The 21st century began with a long and costly wildfire season matched only by the fire season of 1910.  The 1910 fire season in the Northern Rockies launched organized fire management on public lands. The terrible destruction of the 1910 fires motivated a century of aggressive wildland firefighting that sought to extinguish every wildfire as quickly as possible.  Like the 1910 fires, the fires of 2000, and subsequent seasons, mark a tipping point in public perceptions of fire in the wildlands.  Major changes have been made in national fire management policy; which are reflected in the National Fire Plan and the Healthy Forests Restoration Act of 2004, which mandates that:

• Fire planning and management be done for landscapes that make sense from a fire behavior and fire ecology perspective.  This means planning in close collaboration with neighboring landowners and local governments to create a common plan and share in its implementation across jurisdictional boundaries.
• Vegetation (fuels) management should play at least as important a role in fire and smoke management as does firefighting efforts. 
• In the Wildland Urban Interface, the federal agencies will work closely with the Colorado State Forest Service (CSFS) and communities-at-risk to mitigate the fire threat on both public and private lands, and to increase the safety of life and property.
• The federal agencies will work with the CSFS to improve rural fire department training and equipment so communities can play a larger role in protecting themselves from wildfire.  Rural fire departments will be integrated into all levels of wildland fire management from fire prevention and education to hazard mitigation and prescribed fire.
• Fire will be restored where possible to protect and enhance the values those landscapes provide for the public. Fire is an essential part of most wildland ecosystems.  Unless wildlands burn periodically, few wildland ecosystems can sustain themselves over time. 
• To the extent possible, fire mitigation and restoration efforts will be done to increase the economic opportunities for local communities and to find valuable uses for the removed vegetation.
  

In the 21st century, fire managers are more engaged with local governments, neighboring landowners, and other stakeholders than in the past.  The public can expect more contact with federal fire managers, more opportunities to be involved in planning for fire management on public and private lands, and the chance to take a more active role in protecting communities and restoring wildland health.

BLM Colorado is proud of the work fire and other resource managers have accomplished during the past several years and looks forward to meeting future challenges through cooperation and collaboration with state and local governments, community associations, non-government organizations and the general public.

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