Fuels Management
The three elements that must be present for a wildfire to occur are ignition, oxygen, and available fuels. Of these three, land managers have the best ability to influence how wildfires behave on the landscape through the management of fuels.
The BLM Fire Fuels Management program uses many vegetation management techniques, including mechanical, biological, and chemical tools, as well as prescribed fire. Fuels managers create fuel breaks to provide safe access for firefighters, reduce overall fuel loads, reduce fire risk near communities, promote grazing, and alter plant communities to break destructive cycles of invasive species and fire.
Wildfires don't stop at jurisdictional boundaries, which makes fuels management a team sport. Fuels managers work in partnership with other agencies and organizations, communities, and private landowners to achieve objectives that benefit everyone.
Fuels Management in BLM Fire: Fire Year 2025
Every year, BLM Fire reduces wildfire risk on over a million acres. In this video, you will meet some of the people who make that work happen in the Color Country and Paria River Districts of Southern Utah. These extraordinary land managers credit much of their success to the strength of their partnerships, and prove that the benefits of good fuels management extend far beyond wildfire risk reduction.
BLM fire history and fuels reduction map
This interactive application is a resource for information on wildfire causes and BLM projects that reduce the risk of future wildfires.
Case study: 2023 Animas City Mountain Type 1 Prescribed Burn
Learn more about how BLM Fire prepares for and implements prescribed burns, and how that supports both ecological health and future suppression efforts, in this video about the 2023 Animas City Mountain Type 1 Prescribed Burn, which directly reduced the threat of wildfire to the community of Durango, CO.
BLM Wildfire Risk Assessment
To prioritize areas at greatest risk, fuels managers developed the BLM Wildfire Risk Assessment for use in a five-year plan. This story map provides a summary of the methodology, data layers, and data processing techniques used in the assessment.