NWCG Smoke Management Guide for Prescribed Fire (Black & White)

The National Wildfire Coordinating Group provides national leadership to enable interoperable wildland fire operations among federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial partners. Primary objectives include: Establish national interagency wildland fire operations standards. Recognize that the decision to adopt standards is made independently by the NWCG members and communicated through their respective directives systems; Establish wildland fire position standards, qualifications requirements, and performance support capabilities (e.g. training courses, job aids) that enable implementation of NWCG standards; Support the National Cohesive Wildland Fire Management Strategy goals: to restore and maintain resilient landscapes; create fire adapted communities; and respond to wildfires safely and effectively; Establish information technology (IT) capability requirements for wildland fire; and Ensure that all NWCG activities contribute to safe, effective, and coordinated national interagency wildland fire operations. The challenge of minimizing the impacts of smoke on the public while expanding the role of fire in land management has never been greater, as air quality standards tighten and the wildland-urban interface expands with people looking to live in natural environments with clean air. Recent dramatic increases in the average number of acres burned by wildfire per year have led to increased awareness that wildfire smoke impacts are a reality that must be addressed. Prescribed fire, a vital tool to improve ecosystem health and lessen the potential impacts of wildfire, is gaining support even among unlikely allies such as clean air agencies. But this tentative support will only continue and expand if fire practitioners commit to continuously learning and applying the best science and methods for protecting air quality as well as emphasizing public communications and outreach to address concerns. In the near future, changes in climate leading to shifting ecosystems and fire regimes will provide new challenges. This edition of the "Smoke Management Guide for Prescribed Fire" builds on previous versions with updated knowledge of fire and air quality science, policy, and tools. New concepts presented for the first time include chapters on smoke management communications, public perceptions of smoke from wildland fire, wildland fire and climate change, and the practical use of meteorological tools and indices for smoke management. This guidebook will serve to educate current and future generations of fire practitioners and smoke managers by building upon the good work of earlier efforts.