass a smoke screening review and some States require such a review before they will authorize a burn. Current screening systems, however, do not incorporate criteria for use at the WUI. This guide describes modifications to the Southern Smoke Screening System for burns at the WUI. These modifications couple new research findings with the collective experience of burners who have extensively used the 1976 Southern Smoke Screening System. This new smoke screening system is designed for use on burns less than 50 acres in size and has undergone several years of successful field testing in Florida.

Keywords

Fire management, prescribed fire, smoke management, smoke screening, wildland urban interface

Citation

Wade, Dale; Mobley, Hugh. 2007. Managing smoke at the wildland-urban interface. Gen. Tech. Rep. SRS-103. Asheville, NC: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Southern Research Station. 28 p.