fire helps our lands
Forests in the Inland Northwest have evolved alongside fire. At lower elevations, ponderosa pine forests historically experienced frequent, low-intensity fires that reduced fuel buildup and maintained open, resilient landscapes. At higher elevations, forests adapted to less frequent but more intense fires. These natural fire cycles play an essential role in forest health, returning nutrients to the soil, improving wildlife habitat, propagating new trees, and even increasing the production of culturally important plants like huckleberry and camas.
The tribes in this region have known how beneficial fires are, using fire for cultural practices and as a tool for forest management for thousands of years. Over the last 200 years though, fire suppression practices have left forests overcrowded with smaller, fire-intolerant trees and a buildup of fuels on the forest floor. Today, many forests are more vulnerable to drought, disease, and the changing climate, all of which are increasing the potential for catastrophic wildfires.
Public land managers, private landowners, and communities are now working to restore beneficial fire to the landscape through prescribed burning and collaborative efforts like Prescribed Burn Associations.
Learn more about fire-adapted forests: What Trees Know About Fire
Starting a prescribed burn association in Northeast washington
Prescribed Burn Associations (PBAs) are community-led initiatives that help private landowners safely and effectively conduct controlled burns on their property. PBAs provide training, education, equipment, personnel, and technical assistance to promote safe and effective prescribed burning. While state and federal agencies actively manage public lands to reduce wildfire risk, PBAs help fill an important gap by supporting work on private lands as part of an all-lands management approach.
Prescribed fire can serve many purposes—reducing fuels around homes and infrastructure, creating defensible space, improving forest health, supporting native foods, and improving wildlife habitat.
Interested in burning on your property or supporting a Prescribed Burn Association?
PBAs rely on a strong network of community volunteers to plan and carry out burns. This shared approach helps lower costs and reduces the complexity for individual landowners. PBAs also offer hands-on education in areas such as fuels reduction, burn planning and preparation, site preparation, biochar, weather and prescription conditions, pile burning, and fire ecology. PBAs put beneficial fire back in the hands of the community.
If you would like to get involved with prescribed burns in Northeast Washington, please sign up with your name and email to receive updates.
