US EPA

This report will provide a better understanding of the health and environmental impacts, specifically pertaining to smoke, of prescribed fire and wildfire.

The increasing severity of and acres burned by wildfires in the U.S. are due to various factors (e.g., fire suppression, changing climate, growth of wildland-urban interface). To mitigate these catastrophic wildfires, there is an increased likelihood of the expanded use of prescribed fires as a forest management tool. As such, the Wildland Fire Leadership Council (WFLC), which is an intergovernmental committee consisting of federal, state, tribal, county and municipal government officials chaired by senior leadership in the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and Department of Interior (DOI), at a January 2020 meeting charged EPA with leading an assessment to examine the air quality and health impacts of prescribed fire versus wildfire in collaboration with the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) and DOI.

In the U.S. with the growth in the number of large wildfires (> 100,000 acres) and acres burned, there is a need to understand the air quality and public health implications of different fire management strategies. With scientific staff in ORD (CPHEA, CEMM, CESER) and OAR (OAQPS [AQAD and HEID], OTAQ), in collaboration with staff from USFS, DOI, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), EPA led the development of the CAIF Report to characterize the impacts of different fire management strategies, including prescribed fire, compared to wildfire.

At the request of WFLC, in January 2020, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was asked to lead an assessment that would characterize and compare the impacts of the various fire management strategies, including prescribed fire. In this role, EPA would lead the development of Comparative Assessment of the Impacts of Prescribed Fire Versus Wildfire (CAIF): A Case Study in the Western U.S. in coordination with the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) and Department of Interior (DOI), and with contributions from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). This report will provide a better understanding of the health and environmental impacts, specifically pertaining to smoke, of prescribed fire and wildfire.

Following the peer review, EPA will update the report and release it on the EPA website.

U.S. EPA. Comparative Assessment of the Impacts of Prescribed Fire Versus Wildfire (CAIF): A Case Study in the Western U.S. (Peer Review Draft). U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC, EPA/600/R-21/044, 2021.