Comparative Assessment of the Impacts of Prescribed Fire Versus Wildfire (CAIF): A Case Study in the Western US (Presentation)
In January 2020, the Wildland Fire Leadership Council’s (WFLC) requested that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) conduct an assessment of the health impacts of prescribed fire versus wildfire. Building off this request, EPA actively engaged with the U.S. Forest Service (USFS), Department of the Interior (DOI) (including the bureaus), and National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to plan and develop the CAIF report, and in the process foster interagency connections that previously did not exist. The CAIF Report consists of a framework to not only discuss different fire management strategies, but also a novel modeling component that allows for a quantitative comparison of the air quality and health impacts attributed to smoke from each. Through two case studies, this assessment quantitatively estimates the air quality and health impacts associated with the actual case study fires, hypothetical fires based on different fire management strategies, and prescribed fires.