Check it out: Applying outcome-based management to address fire issues on rangelands

By Sonia A. Hall

This past Labor Day was an extreme fire day across much of Oregon and Washington, including Douglas and Okanogan Counties in central Washington, close to where I live. Two fires—technically two because the second started “separately” when the first jumped the Columbia River close to Bridgeport—within two days got called out as being part of the top ten largest fires in modern state history (last fifty years) by the local newspaper. These were mostly rangeland fires, though not less extensive, scary, hard to control or impactful because of that. Climate change is an important contributor to the increasing fire activity we are experiencing. So what do we do about managing fires in rangelands? Check out Katie Wollstein’s blog article exploring how the Bureau of Land Management’s outcome-based grazing management can allow and support using grazing as a tool to address fuel accumulation in rangelands. You can also check out Katie’s presentation at the Society for Range Management’s 2020 annual meeting via the Art of Range podcast.