Prescribed fire is the planned and controlled application of fire to the land, under specified predicted weather conditions to accomplish the desired goals of the project. As a land management tool, prescribed fire is an efficient and cost-effective way to reduce fuels where physical and social conditions are conducive to its use.
The California Wildfire and Forest Resilience Task Force issued a Strategic Plan for Expanding the Use of Beneficial Fire to expand the use of prescribed fire and cultural burning to build forest and community resilience statewide – efforts critical to forest management and wildfire mitigation.
The Vegetation Management Program (VMP) is a landowner cooperator program that focuses on the use of prescribed fire, and some mechanical means, for addressing wildland fire fuel hazards and other resource management issues on State Responsibility Area (SRA) lands. The VMP allows private landowners to enter into a contract with CAL FIRE to use prescribed fire to accomplish a combination of fire protection and resource management goals.
Prescribed fire use is a key tool for CAL FIRE and its cooperators to use in reducing fuels at a landscape scale. Prescribed fire is the primary activity conducted under the Vegetation Management Program (VMP). This guidebook documents the Vegetation Management Program requirements, processes, and forms. In addition, it provides guidelines on how and where to apply the VMP process, addresses CEQA compliance and explains project documentation requirements.
This guide provides an overview of how CAL FIRE conducts fuels reduction projects and the equipment we use. It is intended to help the public and media better understand how prescribed fire and fuels reduction projects can help eliminate fire hazards and risks by reducing fuel loads and creating a break in fuel continuity.
