Background

To combat losses and threats from fire exclusion and extreme wildfire events, communities in the United States are increasingly self-organizing through locally led Prescribed Burn Associations (PBAs) to plan and implement prescribed burns on private lands.

Aim

Our study aimed to document the expansion of PBAs and provide insight into their structure, function, and impacts.

Methods

Leaders from 135 known PBAs across the United States were invited to participate in an online survey.

Key results

Survey results demonstrate a widespread emergence of PBAs in the United States, successfully mobilizing thousands of volunteers to collectively burn more than 34,000 ha annually.

Conclusions

PBAs demonstrated that they are reducing myriad barriers to prescribed burning while meeting their goals to broaden access to the use of fire using a neighbors-helping-neighbors model to provide training, pool resources, and reduce the costs of prescribed burning. By including volunteers with diverse levels of experience and backgrounds, PBAs are changing the narrative of who has access to the use of fire.

Implications

The adaptability of the PBA model to local contexts provides an alternative model of community-led, non-agency-based fire management critical to advancing the pace and scale of restoration needed in fire-adapted ecosystems.