Fire Smart Forest Management - A Pragmatic Approach to Sustainable Forest Management in Fire Dominated Ecosystems

This document introduces the concept of fire-smart forest management as a pragmatic approach to achieving sustainable forest management in Canada's fire-dominated ecosystems. The core challenge addressed is how to simultaneously minimize the socioeconomic impacts of fire while maximizing its ecological benefits, objectives that have historically been seen as contradictory. Fire-smart forest management integrates both forest and fire management activities, from stand to landscape levels, through proactive planning, such as altering forest fuels to reduce the potential for undesirable wildfires and lessen the risks associated with prescribed burning. This new paradigm is necessary because traditional aggressive fire suppression is reaching its maximum effectiveness, necessitating a shift in attitude to embrace fire's essential ecological role and mitigate its negative effects through integrated management strategies.